1926 in literature
Template:Short description Template:Year nav topic5 Template:Use British English 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- 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.<ref name="ire">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shaw recommends that the prize money instead be used to fund the translation of works by Swedish playwright August Strindberg to English.<ref name="ire" />
- 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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
Fiction
- Ion Agârbiceanu – Legea trupului
- Marcel Arland – Monique
- Roberto Arlt – Mad Toy (El juguete rabioso)
- Isaac Babel – Red Cavalry («Конармия», short stories)
- Henry Bellamann – Petenera's Daughter
- Anthony Berkeley – The Wychford Poisoning Case
- Louis Bromfield – Early Autumn
- Edgar Rice Burroughs – The Moon Maid
- Willa Cather – My Mortal Enemy
- Marjorie Bowen – Mistress Nell Gwynne
- G. K. Chesterton – The Incredulity of Father Brown
- Agatha Christie – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- J.J. Connington
- Freeman Wills Crofts – The Cheyne Mystery
- James R. Crowell and Samuel C. Hildreth – The Spell of the Turf
- Ramón del Valle-Inclán – Tirano Banderas: novela de tierra caliente (Tyrant Banderas)
- Arthur Conan Doyle – The Land of Mist
- Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – Number 17
- William Faulkner – Soldiers' Pay
- Ronald Firbank – Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli
- F. Scott Fitzgerald – All the Sad Young Men
- Ford Madox Ford – A Man Could Stand Up (third book of the four-volume Parade's End)
- C. S. Forester – Payment Deferred
- Dion Fortune – The Secrets of Dr. Taverner
- Zona Gale – Preface to Life
- Hugo Gernsback – Ralph 124C 41+ (in book form)
- Ellen Glasgow – The Romantic Comedians
- Ricardo Güiraldes – Don Segundo Sombra
- H. Rider Haggard – The Treasure of the Lake
- Ernest Hemingway
- Harold Heslop – Template:Transliteration (Under the Sway of Coal, translation of Goaf)
- Georgette Heyer – These Old Shades
- Sydney Horler – The House of Secrets
- Mikheil Javakhishvili – The White Collar (თეთრი საყელო, Tetri sakelo)
- Franz Kafka – The Castle
- Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) – "The Dancing Girl of Izu" (伊豆の踊子, "Izu no odoriko", short story)
- D. H. Lawrence – The Plumed Serpent
- Marie Belloc Lowndes – What Really Happened
- Agnes Mure Mackenzie – The Quiet Lady
- Compton Mackenzie – Fairy Gold
- Hope Mirrlees – Lud-in-the-Mist
- George Moore – Ulich and Soracha
- Vladimir Nabokov (as V. Sirin) – Mary («Машенька», Mashen'ka)
- Carola Oman – King Heart
- E. Phillips Oppenheim
- Baroness Orczy – The Celestial City
- Cassiano Ricardo – Vamos caçar papagaios
- Grigol Robakidze – The Snake's Skin (გველის პერანგი)
- Sagitta (John Henry Mackay) – Der Puppenjunge (The Pansy; in English as The Hustler)
- Marquis de Sade (died 1814) – Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man (written 1782)
- Dorothy L. Sayers – Clouds of Witness
- Arthur Schnitzler – Dream Story (Traumnovelle)
- Thorne Smith – Topper (aka The Jovial Ghosts)
- Cecil Street – Dr. Priestley's Quest
- A. H. Tammsaare – Tõde ja Õigus (Truth and Justice, begins publication)
- Sylvia Thompson – The Hounds of Spring
- B. Traven – The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff)
- S. S. Van Dine – The Benson Murder Case (the first Philo Vance mystery)
- Henry Wade – The Verdict of You All
- Edgar Wallace
- Sylvia Townsend Warner – Lolly Willowes
- H. G. Wells – The World of William Clissold
- Walter F. White – Flight
- Monteiro Lobato — O Presidente Negro
Children and young people
- Angela Brazil – Joan's Best Chum
- Will James – Smoky the Cowhorse
- A. A. Milne – Winnie-the-Pooh
- Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Hungry Tiger of Oz (20th in the Oz series overall and the sixth written by her)
Drama
- Dorothy Brandon – Blind Alley
- Bertolt Brecht – Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann)
- Mikhail Bulgakov – The Days of the Turbins («Дни Турбиных»)
- G. D. H. Cole – The Striker Stricken
- St. John Greer Ervine – Anthony and Anna
- J. B. Fagan – And So To Bed
- Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – After Dark
- John Galsworthy – Escape
- Patrick Hastings – Scotch Mist
- Zora Neale Hurston – Color Struck (published)
- Seán O'Casey – The Plough and the Stars
- Eden Phillpotts – Blue Comet
- Ben Travers – Rookery Nook
- Sergei Tretyakov – I Want a Baby («Хочу ребёнка»)
Poetry
- Mário de Andrade – Losango cáqui
- Langston Hughes – The Weary Blues
- Robert McAlmon – The Portrait of a Generation
- Hugh MacDiarmid – A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
- Dorothy Parker – Enough Rope
- Vita Sackville-West – The Land
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 – {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
- January 27 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian-born musician and writer (died 2003)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 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)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- March 27 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (died 1966)
- March 31 – John Fowles, English novelist (died 2005)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- April 30 – Edmund Cooper, British poet and author (died 1982)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
- August 13 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (died 2008)<ref>Louis James, "Heath, Roy Aubrey Kelvin (1926–2008)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, January 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2015.</ref>
- 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)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- 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)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 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