1931 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1931.

Events

January 10 – A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Other Poems and first editions of The Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick are stolen from New York Public Library by Samuel Dupree, on behalf of a crooked New York antiquarian book dealer, Harry Gold.
January 26 – The play Green Grow the Lilacs by Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs, opens on Broadway. It is later adapted as Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
March 27 – The English novelist Arnold Bennett dies of typhoid in London, shortly after a visit to Paris, where he drank local water in an attempt to prove it was safe.
April 11 – Gerald Brenan and Gamel Woolsey make a form of marriage in Rome.
June 1 – The Near v. Minnesota case in the Supreme Court of the United States affirms the principle that prior restraint is unconstitutional.
July 4 – James Joyce marries his long-time partner Nora Barnacle at Kensington register office in London.
October 4 – The Dick Tracy comic strip first appears, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.
October 5 – The first U.K. performance of Oscar Wilde's tragedy Salome is given at the Savoy Theatre, London, with Nancy Price as producer and as Herodias, and her daughter Joan Maude in the title role.
November – Federico García Lorca is appointed by the leftist Second Spanish Republic as director of a touring theatre company, Teatro Universitario La Barraca, charged with taking a portable stage into rural areas to introduce audiences to classical Spanish theatre without charge.
unknown dates
*The publisher Hamish Hamilton is founded by Jamie Hamilton in London.
*Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is banned in Hunan, China, for anthropomorphism.
*The Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom , written in 1785, has its first publication in a scholarly edition as a literary text.

New books

Births

January 4 – José Triana, Cuban poet
January 6
*E. L. Doctorow, American author
*P. J. Kavanagh, English poet, novelist, and broadcaster
January 9 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction author
January 10 – Peter Barnes, English playwright
January 17 – Mark Brandis, German journalist and science fiction author
January 20 – Sawako Ariyoshi, Japanese novelist
January 24 – Leonard Baker, American historian and Pulitzer-winning author
January 27
*Allan W. Eckert, American historian and novelist
*Shirley Hazzard, Australian author
*John Hopkins, English screenwriter
*Mordecai Richler, Canadian author
February 2 – Walter Burkert, German writer
February 6 – Mamie Van Doren, American actress and writer
February 9 – Thomas Bernhard, Dutch-born Austrian author
February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
February 12 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American crime writer
February 18
*Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
*Toni Morrison, American writer and Nobel Prize winner
February 19 – Robert Sobel, American business writer
February 24 – Barry Oakley, Australian writer.
March 11
* Janosch, German children's author and illustrator
* Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
March 16 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theater director and writer
March 22 – Leslie Thomas, Welsh novelist
March 26 – Alison Prince, English-born Scottish children's writer and biographer
April 1 – Rolf Hochhuth, German dramatist
April 2 – Joseph Joffo, French author
April 12 – Chico Anysio, Brazilian actor, comedian, writer and composer
April 15 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet and translator
April 21 – Gabriel de Broglie, French historian
April 29 – Robert Gottlieb, American editor
May 2 – Ruth Fainlight, American-born poet, short story writer, translator and librettist
May 7 – Gene Wolfe, American science fiction and fantasy writer
May 23 – Barbara Barrie, American actress and writer
June 12 – Robin Cook, English crime novelist
June 21 – Patricia Goedicke, American poet
June 26 – Colin Wilson, British novelist and philosopher
June 28 – Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor and writer and comedian
July 4 – Sébastien Japrisot, French novelist and screenwriter
July 6 – Emily Nasrallah, Lebanese writer and women's rights activist
July 7 – David Eddings, American novelist
July 10
*Nick Adams, American screenwriter
*Julian May, American science fiction author
*Alice Munro, Canadian short story writer
July 14 – E. V. Thompson, English novelist
July 15 – Clive Cussler, American thriller writer and underwater explorer
July 17 – Caroline Graham, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist
August 2 – Karl Miller, British writer and literary editor
August 12 – William Goldman, American novelist and screenwriter
August 14 – Frederic Raphael, American-born English screenwriter, novelist and non-fiction author
August 16 – Marion Patrick Jones, Trinidadian writer
August 22 – Maurice Gee, New Zealand novelist
September 14 – Ivan Klíma, Czech novelist and dramatist
September 15 – Kalim Siddiqui, Pakistani-born British writer and Islamic activist
September 22
*Ashokamitran, Indian fiction writer
*Fay Weldon, English novelist
October 8 – Dennis Silk, American-born English writer on literature and cricket, and first-class cricketer
October 13 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer
October 19 – John le Carré, English spy novelist
October 22 – Ann Rule, American true-crime writer
October 23 – James McNeish, New Zealand novelist, playwright and biographer
November 3 – Arun Sarma, Assamese playwright and novelist
November 15 – Kulanthai Shanmugalingam, Sri Lankan playwright
November 18 – Nikoloz Janashia, Georgian historian
November 28
* Dervla Murphy, Irish cyclist and author
* Tomi Ungerer, Alsatian illustrator and writer
December 2 – Nigel Calder, British science writer
December 15 – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish writer
December 17 – Krystyna Boglar, Polish writer known mostly for her work for children and young adults
December 24 – Walter Abish, Austrian-born American writer
December 31 – Bob Shaw, Irish science-fiction writer

Deaths

January 3 – L. Adams Beck, Irish writer
January 12 – Henry Gauthier-Villars, French writer
January 26 – Graça Aranha, Brazilian diplomat and writer
March 25 – Ida B. Wells, American journalist and novelist
March 27 – Arnold Bennett, English novelist
April 4 – André Michelin, French originator of Michelin Guides
April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-born American poet
June 29 – Nérée Beauchemin, French-Canadian poet
July 2 – Harald Høffding, Danish philosopher
July 14 – Vasile Cijevschi, Bessarabian Romanian soldier, journalist and short-story writer
August 1 – Bertha McNamara, German-born Australian pamphleteer and bookseller
August 15 – Delfín Chamorro, Spanish poet and language teacher
August 26 – Frank Harris, Irish-born American author and editor
August 31 – Hall Caine, Manx novelist and dramatist
September 8 – Sue A. Sanders, American teacher, clubwoman, and author
September 9 – Matilda Cugler-Poni, Romanian poet
September 24 – Ethel Hillyer Harris, author
September 30 – Jane Meade Welch, American historian
October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish novelist
October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian dramatist
October 27 – Lucas Malet, English novelist
November 3 – Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Uruguayan epic poet
November 5 – Ole Edvart Rolvaag, Norwegian American writer
November 19 – Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet
December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet
December 10 – Enrico Corradini, Italian novelist, essayist and journalist
December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American inventor of library classification system
December 27 – Alfred Perceval Graves, Irish author and collector of songs and ballads
December 31 – Ieronim Yasinsky, Russian writer, poet and essayist

Awards

Chancellor's Gold Medal: Robert Gittings
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: J. Y. R. Greig, David Hume
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Cat Who Went to Heaven
Nobel Prize in Literature – Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Susan Glaspell, Alison's House
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost, Collected Poems
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Ayer Barnes, ''Years of Grace''

1931 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards