1921 in literature

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

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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.

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

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)

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)^[26]
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)^[27]
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)^[28]
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)^[29]
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)^[30]
September 26 – Matei Donici, Bessarabian Romanian poet and professional soldier (born 1847)
October 1 – Lillian Rozell Messenger, American poet (born 1843)^[31]
October 10 – Otto von Gierke, German historian (born 1841)^[32]
November 1 – Sarah Dyer Hobart, American author of poetry, prose, and songs (born 1845/46)^[33]
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)^[34]
date unknown
- Emma Churchman Hewitt, American author and journalist (born 1850)^{[citation needed]}
- Della Campbell MacLeod, American author and journalist (born ca. 1884) ^{[citation needed]}

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^[35]
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

[1]
The Bookseller. J. Whitaker. 1970. p. 2640.
[2]
Ellmann, Richard (1982). James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 502–04. ISBN 0-1950-3103-2.
[3]
"Teatro Nacional Cervantes" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-01-14.
[4]
"Norwich Players' New Theatre". The Times. No. 42836. London. 1921-09-27. p. 8.
[5]
Römhild, Juliane (2014). Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim: At Her Most Radiant Moment. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 116. ISBN 9781611477047. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
[6]
Morris, Ivan (1992) [1962]. Modern Japanese Stories. Tuttle Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 0-8048-1226-8.
[7]
Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. Part 1, group 1. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1922. p. 433.
[8]
New Makers of Modern Culture. Taylor & Francis. 2016. p. 255. ISBN 9781136768828.
[9]
Mary Cholmondeley (2013). The Romance of His Life - And Other Romances - The Original Classic Edition. Emereo Pty Limited. ISBN 9781486443871.
[10]
Michael Dirda, Classics for Pleasure (New York: Harcourt, 2007), p. 144.
[11]
Elster, Kristian (1924). Illustreret Norsk litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian). Vol. 2. Kristiania: Gyldendal. p. 808.
[12]
Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
[13]
Aldous Huxley (2001). Crome Yellow. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 978-1-56478-304-2.
[14]
Andro Linklater. Compton Mackenzie: A Life Hogarth Press, 1992. Page 336
[15]
Edgar Wallace (3 March 2010). The Four Just Men. House of Stratus. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7551-2247-9.
[16]
Rudolf Käser; Beate Schappach (31 October 2014). Krank geschrieben: Gesundheit und Krankheit im Diskursfeld von Literatur, Geschlecht und Medizin (in German). transcript Verlag. p. 147. ISBN 978-3-8394-1760-7.
[17]
Apter-Gabriel, Ruth (1987). Tradition and revolution: the Jewish renaissance in Russian avant-garde art, 1912-1928. Israel Museum. p. 67. ISBN 9789652780713.
[18]
J. Beverley Smith. "Eames, Marion Griffith (1921-2007), historical novelist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
[19]
Obituary Archived 21 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine in Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, Fall 2007.
[20]
"Elinor Lyon: Author of 'camping and tramping' adventure tales peopled with feisty, fearless girls and boys". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
[21]
Ataullah Siddiqui (15 April 1997). Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-312-16510-9.
[22]
"Montgomery, (Robert) Bruce [pseud. Edmund Crispin] (1921–1978), composer and detective novelist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31461. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
[23]
Katarzyna Zechenter (4 May 2014). "Tadeusz Różewicz obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
[24]
Maggie Fergusson, George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, 2006, ISBN 0-7195-5659-7 p. 8
[25]
Non Series #138- Trif and Trixy // John Habberton autograph 7 March 2012. Accessed 9 January 2012.
[26]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James (1911). "Pardo Bazán, Emilia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 801.
[27]
Carlos A. Solé; Maria Isabel Abreu (1989). Latin American Writers. Scribner. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-684-18597-2.
[28]
Julius Glück, El la klasika periodo de Esperanto (Grabowski kaj Kabe), en Muusses Esperanto Biblioteko No. 5, Purmerend, 1937. p. 6.
[29]
"Aho, Juhani (1861–1921)". kansallisbiografia.fi. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
[30]
Frank Northen Magill (1958). Masterplots Cyclopedia of World Authors. Salem Press. p. 1106.
[31]
"OBITUARY. MRS. LILLIAN MESSENGER". Daily Arkansas Gazette. 7 October 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
[32]
Otto von Gierke (2 May 2002). Community in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-521-89323-7.
[33]
"Poetess Buried". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, WI. November 6, 1921. p. 5. Retrieved July 4, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
[34]
"Obituary of Hester Baldwin Benedict Dickinson". Oakland Tribune. 29 December 1921. p. 10. Retrieved 24 August 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
[35]
"Lytton Strachey | British biographer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-01-15.

[1] [1]
The Bookseller. J. Whitaker. 1970. p. 2640.

[2] [2]
Ellmann, Richard (1982). James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 502–04. ISBN 0-1950-3103-2.

[3] [3]
"Teatro Nacional Cervantes" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-01-14.

[4] [4]
"Norwich Players' New Theatre". The Times. No. 42836. London. 1921-09-27. p. 8.

[5] [5]
Römhild, Juliane (2014). Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim: At Her Most Radiant Moment. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 116. ISBN 9781611477047. Retrieved 9 September 2018.

[6] [6]
Morris, Ivan (1992) [1962]. Modern Japanese Stories. Tuttle Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 0-8048-1226-8.

[7] [7]
Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. Part 1, group 1. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1922. p. 433.

[8] [8]
New Makers of Modern Culture. Taylor & Francis. 2016. p. 255. ISBN 9781136768828.

[9] [9]
Mary Cholmondeley (2013). The Romance of His Life - And Other Romances - The Original Classic Edition. Emereo Pty Limited. ISBN 9781486443871.

[Dirda-10] [10]
Michael Dirda, Classics for Pleasure (New York: Harcourt, 2007), p. 144.

[11] [11]
Elster, Kristian (1924). Illustreret Norsk litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian). Vol. 2. Kristiania: Gyldendal. p. 808.

[12] [12]
Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.

[13] [13]
Aldous Huxley (2001). Crome Yellow. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 978-1-56478-304-2.

[14] [14]
Andro Linklater. Compton Mackenzie: A Life Hogarth Press, 1992. Page 336

[15] [15]
Edgar Wallace (3 March 2010). The Four Just Men. House of Stratus. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7551-2247-9.

[16] [16]
Rudolf Käser; Beate Schappach (31 October 2014). Krank geschrieben: Gesundheit und Krankheit im Diskursfeld von Literatur, Geschlecht und Medizin (in German). transcript Verlag. p. 147. ISBN 978-3-8394-1760-7.

[17] [17]
Apter-Gabriel, Ruth (1987). Tradition and revolution: the Jewish renaissance in Russian avant-garde art, 1912-1928. Israel Museum. p. 67. ISBN 9789652780713.

[18] [18]
J. Beverley Smith. "Eames, Marion Griffith (1921-2007), historical novelist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2021.

[19] [19]
Obituary Archived 21 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine in Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, Fall 2007.

[20] [20]
"Elinor Lyon: Author of 'camping and tramping' adventure tales peopled with feisty, fearless girls and boys". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 20 January 2021.

[21] [21]
Ataullah Siddiqui (15 April 1997). Christian-Muslim Dialogue in the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-312-16510-9.

[22] [22]
"Montgomery, (Robert) Bruce [pseud. Edmund Crispin] (1921–1978), composer and detective novelist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31461. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[23] [23]
Katarzyna Zechenter (4 May 2014). "Tadeusz Różewicz obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2024.

[24] [24]
Maggie Fergusson, George Mackay Brown: The Life, John Murray, 2006, ISBN 0-7195-5659-7 p. 8

[25] [25]
Non Series #138- Trif and Trixy // John Habberton autograph 7 March 2012. Accessed 9 January 2012.

[26] [26]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James (1911). "Pardo Bazán, Emilia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 801.

[27] [27]
Carlos A. Solé; Maria Isabel Abreu (1989). Latin American Writers. Scribner. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-684-18597-2.

[28] [28]
Julius Glück, El la klasika periodo de Esperanto (Grabowski kaj Kabe), en Muusses Esperanto Biblioteko No. 5, Purmerend, 1937. p. 6.

[29] [29]
"Aho, Juhani (1861–1921)". kansallisbiografia.fi. Retrieved 1 December 2015.

[30] [30]
Frank Northen Magill (1958). Masterplots Cyclopedia of World Authors. Salem Press. p. 1106.

[31] [31]
"OBITUARY. MRS. LILLIAN MESSENGER". Daily Arkansas Gazette. 7 October 1921. p. 14. Retrieved 28 August 2022.

[32] [32]
Otto von Gierke (2 May 2002). Community in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-521-89323-7.

[33] [33]
"Poetess Buried". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, WI. November 6, 1921. p. 5. Retrieved July 4, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

[34] [34]
"Obituary of Hester Baldwin Benedict Dickinson". Oakland Tribune. 29 December 1921. p. 10. Retrieved 24 August 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

[35] [35]
"Lytton Strachey | British biographer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-01-15.

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1921 in literature

Fiction

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1921 in literature

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

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Events

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