1927 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1927.

Events

January – The Books Kinokuniya bookstore business is established in Tokyo.
February 4 – Gertrude Stein is honored by the Académie des femmes, an informal gathering for woman writers, founded by the expatriate American Natalie Clifford Barney starts at her Paris salon. Others honored include Colette, Anna Wickham, Rachilde, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and posthumously, Renée Vivien.
February 24 – The new John Golden Theatre opens in New York City at 252 West 45th Street in midtown Manhattan.
May 5 – Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse is published by Hogarth Press in London. A second impression follows in June. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism,
June 29 – T. S. Eliot, hitherto Unitarian, is baptised into the Church of England at Finstock. In November he takes British citizenship.
July 5 – James Joyce's collection Pomes Penyeach is published by Shakespeare and Company in Paris.
July 9 – P. G. Wodehouse's short story "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey", published in the U.S. magazine Liberty, introduces Lord Emsworth's prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. The first UK appearance follows in the August issue of The Strand Magazine).
August – T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi appears in Faber and Gwyer's Ariel poems series in London, illustrated by E. McKnight Kauffer.
September – Eric Blair decides while on leave from the Imperial Police in Burma to remain in the U.K. He moves to London to become a writer.
October – Victor Gollancz founds the London publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.
December – Agatha Christie's fictional amateur detective Miss Marple makes a first appearance in "The Tuesday Night Club", published in The Royal Magazine.
unknown dates
*A translation of Franz Roh's work of art criticism Nach Expressionismus – Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei into Spanish by Revista de Occidente leads to the concept of magic realism becoming popular in Latin American literature.
*The Strand Bookstore is founded in Manhattan by Benjamin Bass.

New books

Births

January 8 – Charles Tomlinson, English poet
January 16 – Oldřich Daněk, Czech dramatist
January 24
* Lasse Pöysti, Finnish writer, playwright and actor
*Marvin Kaplan, American actor, screenwriter and playwright
January 25 – John Calder, Canadian-born Scottish publisher
January 28 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator
February 1 – Galway Kinnell, American poet
February 6 – William Gardner Smith, expatriate American novelist and journalist
February 16 – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi novelist
February 21 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist
March 6 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist
March 15 – Hanns Joachim Friedrichs, German journalist
March 18 – George Plimpton, American writer and actor
March 24 – Martin Walser, German author
March 22 – Vera Henriksen, née Roscher Lund, Norwegian historical novelist
April 2 – Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic
April 24 – Trudi Birger, German Holocaust survivor and writer
April 25 – Albert Uderzo, French author and illustrator
May 1 – Tamar Bornstein-Lazar, Israeli children's writer
May 7 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, British-American novelist and screenwriter
May 10 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
May 19 – Yusuf Idris, Egyptian writer
May 25 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist
May 27 – Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, Indian Malayali novelist
May 28 – William A. Hilliard, American journalist
June 6 – Alan Seymour, Australian playwright
June 1 – Moyra Caldecott, English writer of historical fiction
June 13 – Paul Ableman, English writer of erotic fiction and playwright
June 20 – Simin Behbahani, Persian poet
June 23 – Jacobo Langsner, Romanian-born Uruguayan screenwriter and playwright
June 24 – Frederick Vreeland, American diplomat and writer
June 27 – Dominic Jeeva, Ceylonese Tamil fiction writer and essayist
June 30 – James Goldman, American screenwriter and playwright
July 4 – Neil Simon, American playwright
July 15 – Ann Jellicoe, British playwright, stage director and actress
July 16 – Shirley Hughes, English writer and illustrator of children's books
July 22 – Katharine Topkins, American novelist
July 27 – John Seigenthaler, American journalist, writer and political figure
July 28
* John Ashbery, American poet
* Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italian screenwriter, film director and novelist
July 31 – Peter Nichols, English playwright
August 9 – Robert Shaw, English-born actor, novelist and playwright
August 15 – Patrick Galvin, Irish poet and dramatist
August 17 – Stefan Geosits, Burgenland Croatian writer and translator
August 23 – Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator
August 24 – David Ireland, Australian novelist
August 27 – Fouad al-Tikerly, Iraqi novelist and writer
September 4 – Bernardino Zapponi, Italian novelist
September 30 – W. S. Merwin, American poet
October 7 – Robert Westall, English novelist and children's writer
October 16 – Günter Grass, German novelist
October 31 – Sybil Wettasinghe, Ceylonese children's writer and illustrator
November 2 – Steve Ditko, American comic-book writer and artist
November 16 – Franz Jalics, Hungarian Jesuit priest and author
November 24
* Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian novelist
* Charles Osborne, Australian-born British writer and arts administrator
December 4 – Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Spanish writer
December 13 – James Wright, American poet
December 16 - Peter Dickinson, English author and poet
December 24
*Mary Higgins Clark, American novelist
*Diane de Margerie, French translator

Deaths

January 4 – Süleyman Nazif, Turkish poet
January 9 – Houston Stewart Chamberlain, English-born German author
January 21 – Margret Holmes Bates, American novelist and poet
January 24 – Agnes Maule Machar, Canadian poet and author
February 5 – Osório Duque-Estrada, Brazilian poet, essayist, journalist and literary critic
February 26 – Alfred Remy, German-born American philologist and music writer
February 27 – Roi Cooper Megrue, American playwright
March 3 – Mikhail Artsybashev, Russian writer
March 10 - George W. Forbes, American journalist and librarian
March 18 – Philip Wicksteed, English theologian and critic
March 31 – Mabel Collins, British theosophist and author
April 2 – Ottokár Prohászka, Hungarian Roman Catholic theologian and bishop
April 16 – Gaston Leroux, French novelist
April 17 – Florence Carpenter Dieudonné, American fantasy fiction writer
April 19 – Minnie S. Davis, American author and mental scientist
May 2 – Fukuda Hideko, Japanese feminist author
May 20 – N. Samuel of Tranquebar, Ceylonese poet and author
May 25 – Henri Hubert, French sociologist
May 29 – Georges Eekhoud, Belgian novelist
June 1 – J. B. Bury, Irish historian
June 9 – Adolfo León Gómez, Colombian poet
June 14 – Jerome K. Jerome, English humorous writer
June 20 – Clara Louise Burnham, American novelist
July 5 – Lesbia Harford, Australian poet
July 16 – Emily Selinger, American author, painter, and educator
July 17 – Harriet Earhart Monroe, American lecturer, educator, writer, producer
July 24 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese short story writer and poet
July 26
* Kazimir Barantsevich, Russian writer
* Federico De Roberto, Italian novelist and dramatist
August 13 – James Oliver Curwood, American novelist and conservationist
August 24 – Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Venezuelan writer
September 14 – Hugo Ball, German poet
September 15 – Herman Gorter, Dutch poet and socialist
October 8
*Ricardo Güiraldes, Argentine novelist and poet
*Mary Webb, English novelist
October 22 – Borisav Stanković, Serbian realist writer
October 23 – Bernhard Alexander, Hungarian philosopher and polymath
October 29 – Hermann Muthesius, German architect and author
November 23 – Stanisław Przybyszewski, Polish novelist, dramatist, and poet
December 5 – Fyodor Sologub, Russian dramatist and essayist
December 17 – Hubert Harrison, African-American writer, critic, and activist
date unknown – Emma Scarr Booth, British-born American novelist and poet

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Francis Brett Young, The Portrait of Clare
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: H. A. L. Fisher, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce of Dechmont, O.M.
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Will James, Smoky the Cow Horse
Newdigate Prize for poetry: G. E. Trevelyan, Julia, Daughter of Claudius
Nobel Prize for Literature: Henri Bergson
Prix Goncourt: Maurice Bedel, Jérôme 60° latitude nord
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paul Green, In Abraham's Bosom
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Leonora Speyer, Fiddler's Farewell
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Louis Bromfield, ''Early Autumn''

1927 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards