1903 in literature explained

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1903.

Events

• January–December – Henry James's novel The Ambassadors is published as a serial in the monthly North American Review.
• May 22 – Japanese philosophy student Misao Fujimura (藤村操, born 1886) carves a poem into a tree at Kegon Falls before committing suicide over unrequited love.^[1]
• June 20 – Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild begins serial publication in the Saturday Evening Post.^[2]
• October 24 – Mark Twain sets out for Florence (Italy).^[3]
• December – The Prix Goncourt for French literature is awarded for the first time, to John Antoine Nau for his novel Force ennemie.
• December 16 – The London County Council erects a plaque to novelist Charles Dickens (d. 1870) on his former home in Doughty Street.
• December 19 – The first of G. K. Chesterton's short stories in the series The Club of Queer Trades, "The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown", appears in Harper's Weekly.
• unknown date – William Foyle and his brother Gilbert establish the London bookselling business of Foyles.^[4]

New books

Fiction

• Pío Baroja – El Mayorazgo de Labraz (Lord of Labraz, second of La Tierra Vasca – The Basque Country trilogy, 1900–1909)
• Ioan A. Bassarabescu – Nuvele
• Thio Tjin Boen – Tjerita Oeij Se
• René Boylesve – Enfant à la Balustrade
• Samuel Butler (died 1902) – The Way of All Flesh
• Erskine Childers – The Riddle of the Sands
• Joseph Conrad – Typhoon and Other Stories (U. K. book publication)
• Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer – Romance
• Florence Converse – Long Will
• Grazia Deledda – Elias Portolu
• Isabelle Eberhardt – Trimardeur (serialization begins)
• John Fox, Jr. – The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
• Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – The Wind in the Rose Bush
• George Gissing – The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
• Henry James – The Ambassadors
• Jack London – The Call of the Wild
• John Antoine Nau – Force ennemie
• Frank Norris (died 1902) – The Pit
• Marmaduke Pickthall – Said the Fisherman
• Bram Stoker – The Jewel of Seven Stars
• Jules Verne – Travel Scholarships (Bourses de voyage)
• Mary Augusta Ward – Lady Rose's Daughter
• Émile Zola – Vérité
• Jerzy Żuławski – Na Srebrnym Globie (On the Silver Globe, first in the Trylogia Księżycowa – Lunar Trilogy)

Children and young people

• L. Frank Baum – The Enchanted Island of Yew
• Beatrix Potter
  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
  • The Tailor of Gloucester
• Herminie Templeton – Darby O'Gill and the Good People (book publication)
• Kate Douglas Wiggin – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Drama

• Dusé Mohamed Ali – The Jew's Revenge
• Jacinto Benavente – La noche del sábado (Saturday Night)
• Haralamb Lecca – Cancer la inimă
• André de Lorde – Le Système du docteur Goudron et du professeur Plume
• W. Somerset Maugham – A Man of Honour
• René Morax – La Dîme
• Ștefan Petică – Frații
• Florencio Sánchez – M'hijo el dotor (My son, the doctor)
• George Bernard Shaw – Man and Superman (published)
• J. M. Synge – In the Shadow of the Glen
• Pierre Wolff – The Secret of Polichinelle
• Stanisław Wyspiański – Wyzwolenie (Liberation)

Poetry

See main article: 1903 in poetry.

• Giovanni Pascoli – Canti di Castelvecchio
• Thomas Traherne (died 1674) – Poetical Works
• W. B. Yeats – In the Seven Woods, being poems of the Irish heroic age

Non-fiction

• James Allen – As a Man Thinketh
• Ada Cambridge – Thirty Years in Australia
• E. K. Chambers – The Mediaeval Stage
• W. E. B. Du Bois – The Souls of Black Folk
• Helena Rutherfurd Ely – A Woman's Hardy Garden
• Auguste Escoffier – Le Guide culinaire
• Helen Keller – The Story of My Life (book publication)
• G. E. Moore – Principia Ethica
• John Morley – The Life of Gladstone^[5]
• Alois Riegl – Der moderne Denkmalkultus, sein Wesen, seine Entstehung (The Modern Cult of Monuments, Its Character and Origin)
• W. B. Yeats – Ideas of Good and Evil (essays)

Births

• January 10 – E. Arnot Robertson, English novelist and broadcaster (died 1961)
• February 11 – Alan Paton, South African novelist and activist (died 1988)
• February 13 – Georges Simenon, Belgian crime writer (died 1989)
• February 17 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist (suicide 1951)
• February 21
  • Anaïs Nin, French-American novelist and diarist (died 1977)
  • Raymond Queneau, French poet (died 1976)
• February 22 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (died 1990)
• February 24
  • Vladimir Bartol, Slovene author (died 1967)
  • Irène Némirovsky, Russian-born French novelist (died 1942)
• June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (died 1987)
• June 18 – Raymond Radiguet, French author (died 1923)
• June 25 – George Orwell, English novelist and journalist (died 1950)^[6]
• July 3 – Oliver Stonor, English novelist (died 1987)
• July 10 – John Wyndham, English science fiction writer (died 1969)^[7]
• September 5 – János Kemény, American-born Transylvanian Hungarian writer (died 1971)
• September 9 – Edward Upward, English novelist and short story writer (died 2009)
• September 10 – Cyril Connolly, English critic and writer (died 1974)
• September 14 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer (died 1980)
• October 17
  • G. E. Trevelyan, English novelist (died 1941)
  • Nathanael West, American novelist and screenwriter (died 1940)
• October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English novelist and critic (died 1966)
• December 6 (November 23 OS) – Gaito Gazdanov, Russian-born novelist (died 1971)
• December 10
  • Mary Norton, English children's writer (died 1992)
  • William Plomer (Robert Pagan), South African-born novelist, poet and literary editor (died 1973)
• December 13 – Todhunter Ballard, American novelist (died 1980)
• December 24 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (died 1986)
• December 29 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist (died 1976)
• Uncertain dates – Kathleen Lindsay, prolific English-born romance novelist (died 1973)

Deaths

• January 22 – Augustus Hare, English biographer and travel writer (born 1834)
• February 8 – Ada Ellen Bayly, English novelist (born 1857)
• March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (born 1834)
• March 6 – Gaston Paris, French literary critic and scholar (born 1839)
• March 8 – Josefina Wettergrund, Swedish writer (born 1830)
• March 9 – Minnie Mary Lee, American author of poems, stories, sketches and novels (born 1825)
• March 14 – Ernest Legouvé, French dramatist (born 1807)
• April 28 — Frances Augusta Conant, American journalist (born 1841)
• April 29 – Paul Du Chaillu, French American travel writer (born c. 1831)^[8]
• May 12 – Richard Henry Stoddard, American critic and poet (born 1825)
• May 24 – Max O'Rell (Léon Paul Blouet), French journalist (born 1847)
• June 12 – Claymoor, Romanian fashion and entertainment critic (peptic ulcer; born c. 1842)^[9]
• July 11 – W. E. Henley, English poet (tuberculosis, born 1847)^[10]
• August 31 – William Hastie, Scottish theologian (born 1842)
• September 1 – Charles Bernard Renouvier, French philosopher (born 1815)
• October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (suicide, born 1880)
• November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German classical scholar and historian (born 1817)^[11]
• November 11 — Lavilla Esther Allen, American author (born 1834)
• November 19 – Hugh Stowell Scott (Henry Seton Merriman), English novelist (born 1862)
• December 28 – George Gissing, English novelist (emphysema, born 1857)^[12]

Awards

• Prix Goncourt

John Antoine Nau for Force ennemie

• Nobel Prize for Literature

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Notes and References

1. http://www.japanpen.or.jp/e-bungeikan/guest/essay/fujimuramisao.html Suicide note (in Japanese).
2. Dyer . Daniel . Answering the Call of the Wild . April 1988 . The English Journal . National Council of Teachers of English . 77 . 4 . 61 . 10.2307/819308 . 819308 . .
3. Book: Mark Twain. The Complete Works of Mark Twain. 20 July 2017. e-artnow. 978-80-268-7815-5. 8501–.
4. Book: Giōrgos Daniēl. George Thaniel. Seferis and Friends: Some of George Seferis' Friends in the English-speaking World. 1994. Mercury Press. 978-1-55128-008-0. 39.
5. Book: Parsons, Nicholas . The Book of Literary Lists . London . Sidgwick & Jackson . 1985 . 0-283-99171-2.
6. Web site: BBC – History – Historic Figures: George Orwell (1903–1950) . bbc.co.uk . 3 January 2017.
7. Book: Seed . David . A Companion to Science Fiction . 9 June 2008 . John Wiley & Sons . 978-0-470-79701-3 . 387 . en.
8. Book: Conniff. Richard. 2011. The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth. New York. W. W. Norton & Company. 978-0-393-06854-2. 303.
9. Lucreția Angheluță, Salomeea Rotaru, Liana Miclescu, Marilena Apostolescu, Marina Vazaca, Bibliografia românească modernă (1831–1918). Vol. IV: R–Z, p. 722. Bucharest: Editura științifică și enciclopedică, 1996.
10. Web site: Biographical Information . West Chester University . 2013-12-04 . 2013-01-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130101214434/http://courses.wcupa.edu/fletcher/henley/bio.htm . dead .
11. Book: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Harvard University Press. 1992. 9780674379428. 388.
12. Pierre Coustillas, 'Gissing, George Robert (1857–1903)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online), Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 12 July 2024.