1926 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1926.

Events

• February 8 – Seán O'Casey's play The Plough and the Stars opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. On February 11, the performance is marred by ugly scenes in the audience: one man strikes an actress.
• February 12 – The Irish Free State minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints a Committee on Evil Literature.
• February 26 – The future English novelist Graham Greene is received into the Catholic Church.
• April 1 – Hugo Gernsback launches his pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories in the United States.
• May 11 – C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien meet for the first time in Oxford.^[1]
• October 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The White Guard (Белая гвардия), partially serialized in Rossiya before the magazine's suppression earlier in the year, opens in a dramatic adaptation, The Days of the Turbins, at the Moscow Art Theatre which is enjoyed by Stalin.
• October 14 – The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published by Methuen in London.
• December 3 – English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found staying at a Harrogate hotel (under her husband's mistress's surname) by journalist Ritchie Calder.
• December – Thomas Mann begins writing Die Geschichten Jaakobs in Munich, first of the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) on which he will work until January 1943.
• Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac establish the Théatre Alfred-Jarry in Paris for the production of surrealist drama.
• Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont.
• Vsevolod Meyerhold stages a landmark expressionistic production of Gogol's satirical comedy The Government Inspector (Ревизор, 1836) in Moscow.
• Margaret Mitchell begins writing the novel Gone with the Wind (published 1936).
• The remains of English poet Isaac Rosenberg (k. 1918) are re-interred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, Plot V, St. Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.
• S. S. Van Dine publishes the first Philo Vance mystery novel, The Benson Murder Case.
• Peter Llewelyn Davies establishes the London publishing house Peter Davies Ltd.

New books

Births

• January 5 – W. D. Snodgrass, American poet (died 2009)
• January 13 – Michael Bond, English fiction writer and creator of Paddington Bear (died 2017)^[2]
• January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
• February 3 – Richard Yates, American novelist (died 1992)
• February 20 – Richard Matheson, American science fiction writer (died 2013)
• March 3 – James Merrill, American poet (died 1995)
• March 24 – Dario Fo, Italian dramatist and actor (died 2016)
• March 27 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (died 1966)
• March 31 – John Fowles, English novelist (died 2005)
• April 3 – Luís de Sttau Monteiro, Portuguese novelist and dramatist (died 1993)
• April 13 – Egon Wolff, Chilean dramatist (died 2016)
• April 23
  • J. P. Donleavy, Irish American novelist (died 2017)
  • Éva Janikovszky, Hungarian novelist and children's writer (died 2003)
• April 28 – Harper Lee, American novelist (died 2016)^[3]
• May 15 – English twins
  • Anthony Shaffer, dramatist and screenwriter (died 2001)
  • Peter Shaffer, dramatist (died 2016)
• May 21 – Robert Creeley, American author (died 2005)
• June 3 – Allen Ginsberg, American Beat Generation poet (died 1997)
• June 13
  • Kanam EJ, Malayalam novelist and lyricist (died 1982)
  • Dalmiro Sáenz, Argentinian writer (died 2016)
• June 19 – Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Italian publisher (died 1972)
• July 7 – Spencer Holst, American writer and storyteller (died 2001)
• July 11 – Frederick Buechner, American author and minister
• July 18 – Elizabeth Jennings, English poet (died 2001)
• August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
• August 14
  • Alice Adams, American short story writer (died 1999)
  • René Goscinny, French writer and co-creator of Astérix (died 1977)
• September 6 – Clancy Sigal, American writer (died 2017)
• September 14 – Michel Butor, French writer (died 2016)
• October 2 – Jan Morris, born James Morris, Welsh historian and travel writer
• October 15 – Evan Hunter, American author and screenwriter (died 2005)
• November 5 – John Berger, English art critic and novelist (died 2017)^[4]
• November 11
  • José Manuel Caballero, Spanish novelist and poet
  • Harold Perkin, English social historian (died 2004)
• November 19 – Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright (died 2011)
• November 20 – John Gardner, English thriller writer (died 2007)
• November 25 – Poul Anderson, American science fiction writer (died 2001)
• December 23 – Robert Bly, American writer

Deaths

• January 14
  • René Boylesve, French author (born 1867)
  • August Sedláček, Czech historian (born 1843)
• January 26 – Bucura Dumbravă, Romanian novelist and spiritualist (malaria, born 1868)
• February 1 – Ishibashi Ningetsu (石橋 忍月), Japanese author and critic (born 1865)
• February 6 – Wolf Wilhelm Friedrich von Baudissin, German theologian (born 1847)
• February 12 – Radu Rosetti, Romanian politician, historical novelist and memoirist (born 1853)
• March 3 – Sir Sidney Lee, English biographer (born 1859)
• May 9 – J. M. Dent, English publisher (born 1849)
• May 21 – Ronald Firbank, English novelist (born 1886)
• May 26 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian Expressionist poet (meningitis, born 1904)
• July 8 – Karel Václav Rais, Czech realist novelist (born 1859)
• July 11 – Fran Detela, Slovenian academic and writer (born 1850)
• July 19 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (born 1844)
• August 1 – Israel Zangwill, English poet (born 1864)
• October 5 – Javier de Viana, Uruguayan writer (born 1868)
• October 9 – Helena Nyblom, Danish-born poet and writer of fairy tales (born 1843)
• October 11 – Albert Robida, French illustrator and novelist (born 1848)
• November 10 – Lyubov Dostoyevskaya, Russian memoirist (born 1869)
• December 8 – Sarah Doudney, English novelist, children's writer and hymnist (born 1841)
• December 12 – Jean Richepin, French poet, dramatist and novelist (born 1849)
• December 29 – Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet (born 1875)

Awards

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Radclyffe Hall, Adam's Breed
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Herbert Brook Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Arthur Bowie Chrisman, Shen of the Sea
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Grazia Deledda
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: George Kelly, Craig's Wife
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Amy Lowell, What's O'Clock
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
• Blindman International Poetry Prize: Ruth Manning-Sanders, The City

References