1926 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1926.

Events

*February 8 – Seán O'Casey's play '' The Plough and the Stars'' opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. At the February 11 performance there is a near-riot: one audience member 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 first meet in Oxford.
* October 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov's novel '' The White Guard'' (Белая гвардия), partly serialized in ''Rossiya'' before the magazine's suppression earlier in the year, opens as a dramatic adaptation, ''The Days of the Turbins'', at the Moscow Art Theatre. It is enjoyed by Stalin.
*October 14 – The children's book ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne first appears, published by Methuen in London.
* December 3 – The English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey. On December 14 she is found at a Harrogate hotel by the journalist Ritchie Calder, staying under her husband's mistress's surname.
*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.
*''unknown dates''
** Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac establish the Théatre Alfred-Jarry in Paris to produce surrealist drama.
**The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont.
** Vsevolod Meyerhold stages an expressionistic production of Gogol's satirical comedy ''The Government Inspector'' (Ревизор, 1836) in Moscow.
**Margaret Mitchell begins the novel '' Gone with the Wind'', which will appear 1936.
**The remains of the English poet Isaac Rosenberg (killed in battle in 1918) are re-interred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, Plot V, St. Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.
**Peter Llewelyn Davies establishes the London publishing house Peter Davies Ltd.

New books

Fiction

* Ion Agârbiceanu – ''Legea trupului''
* Marcel Arland – ''Monique''
*Roberto Arlt – ''Mad Toy (El juguete rabioso)''
* Isaac Babel – '' Red Cavalry'' («Конармия», short stories)
* Henry Bellamann – ''Petenera's Daughter''
* Louis Bromfield – ''Early Autumn''
* Edgar Rice Burroughs – '' The Moon Maid''
* Willa Cather – '' My Mortal Enemy''
*Marjorie Bowen – '' Mistress Nell Gwynne''
* G. K. Chesterton – ''The Incredulity of Father Brown''
*Agatha Christie – '' The Murder of Roger Ackroyd''
* Freeman Wills Crofts – '' The Cheyne Mystery''
* James R. Crowell and Samuel C. Hildreth – ''The Spell of the Turf''
*Ramón del Valle-Inclán – '' Tirano Banderas: novela de tierra caliente'' (Tyrant Banderas)
* Arthur Conan Doyle – '' The Land of Mist''
* Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – '' Number 17''
* William Faulkner – '' Soldiers' Pay''
*Ronald Firbank – ''Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli''
* Ford Madox Ford – ''A Man Could Stand Up'' (third book of the four-volume '' Parade's End'')
* C. S. Forester – '' Payment Deferred''
* Dion Fortune – ''The Secrets of Dr. Taverner''
* Zona Gale – ''Preface to Life''
* Hugo Gernsback – '' Ralph 124C 41+'' (in book form)
*Ellen Glasgow – ''The Romantic Comedians''
*Ricardo Güiraldes – '' Don Segundo Sombra''
*H. Rider Haggard – '' The Treasure of the Lake''
*Ernest Hemingway
**'' The Sun Also Rises''
**'' The Torrents of Spring''
* Harold Heslop – ' (Under the Sway of Coal, translation of ''Goaf'')
* Georgette Heyer – '' These Old Shades''
*Sydney Horler – '' The House of Secrets''
* Mikheil Javakhishvili – '' The White Collar (თეთრი საყელო, Tetri sakelo)''
*Franz Kafka – '' The Castle''
* Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) – "The Dancing Girl of Izu" (伊豆の踊子, "Izu no odoriko", short story)
*D. H. Lawrence – ''The Plumed Serpent''
*Agnes Mure Mackenzie – ''The Quiet Lady''
* Compton Mackenzie – ''Fairy Gold''
*Hope Mirrlees – '' Lud-in-the-Mist''
* George Moore – ''Ulich and Soracha''
* Vladimir Nabokov (as V. Sirin) – '' Mary («Машенька», Mashen'ka)''
* Carola Oman – ''King Heart''
* E. Phillips Oppenheim
** ''The Golden Beast''
** '' Prodigals of Monte Carlo''
* Baroness Orczy – ''The Celestial City''
*Cassiano Ricardo – ''Vamos caçar papagaios''
* Grigol Robakidze – '' The Snake's Skin'' (გველის პერანგი)
*Sagitta ( John Henry Mackay) – ''Der Puppenjunge'' (The Pansy; in English as ''The Hustler'')
* Marquis de Sade – Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man
* Dorothy L. Sayers – '' Clouds of Witness''
* Arthur Schnitzler – '' Dream Story (Traumnovelle)''
* Thorne Smith – ''Topper'' (aka ''The Jovial Ghosts'')
*Cecil Street – ''Dr. Priestley's Quest''
*A. H. Tammsaare – ''Tõde ja Õigus'' (''Truth and Justice'', begins publication)
*Sylvia Thompson – ''The Hounds of Spring''
* B. Traven – ''The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff)''
*S. S. Van Dine – '' The Benson Murder Case'' (the first Philo Vance mystery)
* Henry Wade – '' The Verdict of You All''
* Edgar Wallace
**'' The Avenger''
** ''Barbara on Her Own''
**'' The Northing Tramp''
**'' The Terrible People''
**'' The Yellow Snake''
*Sylvia Townsend Warner – '' Lolly Willowes''
* H. G. Wells – '' The World of William Clissold''
* Walter F. White – ''Flight''

Children and young people

*Angela Brazil – ''Joan's Best Chum''
* Will James – '' Smoky the Cowhorse''
* A. A. Milne – ''Winnie-the-Pooh''
* Ruth Plumly Thompson – ''The Hungry Tiger of Oz'' (20th in the Oz series overall and the sixth written by her)

Drama

*Dorothy Brandon – '' Blind Alley''
*Bertolt Brecht – ''Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann)''
* Mikhail Bulgakov – ''The Days of the Turbins'' («Дни Турбиных»)
* G. D. H. Cole – ''The Striker Stricken''
* St. John Greer Ervine – ''Anthony and Anna''
*J. B. Fagan – ''And So To Bed''
* Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – '' After Dark''
*John Galsworthy – ''Escape''
* Patrick Hastings – '' Scotch Mist''
* Zora Neale Hurston – ''Color Struck'' (published)
* Seán O'Casey – '' The Plough and the Stars''
*Eden Phillpotts – '' Blue Comet''
*Ben Travers – '' Rookery Nook''
* Sergei Tretyakov – '' I Want a Baby'' («Хочу ребёнка»)

Poetry

* Mário de Andrade – ''Losango cáqui''
*Langston Hughes – ''The Weary Blues''
*Robert McAlmon – ''The Portrait of a Generation''
* Hugh MacDiarmid – ''A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle''
*Dorothy Parker – ''Enough Rope''
*Vita Sackville-West – ''The Land''

Non-fiction

*Germán List Arzubide – ''El movimiento estridentista''
* Benedictine Vulgate (begins publication)
*Angela Brazil – ''My Own Schooldays''
* Arthur Conan Doyle – ''The History of Spiritualism''
*H. Rider Haggard – '' The Days of My Life''
* T. E. Lawrence – '' Seven Pillars of Wisdom''
* Otto Schmidt (chief editor) – ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (Большая советская энциклопедия, ''Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya''; begins publication)
* R. H. Tawney – '' Religion and the Rise of Capitalism''
* Helen Thomas – ''As It Was''
*W. B. Yeats – ''Autobiographies''
*Paul Zarifopol – (A Register of Tender Ideas)
* Alfred Eckhard Zimmern – ''The Third British Empire''

Births

*January 5 – W. D. Snodgrass, American poet (died 2009)
*January 12 – Shumon Miura, Japanese novelist (died 2017)
* January 13 – Michael Bond, English fiction writer and creator of Paddington Bear (died 2017)
* January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
*January 27 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian-born musician and writer (died 2003)
* February 3 – Richard Yates, American novelist (died 1992)
*February 8 – Neal Cassady, American writer and poet (died 1968)
* February 20 – Richard Matheson, American science fiction writer (died 2013)
*March 3 – James Merrill, American poet (died 1995)
* March 7 – Chemmanam Chacko, Indian poet (died 2018)
* 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 12 – Khozh-Akhmed Bersanov, Chechen ethnographer (died 2018)
*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)
* April 30 – Edmund Cooper, British poet and author (died 1982)
* 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 4 – Ain Kaalep, Estonian poet, playwright and critic (died 2020)
* 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 6 – Elisabeth Beresford, English children's author (died 2010)
* August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
*August 13 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (died 2008)
* August 14
** Alice Adams, American short story writer (died 1999)
** René Goscinny, French writer and co-creator of Astérix (died 1977)
*September 3 – Alison Lurie, American novelist and academic (died 2020)
* September 6 – Clancy Sigal, American writer (died 2017)
* September 14 – Michel Butor, French writer (died 2016)
* September 16 – John Knowles, American novelist (died 2001)
*October 2 – Jan Morris, born James Morris, Anglo-Welsh historian and travel writer (died 2020)
* October 15 – Evan Hunter, American author and screenwriter (died 2005)
* November 5 – John Berger, English art critic and novelist (died 2017)
*November 11
**José Manuel Caballero, Spanish novelist and poet (died 2021)
**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 (died 2021)

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 23 – Sigrid Elmblad, Swedish author and translator (born 1860)
*May 26 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian Expressionist poet (meningitis, born 1904)
* June 27 – Addie C. Strong Engle, American author and publisher (born 1845)
* July 8 – Karel Václav Rais, Czech realist novelist (born 1859)
*July 11 – Fran Detela, Slovenian academic and writer (born 1850)
*July 14 – Elisabeth Cavazza, American author, journalist, and music critic (born 1849)
*July 19 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (born 1844)
* July 22 – John Burland Harris-Burland, British writer (born 1870)
* 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)
*''unknown date''
** Emma Whitcomb Babcock, American litterateur and author (born 1849)
** Susanne Vandegrift Moore, American editor and publisher (born 1848)

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

Years of the 20th century in literature

{{DEFAULTSORT:1926 In Literature