1921 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1921.

Events

January 1 â The publishing firm Jonathan Cape is founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Herbert Jonathan Cape and Wren Howard.^[1]
February â Margaret Caroline Anderson and Jane Heap, publishers of The Little Review, are convicted of obscenity in a New York court for publishing the "Nausicaa" episode of James Joyce's Ulysses.^[2]
March â Jorge Luis Borges returns to his native Buenos Aires in Argentina after a period living with his family in Europe.
April 20 â The Hungarian Ferenc MolnÃ¡r's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.
May 9 â The premiÃ¨re of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author (Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) at the Teatro Valle in Rome divides the audience.
May â A production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre directed by Robert Atkins at The Old Vic, London, restores the unexpurgated text for the first time since Shakespeare's day.
June 6 â The premiÃ¨re of Tristan Tzara's parodic The Gas Heart (Le CÅur Ã gaz) takes place at a Dada Salon at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris. It provokes audience derision.
June 10 â D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is first published commercially by Martin Secker in London.
September 5 â The Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires) opens with a production of Lope de Vega's La dama boba (The Foolish Lady, 1613).^[3]
September 26 â The Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich, England, an old chapel, is turned into an English Renaissance theatre for period drama by an amateur repertory company directed by Walter Nugent Monck.^[4] It opens with As You Like It.
December 9 â John William Gott becomes the last person in England imprisoned for blasphemous libel.
December 31 â Mexican poet Manuel Maples Arce distributes the first Stridentist manifesto, Comprimido estridentista, in the broadsheet Actual No. 1 in Mexico City.

New books

Non-fiction

Adolphe Appia â L'Åuvre d'art vivant (The Living Work of Art)
Charles Bean (ed.) â Official History of Australia in the War of 1914â1918, vol. 1
Joseph Chaikov â Skulptur (first Yiddish-language work on the subject)^[17]
Grace Kingâ Creole Families of New Orleans
Frank H. Knight â Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
D. H. Lawrence
- Sea and Sardinia
- (as Lawrence H. Davison) â Movements in European History
North-West Frontier Province â Administration Report of the North-west Frontier Province for 1922-23
Edward Sapir â Language: an introduction to the study of speech
Eugen von BÃ¶hm-Bawerk â Further Essays on Capital and Interest
Ludwig Wittgenstein â Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Zitkala-Sa â American Indian Stories

Births

January 5 â Friedrich DÃ¼rrenmatt, Swiss writer (died 1990)
January 19 â Patricia Highsmith, American crime writer (died 1995)
January 21 â Charles Eric Maine, English science fiction writer (died 1981)
February 4 â Betty Friedan, American feminist author (died 2006)
February 5 â Marion Eames, Welsh novelist writing mainly in Welsh (died 2007)^[18]
February 15 â Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer (died 1985)
March 1 â Richard Wilbur, American poet and translator (died 2017)
March 3 â Paul Guimard, French novelist (died 2004)
March 24 â Wilson Harris, Guyanese-born poet, novelist and essayist (died 2018)
April 21 â Angela Bianchini, Italian fiction writer and literary critic (died 2018)
May 20 â Wolfgang Borchert, German author and playwright (died 1947)
May 23
- James Blish, American science fiction author (died 1975)
- Ray Lawler, Australian dramatist (died 2024)
May 29
- Mona Van Duyn, American poet (died 2004)
- Henry Scholberg, American bibliographer (died 2012)
June 11 â Michael Meyer, English translator and biographer (died 2000)
June 12 â Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (died 2007)^[19]
June 14 â John Bradburne, English poet and missionary (killed 1979)
August 11 â Alex Haley, American writer (died 1992)
August 17 â Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (died 2008)^[20]
August 25 â Brian Moore, Northern Irish-Canadian writer (died 1999)
September 12 â StanisÅaw Lem, Polish science fiction novelist, philosopher, satirist and physician (died 2006)
September 15 â Richard Gordon, English author (died 2017)
September 16 â Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian (died 2017)^[21]
September 26 â Cyprian Ekwensi, Nigerian writer (died 2007)
October 2 â Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce Montgomery), English crime writer (died 1978)^[22]
October 9 â Tadeusz RÃ³Å¼ewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (died 2014)^[23]
October 10 â James Clavell, Australian-born British novelist (died 1994)^[24]
October 17 â George Mackay Brown, Scottish poet (died 1996)^[25]
November 6 â James Jones, American novelist (died 1977)
November 22 â Brian Cleeve, Irish author (died 2003)
December 20 â Israil Bercovici, Romanian dramatist and historian (died 1988)

Deaths

February 6 â Abba Goold Woolson, American author and poet (born 1838)
February 17 â Rosetta Luce Gilchrist, American physician, author (born 1850)
February 24 â John Habberton, American critic (born 1842)^[26]
March 22 â E. W. Hornung, English author (born 1866)
April 6 â Maximilian Berlitz, German-born American textbook writer and language school proprietor (born 1852)
May 5 â Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian publicist (born 1864)
May 12 â Emilia Pardo BazÃ¡n, Spanish novelist (born 1851)^[27]
May 13 â Jean Aicard, French writer (born 1848)
June â N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, Romanian novelist, folklorist, archivist and almanac compiler (born 1843)
June 5 â Georges Feydeau, French playwright (born 1862)
June 18 â Eduardo Acevedo DÃaz, Uruguayan writer (born 1851)^[28]
June 20 â Mary Lynde Craig, American writer, teacher, attorney, activist (born 1834)
June 26 â Alfred Percy Sinnett, English Theosophist author (born 1840)
July 4 â Antoni Grabowski, Polish Esperantist (born 1857)^[29]
July 7 â Luca Caragiale, Romanian poet, novelist and translator (pneumonia, born 1893)
August 1 â Helen Vickroy Austin, American journalist and horticulturist (born 1829)
August 7 â Alexander Blok, Russian poet (born 1880)
August 8 â Juhani Aho, Finnish author and journalist (born 1861)^[30]
August 19 â Georges Darien, French anarchist writer (born 1862)
August 25 â Nikolay Gumilev, Russian poet (executed, born 1886)
September 3 - Maria I. Johnston, American author, journalist, editor and lecturer (born 1835)
September 22 - Ivan Vazov, Bulgarian poet, novelist and playwright (born 1850)^[31]
September 26 â Matei Donici, Bessarabian Romanian poet and professional soldier (born 1847)
October 1 â Lillian Rozell Messenger, American poet (born 1843)^[32]
October 10 â Otto von Gierke, German historian (born 1841)^[33]
November 1 â Sarah Dyer Hobart, American author of poetry, prose, and songs (born 1845/46)^[34]
November 8 â Pavol OrszÃ¡gh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet, dramatist and translator (born 1849)
November 14 â Christabel Rose Coleridge, English novelist and editor (born 1843)
December 28 â Hester A. Benedict, American poet (born 1838)^[35]
date unknown
- Emma Churchman Hewitt, American author and journalist (born 1850)^{[citation needed]}
- Della Campbell MacLeod, American author and journalist (born ca. 1884) ^{[citation needed]}

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget^[10]
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria^[36]
Nobel Prize in Literature: Anatole France
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Zona Gale, Miss Lulu Bett
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: no award given
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

1921 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References

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