1921 in literature explained

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

Events

• January 1 – The publishing firm Jonathan Cape is founded in Bloomsbury, London, by Herbert Jonathan Cape and Wren Howard.^[1]
• February – 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 – Jorge Luis Borges returns to his native Buenos Aires in Argentina after a period living with his family in Europe.
• April 20 – The Hungarian Ferenc Molnár's play Liliom is first produced on Broadway in English.
• May 9 – The première 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 – 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 – The première of Tristan Tzara's parodic The Gas Heart (Le Cœur à gaz) takes place at a Dada Salon at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris. It provokes audience derision.
• June 10 – D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is first published commercially by Martin Secker in London.
• September 5 – The Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires) opens with a production of Lope de Vega's La dama boba (The Foolish Lady, 1613).^[3]
• September 26 – 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 – John William Gott becomes the last person in England imprisoned for blasphemous libel.
• December 31 – Mexican poet Manuel Maples Arce distributes the first Stridentist manifesto, Comprimido estridentista, in the broadsheet Actual No. 1 in Mexico City.

New books

Fiction

• Elizabeth von Arnim - Vera^[5]
• Ryūnosuke Akutagawa – "Autumn Mountain" (秋山, Akiyama)^[6]
• Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan the Terrible^[7]
• Karel Čapek – Trapné povídky (Embarrassing Stories, translated as Money and other stories)^[8]
• Mary Cholmondeley – The Romance of His Life^[9]
• Walter de la Mare – Memoirs of a Midget^[10]
• Ethel M. Dell - The Obstacle Race
• Mary Frances Dowdall – Three Loving Ladies
• Edna Ferber - The Girls
• Fran Saleški Finžgar – Pod svobodnim soncem (Under the free sun)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Beautiful and Damned (serialized in Metropolitan Magazine (New York))
• Mikkjel Fønhus – Troll-Elgen^[11]
• John Galsworthy – To Let (last book of The Forsyte Saga)
• H. Rider Haggard – She and Allan
• A. P. Herbert – The House by the River
• Georgette Heyer – The Black Moth
• E. M. Hull – The Shadow of the East
• A. S. M. Hutchinson – If Winter Comes^[12]
• Aldous Huxley – Crome Yellow^[13]
• Frigyes Karinthy – Capillaria
• Sheila Kaye-Smith – Joanna Godden
• Gaston Leroux – The Crime of Rouletabille
• Marie Belloc Lowndes – What Timmy Did
• Denis Mackail – Romance to the Rescue
• Compton Mackenzie – Rich Relatives^[14]
• René Maran – Batouala
• L. M. Montgomery – Rilla of Ingleside
• George Moore – Heloise and Abelard
• Paul Morand – Tender Shoots (Tendres stocks, short stories)
• E. Phillips Oppenheim – Jacob's Ladder
• Baroness Orczy
  • Castles in the Air (short stories)
  • The First Sir Percy
• Alejandro Pérez Lugín – Currito of the Cross (Currito de la Cruz)
• Gene Stratton Porter – Her Father's Daughter
• Marcel Proust
  • The Guermantes Way (Le Côté de Guermantes II, second part of vol. 3 of In Search of Lost Time)
  • Sodom and Gomorrah (Sodome et Gomorrhe I, first part of vol. 4 of In Search of Lost Time)
• Sukumar Ray – HaJaBaRaLa
• Iñigo Ed. Regalado – May Pagsinta'y Walang Puso
• Dorothy Richardson - Deadlock
• Berta Ruck - Sweet Stranger
• Rafael Sabatini – Scaramouche
• Naoya Shiga – A Dark Night's Passing (暗夜行路, An'ya Kōro; serialized 1921–37)
• May Sinclair - Mr. Waddington of Wyck
• Annie M. Smithson - Carmen Cavanagh
• Booth Tarkington – Alice Adams
• Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy – The Road to Calvary (publication begins)
• Sigrid Undset – Husfrue (The Wife or The Mistress of Husaby, second part of Kristin Lavransdatter)
  • • Edgar Wallace The Book of All Power
  • The Law of the Four Just Men^[15]
• Eugene Walter – The Byzantine Riddle and other stories
• Arthur Weigall – Burning Sands
• Virginia Woolf – Monday or Tuesday
• Elinor Wylie – Nets to Catch the Wind
  • • Francis Brett Young The Black Diamond
  • The Red Knight
• Yevgeny Zamyatin – We (Мы; completed)

Children and young people

• Dorita Fairlie Bruce – The Senior Prefect (later entitled Dimsie Goes to School)
• Eleanor Farjeon – Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard
• Charles Boardman Hawes – The Great Quest
• Hendrik Willem van Loon – The Story of Mankind (non-fiction)
• Else Ury – Nesthäkchen Flies From the Nest^[16]

Drama

• Hjalmar Bergman – Farmor och vår Herre (Grandmother and Our Lord, translated as Thy Rod and Thy Staff)
• Dorothy Brandon – Araminta Arrives
• Karel Čapek – R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (performed)
• Karel and Josef Čapek – Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu, published)
• Clemence Dane – A Bill of Divorcement
• Brandon Fleming – The Eleventh Commandment
• Gerald du Maurier – Bulldog Drummond (with H.C. McNeile)
• Susan Glaspell – Inheritors (written) and The Verge (performed)
• Ian Hay – A Safety Match
• A. de Herz – Mărgeluș (Tiny Bead)
• Avery Hopwood – The Demi-Virgin
• René Morax – Le Roi David
• Roland Pertwee – Out to Win
• Luigi Pirandello – Six Characters in Search of an Author
• Sophie Treadwell - Rights
• Tristan Tzara – The Gas Heart
• Edgar Wallace – M'Lady
• Raden Adipati Aria Muharam Wiranatakusumah – Lutung Kasarung
• Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz – The Water Hen (Kurka Wodna)

Poetry

See main article: article and 1921 in poetry.

• Robert Frost – Mountain Interval (second print)
• Langston Hughes – "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", in The Crisis
• Amy Lowell - Legends
• Katherine Tynan - The Handsome Brandons
• William Carlos Williams – Sour Grapes
• William Butler Yeats – Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Non-fiction

• Adolphe Appia – L'Œuvre d'art vivant (The Living Work of Art)
• Charles Bean (ed.) – Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. 1
• Joseph Chaikov – Skulptur (first Yiddish-language work on the subject)^[17]
• Grace King– Creole Families of New Orleans
• Frank H. Knight – Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
• D. H. Lawrence
  • Sea and Sardinia
  • (as Lawrence H. Davison) – Movements in European History
• North-West Frontier Province – Administration Report of the North-west Frontier Province for 1922-23
• Edward Sapir – Language: an introduction to the study of speech
• Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk – Further Essays on Capital and Interest
• Ludwig Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
• Zitkala-Sa – American Indian Stories

Births

• January 5 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (died 1990)
• January 19 – Patricia Highsmith, American crime writer (died 1995)
• January 21 – Charles Eric Maine, English science fiction writer (died 1981)
• February 4 – Betty Friedan, American feminist author (died 2006)
• February 5 – Marion Eames, Welsh novelist writing mainly in Welsh (died 2007)^[18]
• February 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer (died 1985)
• March 1 – Richard Wilbur, American poet and translator (died 2017)
• March 3 – Paul Guimard, French novelist (died 2004)
• March 24 – Wilson Harris, Guyanese-born poet, novelist and essayist (died 2018)
• April 21 – Angela Bianchini, Italian fiction writer and literary critic (died 2018)
• May 20 – 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 – Michael Meyer, English translator and biographer (died 2000)
• June 12 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (died 2007)^[19]
• June 14 – John Bradburne, English poet and missionary (killed 1979)
• August 11 – Alex Haley, American writer (died 1992)
• August 17 – Elinor Lyon, British children's writer (died 2008)^[20]
• August 18 – Frédéric Jacques Temple, French poet and writer (died 2020)
• September 12 – Stanisław Lem, Polish science fiction novelist, philosopher, satirist and physician (died 2006)
• September 15 – Richard Gordon, English author (died 2017)
• September 16 – Mohamed Talbi, Tunisian historian (died 2017)^[21]
• September 26 – Cyprian Ekwensi, Nigerian writer (died 2007)
• October 2 – Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce Montgomery), English crime writer (died 1978)^[22]
• October 9 – Tadeusz Różewicz, Polish poet, dramatist and writer (died 2014)^[23]
• October 17 – George Mackay Brown, Scottish poet (died 1996)^[24]
• November 6 – James Jones, American novelist (died 1977)
• November 22 – Brian Cleeve, Irish author (died 2003)
• December 20 – Israil Bercovici, Romanian dramatist and historian (died 1988)

Deaths

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

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^[34]
• 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

Notes and References

1. Book: The Bookseller . 1970 . J. Whitaker . 2640.
2. Book: Ellmann, Richard . Richard Ellmann . James Joyce . registration . Oxford University Press . 1982 . New York . 502–04 . 0-1950-3103-2.
3. Web site: Teatro Nacional Cervantes . es . 2014-01-14.
4. News: Norwich Players' New Theatre . . London . 1921-09-27 . 8 . 42836.
5. Book: Römhild, Juliane . Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim: At Her Most Radiant Moment . 9 September 2018 . 2014 . Rowman & Littlefield . 9781611477047 . 116 .
6. Book: Morris, Ivan. Modern Japanese Stories. Ivan Morris. 1992. 1962. Tuttle Publishing. 0-8048-1226-8. 174.
7. Book: Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. Part 1, group 1.. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1922. 433.
8. Book: New Makers of Modern Culture. Taylor & Francis. 2016. 9781136768828. 255.
9. Book: Mary Cholmondeley. The Romance of His Life - And Other Romances - The Original Classic Edition. Emereo Pty Limited. 2013. 9781486443871.
10. [Michael Dirda]
11. Book: Elster, Kristian . Kristian Elster (born 1881) . Illustreret Norsk litteraturhistorie . 2 . 808 . no . 1924 . Gyldendal . Kristiania.
12. Book: Leavis, Q. D. . Q. D. Leavis . Fiction and the Reading Public . rev. . London . Chatto & Windus . 1965.
13. Book: Aldous Huxley. Crome Yellow. 2001. Dalkey Archive Press. 978-1-56478-304-2.
14. Andro Linklater. Compton Mackenzie: A Life Hogarth Press, 1992. Page 336
15. Book: Edgar Wallace. The Four Just Men. 3 March 2010. House of Stratus. 978-0-7551-2247-9. 99.
16. Book: Rudolf Käser . Beate Schappach . Krank geschrieben: Gesundheit und Krankheit im Diskursfeld von Literatur, Geschlecht und Medizin . 31 October 2014 . transcript Verlag . 978-3-8394-1760-7 . 147 . de.
17. Book: Apter-Gabriel, Ruth . Tradition and revolution: the Jewish renaissance in Russian avant-garde art, 1912-1928 . Israel Museum . 1987 . 67. 9789652780713 .
18. Web site: Eames, Marion Griffith (1921-2007), historical novelist. J. Beverley Smith. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 6 March 2021.
19. http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/newsletter/2007/fall/derrick_article.html Obituary
20. Web site: Elinor Lyon: Author of 'camping and tramping' adventure tales peopled with feisty, fearless girls and boys. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elinor-lyon-author-of-camping-and-tramping-adventure-tales-peopled-with-feisty-fearless-girls-and-boys-841356.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live. 23 October 2011. The Independent. 20 January 2021.
21. Book: Ataullah Siddiqui. Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century. 15 April 1997. Palgrave Macmillan. 978-0-312-16510-9. 136.
22. Montgomery, (Robert) Bruce [pseud. Edmund Crispin] (1921–1978), composer and detective novelist . 978-0-19-861412-8 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/31461 .
23. Web site: Tadeusz Różewicz obituary. 4 May 2014. Katarzyna Zechenter. The Guardian. 9 July 2024.
24. Maggie Fergusson, George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, 2006, p. 8
25. http://henryaltemus.com/blog/?p=2098 Non Series #138- Trif and Trixy // John Habberton autograph 7 March 2012. Accessed 9 January 2012.
26. Book: Carlos A. Solé. Maria Isabel Abreu. Latin American Writers. 1989. Scribner. 978-0-684-18597-2. 299.
27. Julius Glück, El la klasika periodo de Esperanto (Grabowski kaj Kabe), en Muusses Esperanto Biblioteko No. 5, Purmerend, 1937. p. 6.
28. Web site: Aho, Juhani (1861–1921). kansallisbiografia.fi. 1 December 2015.
29. Book: Frank Northen Magill . Masterplots Cyclopedia of World Authors . 1958 . Salem Press . 1106.
30. News: OBITUARY. MRS. LILLIAN MESSENGER. . 28 August 2022 . Daily Arkansas Gazette . 7 October 1921 . 14.
31. Book: Otto von Gierke. Community in Historical Perspective. 2 May 2002. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-89323-7. 11.
32. News: Poetess Buried . Wisconsin State Journal . November 6, 1921 . Madison, WI . 5 . . July 4, 2021.
33. News: Obituary of Hester Baldwin Benedict Dickinson . 24 August 2022 . Oakland Tribune . 29 December 1921 . 10 . en.
34. News: Lytton Strachey British biographer. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2018-01-15.