1909 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1909.

Events

January â T. E. Hulme's poems "Autumn" and "A City Sunset" are included in the Poets' Club anthology For Christmas MDCCCCVIII, as the first examples of Imagism.
January 15 â Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's drama La donna Ã¨ mobile opens at the Teatro Alfieri, Turin.^[1]
February 1 â The first issue appears of La Nouvelle Revue FranÃ§aise, a literary magazine founded in Paris by AndrÃ© Gide, Jacques Copeau, Jean Schlumberger, Gaston Gallimard, and others.^[2]
February 20 â Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto first appears in the French newspaper Le Figaro.
March 2 â Katherine Mansfield, while pregnant by another man, marries the singing teacher George Bowden, whom she barely knows. She leaves him the same evening to resume lesbian relations with Ida Baker.^[3]
April
- The opening night of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's drama Le Roi bombance (The Feasting King, written 1905) is heckled by the audience and the writer himself.
- The German periodical Die Tat is founded by Ernst Horneffer.^[4]
April 24 â The Metropolitan Library (äº¬å¸å¾ä¹¦é¦, JÄ«ngshÄ« TÃºshÅ«guÇn) in Beijing, predecessor of the National Library of China, is founded by the Qing government.
September 6 â Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot opens in New York City.
September 23 â Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le FantÃ´me de l'OpÃ©ra) begins serialization in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois.
September 29 â Franz Kafka's short story "The Aeroplanes at Brescia (Die Aeroplane in Brescia)", based on a real event, is published in the Prague newspaper Bohemia, as the first description of airplanes in German literature.^[5]
November â A production by Kaoru Osanai of Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Free Theater in Tokyo inaugurates shingeki drama in Japan.^[6]
November 2 â First English-language performance of a play by Anton Chekhov opens, The Seagull, translated and directed by George Calderon, by the Glasgow Repertory Theatre company at the Royalty Theatre, Glasgow.^[7]
unknown date â BabelstorniÃ° (The Tower of Babel), by Rasmus Rasmussen, writing as Regin Ã LÃÃ°, becomes the first Faroese language novel to be published.^[8]

New books

Poetry

Guillaume Apollinaire â L'Enchanteur pourrissant (The Putrifying Enchanter)
FranÃ§ois Mauriac â Les Mains jointes (Clasped Hands)
John Millington Synge â Poems and Translations

Non-fiction

Henry James â Italian Hours
William James â A Pluralistic Universe
Jane's All the World's Aircraft (first annual edition)
I. M. E. Blandin â History of Higher Education of Women in the South, Prior to 1860^[14]
Alfred W. Pollard â Shakespeare Folios and Quartos: a Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare's Plays, 1594â1685^[15]
C. I. Scofield (ed.) â Scofield Reference Bible^[16]
Charlotte Fell Smith â John Dee, 1527â1608
Eraclie Sterian â Ãn noaptea nunÈii (On Your Wedding Night)
A. E. Waite â The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal
Alice Zimmern â Women's Suffrage in Many Lands

Births

January 20 â Mae Virginia Cowdery, African American poet (died 1953)
January 18 â Oskar DaviÄo, Serbian novelist and poet (died 1989)
January 29 â Phoebe Hesketh (Phoebe Rayner), English poet (died 2005)
February 15 â Miep Gies (Hermine Santruschitz), Austrian-born biographer (died 2010)
February 24 â August Derleth, American anthologist (died 1971)
March 6 â StanisÅaw Jerzy Lec, Polish aphorist and poet (died 1966)
March 17 â Margiad Evans, Anglo-Welsh poet, novelist and illustrator (died 1958)
March 22 â Gabrielle Roy, French Canadian author (died 1983)
March 28 â Nelson Algren, American novelist (died 1981)
March 31 â Robert Brasillach, French author (died 1945)
April 8 â John Fante, American novelist (died 1983)
May 1 â Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet (died 1990)
May 5 â MiklÃ³s RadnÃ³ti, Hungarian poet (died 1944)
May 9 â Robert Garioch, Scottish poet (died 1981)
June 6 â Isaiah Berlin, German-born philosopher (died 1997)
June 19 â Osamu Dazai (å¤ªå®° æ²»), Japanese author (died 1948)
June 28 â Eric Ambler, English spy novelist (died 1998)
June 29 â C. Hamilton Ellis, English writer (died 1987)
July 1 â Juan Carlos Onetti, Uruguayan writer (died 1994)
July 8 â Petar Å egedin, Croatian diplomat, novelist and essayist (died 1998)
July 17 â G. P. Wells, English zoologist, son and co-author of H. G. Wells (died 1985)
July 28 â Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (died 1957)
July 29 â Chester Himes, American writer (died 1984)
July 30 â C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian and author (died 1993)
August 3 â Walter Van Tilburg Clark, American novelist (died 1971)
August 11 â Uku Masing, Estonian religious philosopher, linguist and writer (died 1985)
August 19 â Jerzy Andrzejewski, Polish author (died 1983)
September 9 â Noel Barber, British novelist (died 1988)
October 24 â Sheila Watson (Sheila Doherty), Canadian novelist and critic (died 1998)
November 12 â Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Nepali poet, playwright, and novelist (died 1959)
November 26 â EugÃ¨ne Ionesco (Eugen Ionescu), Romanian-born French playwright (died 1994)
November 27 â James Agee, American writer (died 1955)
December 7 â Alexandru Talex, Romanian journalist, critic and biographer (died 1998)
December 14 â Ronald Welch (Ronald Oliver Felton), Welsh novelist and children's writer writing in English (died 1982)
December 16 â Edgar Mittelholzer, Guyanese novelist (suicide 1965)

Deaths

January 1 â Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis, American poet, writer, and editor (born 1844)
January 14 â William Ã Beckett, English journalist (born 1844)
January 22 â Hattie Tyng Griswold, American author (born 1842)
February 11 â Russell Sturgis, American art critic (born 1836)
March 24 â John Millington Synge, Irish dramatist and poet (born 1871)
March 27 (probable) â John Davidson, Scottish poet (born 1857)
April 9
- Francis Marion Crawford, American novelist (born 1854)
- Paschal Grousset, French journalist and science fiction writer (born 1844)
April 12 â Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (born 1837)
April 21 â Denys Corbet, Guernsey poet writing in Guernsey French and English (born 1826)
April 26 â Marcus Dods, Scottish theologian (born 1834)
May 18 â George Meredith, English novelist and poet (born 1828)
June 11 â Jacob Mikhailovich Gordin, American dramatist (born 1853)
June 24 â Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (born 1849)^[17]
July 8 â Albert Craig (The Surrey Poet), English cricket writer (born 1850)
July 9 â Rosa Nouchette Carey, English children's writer (born 1840)^[18]
August 15 â Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer, shot (born 1866)
August 18 â Theodore Martin, Scottish-born writer (born 1816)
August 21 â George Cabot Lodge, American poet (born 1873)^[19]
August 23 â Liu E (åé¶, Liu O), Chinese scholar, entrepreneur and novelist (born 1857)
August 26 â George Manville Fenn, English novelist and educationalist (born 1831)
September 4 â Clyde Fitch, American playwright (born 1865)
September 19 â JÃ³zsef BorovnyÃ¡k, Slovene writer, politician and priest (born 1826)
October 16 â Jakub Bart-ÄiÅ¡inski, Upper Sorbian poet, writer, playwright and translator (born 1856)
October 24 â Henry Charles Lea, American historian (born 1825)
November 5 â H. L. Fischer, Pennsylvania German-language writer and translator (born 1822)^[20]
December 14 â Frederick Greenwood, English novelist and journalist (born 1830)

Awards

Chancellor's Gold Medal: Dennis Holme Robertson
Nobel Prize in Literature: Selma LagerlÃ¶f (first female recipient)
Newdigate Prize: Frank Ashton-Gwatkin
Knighthood: Arthur Wing Pinero
Prix Goncourt: Marius-Ary Leblond, En France^[21]

1909 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References

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