1902 in literature

• January 5
  • The political drama Danton's Death (Dantons Tod, completed and published in 1835) by Georg Büchner (died 1837), is first performed at the Belle-Alliance-Theater in Berlin by the Vereins Neue Freie Volksbühne.
  • George Bernard Shaw's controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warren's Profession receives its first performance at a private London club.[1]
• January 23 – The first example of a Sherlockian game – a study of inconsistencies of dates in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (the serialisation of which in The Strand Magazine concludes in April) by publisher Frank Sidgwick – appears in The Cambridge Review.[2]

The cover of the first trade edition

• April – Mark Twain buys a home in Tarrytown, New York. On June 4 he receives an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Missouri.
• June 16 – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege about the mathematical problem to become known as Russell's paradox.[3]
• July 1 – The Romanian language literary review Luceafărul begins publication in Budapest.
• September 9 – P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a freelance writer. On September 18, his first published novel, the St. Austin's school story The Pothunters, is published in London by A & C Black, as a truncation of the version in their Public School Magazine from January to March.
• Early October – Beatrix Potter's self-illustrated children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit (originally published privately a year earlier) appears in its first commercial edition with Frederick Warne & Co in London. It had sold 28,000 copies by the end of the year.[4]
• October 5 – Thousands attend the funeral of the French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris. They include Alfred Dreyfus, given special permission by Mme Zola to attend.[5]
• November 4 – J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh. It runs for 828 performances.
• December 5 – Leo Tolstoy's drama The Power of Darkness («Власть тьмы», Vlast' t'my, written in 1886) is premièred at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although he is self-critical.[6]
• December 18 – Maxim Gorky's drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life («На дне», Na dne) is first performed, at the Moscow Art Theatre, as a first major success for Konstantin Stanislavsky as director and star.

Uncertain dates

• The Irish Literary Theatre project ends.[7]
• The poet Ștefan Petică publishes the cycle Fecioara în alb, which marks a maturing of Romanian Symbolism.[8]

• January 5 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist (died 1989)
• January 20 – Nazim Hikmet, Turkish lyricist and dramatist (died 1963)
• January 30 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-born architectural historian (died 1983)
• February 1 – Langston Hughes, African-American poet and novelist (died 1967)
• February 16 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist (died 1956)
• February 19 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and political activist (died 1992)
• February 27 – John Steinbeck, American novelist and journalist (died 1968)
• March 10 – Stefan Inglot, Polish historian (died 1994)
• March 29 – Marcel Aymé, French novelist and short-story writer (died 1967)
• April 2 – Jan Tschichold, German-born typographer (died 1974)
• April 6 – Julien Torma, French poet and dramatist (died 1933)
• April 9 – Lord David Cecil, English literary critic and biographer (died 1986)
• April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic novelist (died 1998)
• June 5 – Hugo Huppert, Austrian poet, writer and translator (died 1982)
• July 10 – Nicolás Guillén, Afro-Cuban poet (died 1989)
• July 8 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African American writer and artist (died 1981)
• July 27 - Yaroslav Halan, Ukrainian playwright, translator, and publicist (died 1949)
• August 15 – Katharine Brush, American short story writer (died 1952)
• August 16 – Georgette Heyer, English novelist (died 1974)
• August 19 – Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist (died 1971)
• August 24
  • Felipe Alfau, Spanish-American fiction writer, poet and translator (died 1999)
  • Fernand Braudel, French historian (died 1985)
• October 13 – Arna Bontemps, African American poet (died 1973)
• October 23 – Dadie Rylands (George Rylands), English Shakespeare scholar (died 1999)
• October 26 – Beryl Markham (Beryl Clutterbuck), English-born Kenyan adventurer and memoirist (died 1986)
• October 31 – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (died 1987)
• November 1 – Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet and author (killed in action 1943)
• November 2
  • Hu Feng (胡风), Chinese novelist (died 1985)
  • Gyula Illyés, Hungarian author (died 1983)
• November 29 – Carlo Levi, Italian writer (died 1975)
• December 7 – N. Crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (died 1978).
• December 20 – Jolán Földes, Hungarian novelist and playwright (died 1963)

Émile Zola in 1902

• January 7 – Wilhelm Hertz, German poet and translator (born 1835)
• April 6 – Gleb Uspensky, Russian writer (born 1843)
• April 20 – Frank R. Stockton, American writer and humorist (born 1834)
• May 6 – Bret Harte, American author and poet (born 1836)
• June 10 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet (born 1845)
• June 18 – Samuel Butler, English novelist (born 1835)
• July 10 – Annie French Hector (pseudonym Mrs Alexander), Irish-born novelist (born 1825)
• August 31 – Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet (born 1828)
• September 11 – Ernst Dümmler, German historian (born 1830)
• September 19 – Masaoka Shiki (正岡 子規), Japanese haiku poet (Pott's disease, born 1867)
• September 29
  • William McGonagall, Scottish doggerel poet (born 1825)
  • Émile Zola, French novelist (carbon monoxide poisoning, born 1840)
• October 7 – George Rawlinson, English historian (born 1812)
• October 13 – John George Bourinot, Canadian historian (born 1836)
• October 25 – Frank Norris, American novelist (peritonitis, born 1870)
• November 16 – G. A. Henty, English historical novelist (born 1832)

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen