1902 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1902.

Events

• January 5
  • The political drama Danton's Death (Dantons Tod, completed and published in 1835) by Georg Büchner (died 1837), is first performed, at the Belle-Alliance-Theater in Berlin by the Vereins Neue Freie Volksbühne.^[1]
  • George Bernard Shaw's controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warren's Profession receives its first performance at a private London club.^[2]
• January 23 – The first example of a Sherlockian game – a study of inconsistencies of dates in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (the serialisation of which in The Strand Magazine concludes in April) by publisher Frank Sidgwick – appears in The Cambridge Review.^[3]
• April – Mark Twain buys a home in Tarrytown, New York. On June 4 he receives an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Missouri.
• June 16 – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege about the mathematical problem to become known as Russell's paradox.^[4]
• July 1 – The Romanian language literary review Luceafărul begins publication in Budapest.
• August 6 – În sat sau la oraș (In the Village or in the City), by the Romanian peasant leader Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș, is performed in his native Mușătești, in front of an audience comprising Education Minister Spiru Haret^[5] and some 2,000 villagers.^[6]
• September 9 – P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a freelance writer. On September 18, his first published novel, the St. Austin's school story The Pothunters, is published in London by A & C Black, as a truncation of the version in their Public School Magazine from January to March.

The cover of the first trade edition

• Early October – Beatrix Potter's self-illustrated children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit (originally published privately a year earlier) appears in its first trade edition with Frederick Warne & Co in London. It sells 28,000 copies by the end of the year.^[7]
• October 5 – Thousands attend the funeral of the French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris. They include Alfred Dreyfus, given special permission by Mme Zola to attend.^[8]
• November 4 – J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh. It runs for 828 performances.
• December 5 – Leo Tolstoy's drama The Power of Darkness («Власть тьмы», Vlast' t'my, written in 1886) has its Russian-language première at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although Stanislavski is self-critical.^[9]
• December 18 – Maxim Gorky's drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life («На дне», Na dne) is first performed, at the Moscow Art Theatre, as a first major success for Konstantin Stanislavsky as director and star.
• unknown date – The poet Ștefan Petică's cycle Fecioara în alb is published, marking a maturing of Romanian Symbolism.^[10]

New books

Fiction

• Azorín – La voluntad (Volition)
• Jane Barlow – The Founding of Fortunes
• Pío Baroja – Camino de perfección (pasión mística) (Road to Perfection)
• Edward Harold Begbie (as Caroline Lewis) – Clara in Blunderland
• Arnold Bennett
  • Anna of the Five Towns^[2]
  • The Grand Babylon Hotel
• Rhoda Broughton – Lavinia^[11]
• Joseph Conrad
  • Typhoon (serialized in The Pall Mall Magazine January–March and US book publication)^[12]
  • Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories, incorporating Youth: a Narrative (1898) and Heart of Darkness (first 1899)^[2]
  • The End of the Tether
• Marie Corelli – Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy
• Miguel de Unamuno – Amor y pedagogía
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán – Sonatas: Memorias del Marqués de Bradomín – Sonata de otoño (Sonatas: The Pleasant Memories of the Marquis of Bradomín – Autumn Sonata)
• Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles^[2]
• Paul Laurence Dunbar – The Sport of the Gods
• Hamlin Garland – The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop
• André Gide – L'immoraliste^[13]
• Ellen Glasgow – The Battle-Ground
• Annie French Hector – Kitty Costello^[14]
• Theodor Herzl – The Old New Land
• Violet Jacob – The Sheepstealers
• W. W. Jacobs – The Lady of the Barge (short stories, including "The Monkey's Paw")
• Henry James – The Wings of the Dove^[2]
• Alfred Jarry – Supermale (Le Surmâle: roman moderne)
• Mary Johnston – Audrey
• Olha Kobylianska – Zemlya (Land)
• Liang Qichao – Xin Zhongguo weilai ji (新中國未來記, The Future of New China; unfinished)
• Jack London – A Daughter of the Snows
• George Barr McCutcheon – Brewster's Millions
• Charles Major – Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall
• A. E. W. Mason – The Four Feathers^[15]
• W. Somerset Maugham – Mrs Craddock
• Dmitri Merejkowski – The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci
• Frank Norris – The Pit (serialization)
• Luigi Pirandello – Il Turno^[16]
• W. Heath Robinson – The Adventures of Uncle Lubin
• Saki – The Westminster Alice
• Percy Sykes – Ten Thousand Miles in Persia^[17]
• Jules Verne – The Kip Brothers (Les Frères Kip)
• Eduard Vilde – Mahtra sõda (The War at Mahtra)^[18][19]
• Owen Wister – The Virginian^[20]

Children and young people

• L. Frank Baum – The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
• J. M. Barrie – The Little White Bird (includes the story "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens")
• Edith Ogden Harrison – Prince Silverwings and other fairy tales
• William Dean Howells – The Flight of Pony Baker
• Rudyard Kipling – Just So Stories for Little Children^[2]
• Bessie Marchant – Fleckie: A Story of the Desert, etc.
• E. Nesbit – Five Children and It
• Beatrix Potter – The Tale of Peter Rabbit^[2]
• Edward Stratemeyer – The Young Volcano Explorers
• Mrs George de Horne Vaizey – A Houseful of Girls
• C. N. and A. M. Williamson – The Lightning Conductor: the Strange Adventures of a Motor-car^[21]
• P. G. Wodehouse – The Pothunters

Drama

• J. M. Barrie – The Admirable Crichton
• Gordon Bottomley – The Crier by Night
• Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de Flers – Le Cœur a ses raisons^[22]
• Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș – În sat sau la oraș (In the Village or in the City, first performance)^[5]
• Clyde Fitch – The Girl with the Green Eyes
• Cosmo Gordon-Lennox – The Marriage of Kitty^[23]
• Maxim Gorky – The Lower Depths^[24]
• Haralamb Lecca – Septima. Câiniĭ
• Maurice Maeterlinck – Monna Vanna
• Frank Wedekind – King Nicolo
• W. B. Yeats – Cathleen Ní Houlihan

Poetry

Main article: 1902 in poetry

• Edwin James Brady – The Earthen Floor
• Walter de la Mare (as Walter Ramal) – Songs of Childhood^[25][26]
• Ștefan Petică – Fecioara în alb

Non-fiction

• Jane Addams – Democracy and Social Ethics
• James Allen – As a Man Thinketh
• Hilaire Belloc – The Path to Rome^[27]
• Euclides da Cunha – Os Sertões (translated as Rebellion in the Backlands)^[28]
• Arthur Conan Doyle – The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct
• Michael Fairless (pseudonym of Margaret Barber) – The Roadmender
• John A. Hobson – Imperialism: a study^[2]
• William James – The Varieties of Religious Experience
• Vilfredo Pareto – Les Systèmes socialistes
• Bertrand Russell – A Free Man's Worship
• Southern Education Board – Educational Conditions in the Southern Applachians
• William Wynn Westcott – Collectanea Hermetica (finishes publication)

Births

• January 1 - Muhammad Zaki Abd al-Qadir, Egyptian journalist and writer (d. 1981) ^[29]
• January 5 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist (died 1989)
• January 20 – Nazim Hikmet, Turkish lyricist and dramatist (died 1963)
• January 30 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-born architectural historian (died 1983)
• February 1 – Langston Hughes, African-American poet and novelist (died 1967)
• February 16 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist (died 1956)
• February 19 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and political activist (died 1992)
• February 27 – John Steinbeck, American novelist and journalist (died 1968)
• March 9 – Thomas Owen Beachcroft, English novelist (died 1988)
• March 10 – Stefan Inglot, Polish historian (died 1994)
• March 29 – Marcel Aymé, French novelist and short-story writer (died 1967)^[30]
• April 2 – Jan Tschichold, German-born typographer (died 1974)
• April 6 – Julien Torma, French poet and dramatist (died 1933)
• April 9 – Lord David Cecil, English literary critic and biographer (died 1986)
• April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic novelist (died 1998)^[31]
• June 5 – Hugo Huppert, Austrian poet, writer and translator (died 1982)
• July 10 – Nicolás Guillén, Afro-Cuban poet (died 1989)
• July 8 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African American writer and artist (died 1981)
• July 27 - Yaroslav Halan, Ukrainian playwright, translator, and publicist (died 1949)
• August 15 – Katharine Brush, American short story writer (died 1952)
• August 16 – Georgette Heyer, English novelist (died 1974)^[32]
• August 19 – Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist (died 1971)^[33]
• August 24
  • Felipe Alfau, Spanish-American fiction writer, poet and translator (died 1999)^[34]
  • Fernand Braudel, French historian (died 1985)
• September 21 – Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet (died 1963)
• September 25 – Ernst von Salomon, German writer (died 1972)
• October 13 – Arna Bontemps, African American poet (died 1973)
• October 23 – Dadie Rylands (George Rylands), English Shakespeare scholar (died 1999)
• October 26 – Beryl Markham (Beryl Clutterbuck), English-born Kenyan adventurer and memoirist (died 1986)^[35]
• October 31 – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (died 1987)^[36]
• November 1 – Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet and author (killed in action 1943)^[37]
• November 2
  • Hu Feng (胡风), Chinese novelist (died 1985)
  • Gyula Illyés, Hungarian author (died 1983)
• November 29 – Carlo Levi, Italian writer (died 1975)
• December 7 – Nicolae Crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (died 1978)^{[citation needed]}
• December 20 – Jolán Földes, Hungarian novelist and playwright (died 1963)^[38]

Deaths

Émile Zola in 1902

• January 7 – Wilhelm Hertz, German poet and translator (born 1835)
• April 6 – Gleb Uspensky, Russian writer (born 1843)^[39]
• April 20 – Frank R. Stockton, American writer and humorist (born 1834)
• April 21 – Ethna Carbery, Irish poet (born 1866)^[40]
• April 27 – Nancy H. Adsit, American art lecturer, art educator, and writer of art literature (born 1825)^{[citation needed]}
• May 5 – Bret Harte, American author and poet (born 1836)^[41]
• May 6
  • Martha Perry Lowe, American social activist and organizer (born 1829)
  • Emma Augusta Sharkey, American dime novelist (born 1858)^[42]
• May 17/18 — Harriet Abbott Lincoln Coolidge, American philanthropist, author and reformer (b. 1849)
• June 10 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet (born 1845)^[43]
• June 18 – Samuel Butler, English novelist (born 1835)^[44]
• July 10 – Annie French Hector (pseudonym Mrs Alexander), Irish-born novelist (born 1825)
• August 31
• August 31
  • Grace Hinsdale, American religious writer (born 1832)
  • Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet (born 1828)^[45]
• September 11 – Ernst Dümmler, German historian (born 1830)^[46]
• September 19 – Masaoka Shiki (正岡 子規), Japanese haiku poet (born 1867)^[47]
• September 29
  • William McGonagall, Scottish doggerel poet (born 1825)^[48]
  • Émile Zola, French novelist (carbon monoxide poisoning, born 1840)^[49]
• October 7 – George Rawlinson, English historian (born 1812)
• October 13 – John George Bourinot, Canadian historian (born 1836)
• October 25 – Frank Norris, American novelist (peritonitis, born 1870)^[50]
• October 31 – Cornélie Huygens, Dutch writer, social democrat and feminist (born 1848)^[51]
• November 16 – G. A. Henty, English historical novelist (born 1832)^[52]
• December 26 – Mary Hartwell Catherwood, American author and poet (born 1849)^[53]

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen

References

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2. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 460–461. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
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8. "Thousands March At Funeral of Emile Zola: Municipal Guards Line the Route to Preserve Order. Dreyfus Attends After All, Is Unnoticed by the Crowd – Mme. Zola Gave Him Back His Promise to Stay Away – Very Little Disorder". The New York Times. 1902-10-06.
9. Stanislavsky, Constantin (1924). My Life in Art. London: Geoffrey Bles. pp. 400–403, 577.
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22. Catalog of the Theatre and Drama Collections. G. K. Hall. 1967. p. 980.
23. Alan Goble (1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 111.
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36. John Nist (2014). The Modernist Movement in Brazil: A Literary Study. University of Texas Press. p. 129. ISBN 9781477304525.
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46.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dümmler, Ernst Ludwig". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 665.
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48. Donaldson, William (2004). "McGonagall, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40706. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
49. "The Strange Death of Emile Zola". History Today Volume 52. 9 September 2002. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
50. "Frank Norris, the novelist, died to-day as the result of an operation for appendicitis performed three days ago" (PDF). The New York Times. October 26, 1902. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
51. "Cornélie Huygens". DBNL (in Dutch). Retrieved 29 May 2019.
52. Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College, 1349-1897: Admissions since January 1, 1899. Chronicle of the College estates. University Press. 1912. p. 126.
53. Robert, Price (1971). "Catherwood, Mary Hartwell". In James, Edward T. (ed.). Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 1. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-67462-734-5.