1925 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1925.
Events
- February 21 – The first issue of The New Yorker magazine is published by Harold Ross.
- February 28 – The first story under the name B. Traven is published, in Vorwärts.
- April – F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway meet in the Dingo Bar, rue Delambre, in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, after the April 10 publication of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and before Hemingway departs on a trip to Spain that he will fictionalize in The Sun Also Rises.
- May 14 – Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway is published by the Hogarth Press in Bloomsbury, London. Woolf is beginning work on To the Lighthouse.
- May 20 – C. S. Lewis is elected a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he tutors in English language and literature until 1954.
- Summer – Samuel Beckett plays in the first of two first-class cricket matches, for Dublin University against Northamptonshire.
- July 22 – The first of Ben Travers' "Aldwych farces", A Cuckoo in the Nest, opens at London's Aldwych Theatre in a production by actor-manager Tom Walls featuring the brothers Ralph Lynn, Gordon James and Hastings Lynn.
- October 1 – J. R. R. Tolkien becomes Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford.
- December 24 – A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh story "The Wrong Sort of Bees" appears in the London Evening News.
- December 28 – The Russian poet Sergei Yesenin writes a farewell poem, "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye" in his own blood before hanging himself at the Angleterre Hotel, Leningrad.
- December – W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood meet for the first time as adults in London.unknown dates
- * Ernest Blythe, Minister for Finance in the Irish Free State, arranges an annual government subsidy of £850 for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, making it the first state-supported theatre in the English-speaking world.
- * Miss Riboet's Orion theatrical troupe is established in the Dutch East Indies.
- * The first complete translation of the 14th-century Romance of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese into English is published by Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor.
- * Leslie Hotson publishes the first account from contemporary records of the murder of the dramatist Christopher Marlowe in 1593, claiming to have found the evidence while researching Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale in the archives of the English Public Records Office in 1923–1924.
- * T. S. Eliot leaves Lloyds Bank in London and joins the new publishers Faber and Gwyer, having been recommended to Geoffrey Faber by Charles Whibley.
- * The Modern Library is taken over by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer.
New books
Fiction
- Sherwood Anderson – Dark Laughter
- Sergei Auslender – «Дни боевые»
- Alexander Belyaev – Professor Dowell's Head
- E. F. Benson – Rex
- André Billy – L'Ange qui pleure
- James Boyd – Drums
- Lynn Brock – Colonel Gore’s Second Case
- Louis Bromfield – Possession
- D. K. Broster – The Flight of the Heron
- Mihail Bulgakov
- * A Young Doctor's Notebook
- * The Fatal Eggs
- * The White Guard
- Mary Butts – Ashe of Rings
- Willa Cather – The Professor's House
- Blaise Cendrars – L'Or: la merveilleuse histoire du général Johann August Suter
- André Chamson – Roux le bandit
- Arthur Bowie Chrisman – Shen of the Sea
- Agatha Christie – The Secret of Chimneys
- Ivy Compton-Burnett – Pastors and Masters
- Marie Corelli – Open Confession to a Man from a Woman
- Warwick Deeping – Sorrell and Son
- Maurice Dekobra – La Madone des sleepings
- Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne – Hangman's House
- John Dos Passos – Manhattan Transfer
- Theodore Dreiser – An American Tragedy
- Lion Feuchtwanger – Jud Süß
- F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
- Rosita Forbes – If the Gods Laugh
- Ford Madox Ford – No More Parades
- Konstantine Gamsakhurdia – The Smile of Dionysus
- David Garnett – The Sailor's Return
- William Gerhardie – The Polyglots
- André Gide – Les faux-monnayeurs
- Ellen Glasgow – Barren Ground
- Maxim Gorky
- * The Artamonov Business
- * Stories of 1922–1924
- Thea von Harbou – Metropolis
- L. P. Hartley – Simonetta Perkins
- Ernest Hemingway – In Our Time
- DuBose Heyward – Porgy
- Sydney Horler – The Ball of Fortune
- Aldous Huxley – Those Barren Leaves
- Mikheil Javakhishvili – Jaqo's Dispossessed
- Franz Kafka – The Trial
- Ronald Knox – The Viaduct Murder
- Sinclair Lewis – Arrowsmith
- Anita Loos – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
- Marie Belloc Lowndes
- * Some Men and Women
- * Bread of Deceit
- Compton Mackenzie – Coral
- W. Somerset Maugham – The Painted Veil
- Thomas Mofolo – Chaka
- Eugenio Montale – Ossi di seppia
- Liam O'Flaherty – The Informer
- E. Phillips Oppenheim – Gabriel Samara, Peacemaker
- Baroness Orczy
- * The Miser of Maida Vale
- * A Question of Temptation
- William Plomer – Turbott Wolfe
- Gene Stratton-Porter – The Keeper of the Bees
- Marcel Proust – Albertine disparue
- Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo – L'Aube rouge
- John Rhode – The Paddington Mystery
- Henry Handel Richardson – The Way Home
- William Riley – Peter Pettinger
- Kate Roberts – O gors y bryniau
- Romain Rolland – Le Jeu de l'amour et de la mort
- Dorothy Scarborough – The Wind
- Una Lucy Silberrad – The Vow of Micah Jordan
- Gertrude Stein – The Making of Americans
- James Stevens – Paul Bunyan
- Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto - A Daughter of the Samurai
- Sigrid Undset – The Master of Hestviken, vol. 1: The Axe
- Carl Van Vechten – Firecrackers. A Realistic Novel
- Edgar Wallace
- * The Blue Hand
- * The Fellowship of the Frog
- * The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder
- * The Strange Countess
- * The Three Just Men
- Hugh Walpole – Portrait of a Man with Red Hair
- Hugo Wast – Stone Desert
- H. G. Wells – Christina Alberta's Father
- Edith Wharton – The Mother's Recompense
- William Carlos Williams – In the American Grain
- P. G. Wodehouse – Carry On, Jeeves
- Virginia Woolf – Mrs Dalloway
- Elinor Wylie – The Venetian Glass Nephew
- Francis Brett Young – Sea Horses
- Ernst Zahn – ''Frau Sixta''
Children and young people
- Elinor Brent-Dyer – The School at the Chalet
- A. M. Burrage – Poor Dear Esme
- Hugh Lofting – Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
- L. M. Montgomery – Emily Climbs
- Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Lost King of Oz
- Else Ury – ''Nesthäkchen With White Hair ''
Drama
- J. R. Ackerley – The Prisoners of War
- Arnolt Bronnen – The Bird of Youth
- Mikhail Bulgakov – Zoyka's Apartment
- Noël Coward – Hay Fever and Fallen Angels
- Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – Number 17
- Federico García Lorca – The Billy-Club Puppets
- Patrick Hastings – The River
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal – The Tower
- Keble Howard – Lord Babs
- Zora Neale Hurston – Color Struck
- George Kelly – Craig's Wife
- John Howard Lawson – Processional
- Ben Travers – A Cuckoo in the Nest
- John Van Druten – Young Woodley
- Franz Werfel – Juarez und Maximilian
- Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Beelzebub Sonata
- Carl Zuckmayer – The Merry Vineyard
Poetry
- T. S. Eliot – The Hollow Men
- F. W. Harvey – ''September and Other Poems''
Non-fiction
- Max Aitken – Politicians and the Press
- Alice Bailey – A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
- Edwin Burtt – The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science
- G. K. Chesterton – The Everlasting Man
- Maurice Halbwachs – La Mémoire collective
- Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf
- Walter Lippmann – The Phantom Public
- Dmitry Merezhkovsky
- * The Birth of Gods: Tutankhamen in Crete
- * The Mystery of the Three: Egypt and Babylon
- Arthur E. Powell – The Etheric Double and Allied Phenomena
- Franz Roh – Nach Expressionismus – Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei
- George Saintsbury, ed. – The Receipt Book of Mrs. Anne Blencowe
- Clare Sheridan – Across Europe with Satanella
- J. R. R. Tolkien – "The Devil's Coach Horses"
- Hendrik Willem van Loon – Tolerance
- H. G. Wells – ''A Year of Prophesying''
Anthologies
- Alain Locke – ''The New Negro''
Births
- January 7 – Gerald Durrell, Indian-born British naturalist and author
- January 8 – James Saunders, English dramatist
- January 9 – Abdelhamid ben Hadouga, Algerian writer
- January 11 – William Styron, American writer
- January 14 – Yukio Mishima, Japanese author and political activist
- January 17 – Robert Cormier, American young-adult novelist
- January 20 – Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan Catholic priest and poet
- January 26 – Miep Diekmann, Dutch writer of children's literature
- February 18
- * Jack Gilbert, American poet and educator
- * Krishna Sobti, Indian Hindi-language fiction writer and essayist
- February 20 – Alex La Guma, South African novelist and political activist
- February 22
- * Edward Gorey, American illustrator and writer
- * Gerald Stern, American poet and academic
- March 6 – Peter Whigham, English poet and translator
- March 8 – Marta Lynch, Argentinian writer
- March 14 – John Wain, English novelist and short-story writer
- March 16 – Ismith Khan, Trinidad-born novelist
- March 21 – Peter Brook, English theatre director
- March 25 – Flannery O'Connor, American author
- March 27 – John Bayley, Indian-born English literary critic
- April 25 – Janete Clair, Brazilian television, radio play and novel writer
- May 1 – Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, Brazilian Ialorixá and writer
- May 4 – Beryl Te Wiata, New Zealand actor, author and scriptwriter
- May 25 – Rosario Castellanos, Mexican writer
- June 10 - Nat Hentoff, American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic and syndicated columnist
- June 11 - William Styron, American writer
- June 15 – Attilâ İlhan, Turkish poet, novelist, essayist, journalist and reviewer
- June 16 – Jean d'Ormesson, French writer
- June 17 – Luce d'Eramo, Italian writer and literary critic
- June 25 – John Briley, American writer
- July 4 – Ciril Zlobec, Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and politician
- July 5 – Jean Raspail, French writer
- July 13 – Huang Zongying, Chinese actress and writer
- July 19 – Jean-Pierre Faye, French philosopher, poet and writer
- July 26 – Ana María Matute, Spanish novelist
- August 1
- * Pam Gems, born Iris Pamela Price, English playwright
- * Ernst Jandl, Austrian writer, poet, and translator
- August 12
- * Donald Justice, American poet and educator
- * Thor Vilhjálmsson, Icelandic writer
- August 17 – John Hawkes, American novelist
- August 18 – Brian Aldiss, English science fiction author and editor
- August 25 – Thea Astley, Australian writer
- August 28
- * Philip Purser, English television critic and novelist
- * Arkady Strugatsky, Russian science fiction writer
- September 4 – Forrest Carter, American speechwriter and author
- September 6 – Andrea Camilleri, Italian novelist and playwright
- October 1
- * Christine Pullein-Thompson, English children's novelist
- * Diana Pullein-Thompson, English children's novelist
- October 1 – Abraham Louis Schneiders, Dutch writer and diplomat
- October 3 – Gore Vidal, American writer
- October 8 – Andrei Sinyavsky, Russian writer and dissident
- October 11 – Elmore Leonard, American novelist and screenwriter
- October 25 – Romek Marber, Polish-born book designer
- October 26 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch writer and artist
- October 29 – Dominick Dunne, American writer, investigative journalist and producer
- December 19 – Tankred Dorst, German dramatist
Deaths
- January 4 – Elisabeth von Heyking, German novelist, travel writer and diarist
- January 27 – Friedrich von Hügel, Austrian theologian
- January 31 – George Washington Cable, American writer
- February 16 – Francisco Díaz-Silveira, Cuban journalist and poet
- March 2 – Luigj Gurakuqi, Albanian writer and politician
- March 26 – Hugo Bettauer, Austrian journalist and writer
- April 7 – Gerhard Gran, Norwegian literary historian, essayist and biographer
- April 8 – Emma Curtis Hopkins, American spiritual writer
- May 2 – Antun Branko Šimić, Croatian poet
- May 12 – Amy Lowell, American poet
- May 14 – H. Rider Haggard, British adventure novelist
- June 6 – Pierre Louÿs, French poet
- July 13 – Margaret Dye Ellis, American social reformer, lobbyist, and correspondent
- July 15 – Mary Cholmondeley, English novelist
- July 16 – Pyotr Gnedich, Russian writer
- August 15 – George Barbu Știrbei, Romanian journalist, biographer and patron of the arts
- September 11 – Gustav Kastropp, German poet and librettist
- October 31 – José Ingenieros, Argentine positivist philosopher, essayist and physician
- October 7 – Felix Liebermann, German-Jewish historian
- October 27 – Darrell Figgis, Irish-born writer and politician, suicide
- c. November – Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald, Irish literary biographer, drama critic and sculptor
- December 5 – Władysław Reymont, Polish novelist, Nobel Prize winner
- December 15 – Emma B. Alrich, American journalist, author, and educator
- December 28 – Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet
Awards
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Liam O'Flaherty, The Informer
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Geoffrey Scott, The Portrait of Zelide
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Charles Finger, Tales from Silver Lands
- Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw
- Prix Goncourt: Maurice Genevoix, Raboliot
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Sidney Howard, They Knew What They Wanted
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Man Who Died Twice
- Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Edna Ferber, ''So Big''