1924 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1924.

Events

• January
  • Writer Miguel de Unamuno is for the first time dismissed from his university posts by the Spanish dictator General Miguel Primo de Rivera and goes into exile on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
  • Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln ("Max") Schuster establish the New York City publisher Simon & Schuster, initially specialising in crossword puzzle books.^[1]
• January 15 – The world's first radio play, Danger by Richard Hughes, is broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company from its studios in London.^[2]
• February 2 – A substantially rewritten version of Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter C. Hackett's 1914 farce It Pays to Advertise in a new production by actor-manager Tom Walls opens at the Aldwych Theatre in London. It runs until 10 July 1925, a total of 598 performances,^[3] and is the first of a sequence of twelve "Aldwych farces".
• March 3 – Seán O'Casey's drama Juno and the Paycock opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.^[4]
• March – Leonard and Virginia Woolf move themselves and the Hogarth Press back to a house in Bloomsbury (London) at 52 Tavistock Square.
• April – Ford Madox Ford publishes the first book of a four-volume work set around World War I titled Parade's End, which is concluded in 1928.
• April 12 – Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore arrives in China, where his views prove controversial;^[5] while here, he becomes associated with Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin.
• May 3 – F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald leave New York for France.
• June 4 – E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India is published in the U.K. He will write no further fiction in the remaining 46 years of his life.
• September – The first translation of Thomas Mann's work into English is published, Buddenbrooks (1901), translated by the American Helen T. Lowe-Porter.
• Hebrew language poet Hayim Nahman Bialik relocates with his publishing house Dvir from Berlin to Tel Aviv.
• Likely date – Ret Marut (perhaps previously Otto Feige and presumptively later the writer 'B. Traven') leaves Europe for Mexico.

New books

Births

• January 30 – Lloyd Alexander, American writer (died 2007)
• February 3 – Andrzej Szczypiorski, Polish writer (died 2000)
• February 6 – Jin Yong, Chinese wuxia novelist
• February 17 – Margaret Truman, novelist (died 2008)
• April 3 – Josephine Pullein-Thompson, English children's novelist (died 2014)
• April 8 – Humberto Costantini, Argentinian writer (died 1987)
• April 24
  • Clement Freud, German-born English writer and broadcaster (died 2009)
  • Clive King, English children's writer and academic (died 2018)
• April 26 – Solomon Mutswairo, Zimbabwean novelist and poet
• May 1 – Terry Southern, American writer (died 1995)
• May 8 – Petru Dumitriu, Romanian novelist (died 2002)
• July 15 – Finn Bjørnseth, Norwegian novelist (died 1973)
• July 30 – José Antonio Villarreal, Chicano novelist (died 2010)
• August 3 – Leon Uris, American author (died 2003)
• August 6 – James Baldwin, American writer (died 1987)
• August 15 – Robert Bolt, English screenwriter and playwright (died 1995)
• August 17 – Evan S. Connell, American author (died 2013)
• August 22 – Ada Jafri, Indian poet writing in Urdu (died 2015)
• September 4 – Joan Aiken, English novelist (died 2004)
• September 27 – Josef Škvorecký, Czech-born novelist and publisher (died 2012)
• September 30 – Truman Capote, American fiction writer (died 1984)
• October 1 – Jimmy Carter, author and 39th President of the United States
• October 5 – José Donoso, Chilean writer (died 1996)
• October 29 – Zbigniew Herbert, Polish writer (died 1998)
• December 29 – Francisco Nieva, Spanish playwright, novelist and short story writer (died 2016)
• Unknown dates
  • Deirdre Cash (Criena Rohan), Australian novelist (died 1963)
  • Mengistu Lemma, Ethiopian playwright (died 1988)

Deaths

• April 21 – Marie Corelli, English author (born 1855)
• May 4 – E. Nesbit, English children's author (born 1858)
• June 3 – Franz Kafka, German-language author (born 1883)
• June 30 – Jacob Israël de Haan, Dutch-Jewish novelist, poet and journalist (assassinated, born 1881^[7]
• August 3 – Joseph Conrad, Polish-born English novelist (born 1857)
• October 9
  • Valery Bryusov, Russian Symbolist poet, dramatist and translator (born 1873)
  • Lin Shu, Chinese translator (born 1852)
• October 13 – Anatole France, French poet, novelist and journalist (born 1844)
• October 25 – Laura Jean Libbey, American novelist (born 1862)
• November 21 – Paul Milliet, French dramatist and librettist (born 1848)
• November 22 – Herman Heijermans, Dutch dramatist (born 1864)
• December 6 – Gene Stratton Porter, American novelist and naturalist (born 1863)
• December 26 – Arnold Henry Savage Landor, English writer and artist (born 1865)

Awards

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: E. M. Forster, A Passage to India
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Rev. William Wilson, The House of Airlie
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Charles Hawes, The Dark Frigate
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Hatcher Hughes, Hell-Bent Fer Heaven
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost, New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Wilson, The Able McLaughlins

In literature

• Graham Swift's novel Mothering Sunday (2016) is set in this year.

References