1900 in literature
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The year 1900 in literature involved some significant new books and publications, as well as the deaths of several highly prominent writers, including among them the late Irish poet Oscar Wilde and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
The highly influential American author L. Frank Baum wrote the first and most famous of his Oz books, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in 1900. The book would later go on to be translated into hundreds of languages, distributed worldwide, and come to be part of American popular culture for decades, as well as inspire an equally successful and memorable 1939 screening, along with numerous other adaptations.
The year marked several publications on the literarily influential Boer Wars: Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and a major Allied political figure in World War II penned a memoir, Ian Hamilton's March, describing his experiences accompanying the British army during the Second Boer War, and Arthur Conan Doyle (famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes) wrote on the subject in his The Great Boer War.
Zelda Fitzgerald, the future American novelist and wife of fellow writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on July 24 of 1900. Margaret Mitchell, who would become known as the author of Gone With the Wind, was born little more than 3 months later.
Events
- Ermete Novelli establishes the Casa di Goldoni at Rome, in imitation of the Comédie Française
New books
- L. Frank Baum
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon — The Infidel
- Ernest Bramah — The Wallet of Kai Lung
- Gelett Burgess — Goops, and How to Be Them (1st Goops book)
- Colette — Claudine at School (French: Claudine à l'école)
- Joseph Conrad — Lord Jim
- Marie Corelli — The Master Christian
- Stephen Crane — Whilomville Stories
- Gabriele D'Annunzio — The Flame of Life (Italian: Il Fuoco)
- Theodore Dreiser — Sister Carrie
- Robert Grant — Unleavened Bread
- Jerome K. Jerome — Three Men on the Bummel
- Octave Mirbeau — The Diary of a Chambermaid (French: Le Journal d'une femme de chambre)
- Bradford C. Peck — The World a Department Store
- Emilio Salgari — The Tigers of Mompracem (Italian: Le tigri di Mompracem)
- Henryk Sienkiewicz — The Teutonic Knights (Polish: Krzyżacy)
- Booth Tarkington — Monsieur Beaucaire
- Jules Verne
- Mary Augusta Ward — Eleanor
- H. G. Wells — Love and Mr Lewisham
- Mary E. Wilkins Freeman — The Heart's Highway
New drama
- Anton Chekhov — Uncle Vanya
- James Herne — Sag Harbor
- George Bernard Shaw — Captain Brassbound's Conversion
- Arthur Schnitzler — La Ronde (German: Reigen)
- August Strindberg
Poetry
- Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch)
- G. K. Chesterton — The Wild Knight and Other Poems
- Ismail Hossain Shiraji — Anal Prabaha
Non-fiction
- William "Cocktail" Boothby — The World's Drinks And How To Mix Them
- Winston Churchill
- Arthur Conan Doyle — The Great Boer War
- The Nuttall Encyclopaedia (edited by James Wood)
- Sigmund Freud — The Interpretation of Dreams
- Joaquim Nabuco — My Formation (Portuguese: Minha formação)
Births
Among the most important literary births during the turn of the 19th century were those of Margaret Mitchell and Zelda Fitzgerald, the former of which would go on to pen one of the most successful novels of all time, Gone With the Wind, published in 1936. The work sparked various highly acclaimed adaptations.
A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1900 of literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including nationality and year of birth. More prominent figures are bolded:
- January 9 — Emmanuel D'Astier, French journalist (d. 1969)
- January 15 — William Heinesen, Faroese writer (d. 1991)
- February 4 — Jacques Prévert, French poet (d. 1977)
- February 19 — Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet (d. 1971)
- February 22 — Seán Ó Faoláin, Irish short story writer (d. 1991)
- April 19 — Richard Hughes, English novelist (d. 1976)
- April 24 — Elizabeth Goudge, English novelist and children's author (d. 1984)
- March 15 — Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian author (d. 1987)
- May 1 — Ignazio Silone, novelist (d. 1978)
- May 24 — Eduardo De Filippo, Italian author (d. 1984)
- June 11 — Leopoldo Marechal, Argentine writer (d. 1970)
- June 29 — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, novelist (d. 1944)
- July 18 — Nathalie Sarraute, Russian born Francophone lawyer and writer (d. 1999)
- July 24 — Zelda Fitzgerald, wife and inspiration of F. Scott Fitzgerald (d. 1948)
- September 7 — Taylor Caldwell, novelist (d. 1985)
- September 9 — James Hilton, novelist (d. 1954)
- October 16 — Edward Ardizzone, children's writer and illustrator (d. 1979)
- November 8 — Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind author (d. 1949)
- November 19 — Anna Seghers, novelist (d. 1983)
- December 16 — V. S. Pritchett, short story writer (d. 1997)
Deaths
The year involved the deaths of at least several highly prominent writers, including among them the following: The late poet Oscar Wilde (a "celebrity" poet in late-19th century western European society), the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (critical and acclaimed philologist of Weimar Classicism and one of the most famous German thinkers), the English poet Ernest Dowson (marking the death of one of the last notable poets of the Decadent movement), John Ruskin (one of the most important historical art critics and an influential essayist), Francišak Bahuševič (a literary pioneer of New Belarusian literature), Stephen Crane, R. D. Blackmore and José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, often considered the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style.
A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1900 of literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including nationality and year of birth. More prominent figures are bolded:
- Unspecified — Berdakh, Uzbek poet (b. 1827)
- Unspecified — Michael Bodkin, Irish real-world inspiration to famous writer James Joyce (b. 1879)
- Unspecified — Gustav Jacob Born, German medical author and histologist (b. 1851)
- January 19 — William Larminie, Irish poet and folklorist (b. 1849)
- January 20 — Richard Doddridge Blackmore, English novelist (b. 1825)
- January 25 — Frederick H. Chapin, American author and explorer (b. 1852)
- January 29 — John Ruskin, English art critic, social thinker and poet (b. 1819)
- January 31 — John Sholto Douglas, Scottish nobleman and nemesis of Oscar Wilde (b. 1844)
- February 6 — Elijah Benamozegh, Italian spiritual writer, major Kaballist figure and rabbi (b. 1822)
- February 14 — Giovanni Canestrini, Italian scientist, essayist and prolific translator (b. 1835)
- February 18 — Eugenio Beltrami, Italian mathematician, theorist and mathematics writer (b. 1835)
- February 23 — Ernest Dowson, English poet and novelist (b. 1867)
- March 11 — Joseph Louis François Bertrand, French professor and mathematics writer (b. 1822)
- March 30 — David Léon Cahun, French Orientalist and writer (b. 1841)
- April 12 — James Richard Cocke, American author and hypnotherapy pioneer (b. 1863)
- April 21 — Charles Beecher, American composer, minister and prolific writer (b. 1815)
- April 23 — Charles Isaac Elton, English historian, politician and writer (b. 1839)
- April 27 — Francišak Bahuševič, Belarusian poet, writer and lawyer (b. 1840)
- April 30 — George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician and writer (b. 1823)
- May 4 — Hugo Badalić, Croatian writer and professor (b. 1851)
- May 20 — André Léo, French novelist and journalist (b. 1824)
- June 2 — Clarence Cook, American author and art critic (b. 1828)
- June 3 — Mary Kingsley, English travel writer and explorer (b. 1862)
- June 4 — Edwards Amasa Park, American theologian, pastor and writer (b. 1808)
- June 5 — Stephen Crane, American writer, journalist and poet (b. 1871)
- June 19 — Salvador Camacho, Colombian economist, politician and writer (b. 1827)
- July 3 — Fernand Brouez, Belgian editor and founder of La Société Nouvelle (b. 1861)
- July 22 — Lucius E. Chittenden, American writer and Lincoln administration member (b. 1824)
- July 29 — Henry Spencer Ashbee, English book collector, writer and bibliographer (b. 1834)
- August 2 — Sydney Robert Bellingham, Irish Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1808)
- August 16 — José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, Portuguese novelist (b. 1845)
- August 25 — Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and philologist (b. 1844)
- August 28 — Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (b. 1838)
- September 18 — Anne Beale, Welsh novelist and poet (b. 1816)
- September 29 — Samuel Fenton Cary, American author and notable prohibitionist (b. 1814)
- October 13 — Louis Adolphe Cochery, French journalist and politician (b. 1819)
- October 27 — James Henry Bowker, South African co-author of South African Butterflies (b. 1822)
- November 12 — Thomas Arnold the Younger, English literary scholar (b. 1823)
- November 16 — Isidore Barthe, French Canadian journalist, publisher, and translator (b. 1834)
- November 27 — David Carnegie, Australian explorer and travel writer (b. 1871)
- November 30 — Oscar Wilde, Irish celebrity, poet, dramatist and short story writer (b. 1854)
- December 15 — Charles Cotesworth Beaman, American lawyer and author (b. 1840)
- December 30 — Henry Ames Blood, American poet, dramatist and historian (b. 1836)
- December 31 — Oscar Alin, Swedish historian, politician and author (b. 1846)