1926 in literature

Last updated November 03, 2025

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.^[1]
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.^[2]
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.
November – George Bernard Shaw initially declines the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature (which is awarded a year later) stating "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel prize". He later changes his mind and accepts the honour, but refuses to receive the prize money.^[3] Shaw recommends that the prize money instead be used to fund the translation of works by Swedish playwright August Strindberg to English.^[3]
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.^[4]
- 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

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)
Dan Simonescu – Încercări istorico-literare (Literary and Historical Essays)
R. H. Tawney – Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Helen Thomas – As It Was
W. B. Yeats – Autobiographies
Paul Zarifopol – Din registrul ideilor gingașe (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)^[5]
January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
January 27 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian-born musician and writer (died 2003)^[6]
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)^[7]
March 27 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (died 1966)
March 31 – John Fowles, English novelist (died 2005)^[8]
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)^[9]
April 30 – Edmund Cooper, British poet and author (died 1982)^[10]
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)^[11]
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 (died 2022)
July 18 – Elizabeth Jennings, English poet (died 2001)
August 6 – Elisabeth Beresford, English children's author (died 2010)^[12]
August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
August 13 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (died 2008)^[13]
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)^[14]
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)^[15]
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)^[16]
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)^[17]
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

↑ Harold Bloom (2009). Dramatists and Dramas. Infobase Publishing. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-7910-9374-0.
↑ "Biography of J. R. R. Tolkien". Planet Tolkien. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
1 2 "George Bernard Shaw Refuses Nobel Prize Money". irelandxo.com.
↑ Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ (1996). Government Inspector. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-7734-8840-3.
↑ "Michael Bond obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Fritz Spiegl". The Daily Telegraph . 25 March 2003. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
↑ Mitchell, Tony (1989). File on Fo. London Portsmouth, N.H., U.S.A.: Methuen Drama HEB Inc. p. 7. ISBN 9780413174307.
↑ Higgins, Charlotte. "Reclusive novelist John Fowles dies at 79". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
↑ "Harper Lee obituary". The Guardian. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
↑ Smith, Curtis (1986). Twentieth-century science-fiction writers. Chicago: St. James Press. p. 153. ISBN 9780912289274.
↑ Hampton, Wilborn (April 6, 1997). "Allen Ginsberg, Master Poet Of Beat Generation, Dies at 70". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
↑ "Elisabeth Beresford: Children's author who created the Wombles" . The Independent. 3 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
↑ Louis James, "Heath, Roy Aubrey Kelvin (1926–2008)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, January 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
↑ Honan, William H. (2001-12-01). "John Knowles, 75, Novelist Who Wrote 'A Separate Peace'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-25.
↑ "John Berger obituary". The Guardian. 2 January 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
↑ Bohman, Nils; Dahl, Torsten (1955). Svenska män och Kvinnor: Biografisk Uppslagsbok (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. p. 394. OCLC 1137575928.
↑ Rainer Maria Rilke (14 April 2011). Selected Poems: with parallel German text. OUP Oxford. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-162017-1.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Harold Bloom (2009). Dramatists and Dramas. Infobase Publishing. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-7910-9374-0.

[2] "Biography of J. R. R. Tolkien". Planet Tolkien. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-06-14.

[ire-3] 1 2 "George Bernard Shaw Refuses Nobel Prize Money". irelandxo.com.

[4] Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ (1996). Government Inspector. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-7734-8840-3.

[5] "Michael Bond obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[6] "Fritz Spiegl". The Daily Telegraph . 25 March 2003. Retrieved 22 April 2012.

[7] Mitchell, Tony (1989). File on Fo. London Portsmouth, N.H., U.S.A.: Methuen Drama HEB Inc. p. 7. ISBN 9780413174307.

[8] Higgins, Charlotte. "Reclusive novelist John Fowles dies at 79". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2014.

[9] "Harper Lee obituary". The Guardian. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2017.

[10] Smith, Curtis (1986). Twentieth-century science-fiction writers. Chicago: St. James Press. p. 153. ISBN 9780912289274.

[11] Hampton, Wilborn (April 6, 1997). "Allen Ginsberg, Master Poet Of Beat Generation, Dies at 70". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved April 14, 2008.

[12] "Elisabeth Beresford: Children's author who created the Wombles" . The Independent. 3 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 10 January 2022.

[13] Louis James, "Heath, Roy Aubrey Kelvin (1926–2008)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, January 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2015.

[14] Honan, William H. (2001-12-01). "John Knowles, 75, Novelist Who Wrote 'A Separate Peace'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-25.

[15] "John Berger obituary". The Guardian. 2 January 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2017.

[16] Bohman, Nils; Dahl, Torsten (1955). Svenska män och Kvinnor: Biografisk Uppslagsbok (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. p. 394. OCLC 1137575928.

[17] Rainer Maria Rilke (14 April 2011). Selected Poems: with parallel German text. OUP Oxford. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-162017-1.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

1926 in literature

Contents

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References