Puneet Varma (Editor)

1888 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1888.

Contents

Events

  • February 9 – During Joseph Conrad's career at sea as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, he departs Bangkok for Sydney in his first command as master, the British barque Otago, a basis for his novella The Shadow Line (1916).
  • March 6 – On the day of Amos Bronson Alcott's funeral at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts), his daughter, novelist Louisa May Alcott, already in poor health, suffers a fatal stroke.
  • March 16 – Foundation stone for a new National Library of Greece building is laid in Athens.
  • May 26 – In London, Punch magazine begins serialisation of George and Weedon Grossmith's humorous The Diary of a Nobody, the first entry being for "April 3".
  • June 3Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner.
  • July – Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes detective novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887), is first published separately as a book, by Ward Lock & Co in London with illustrations by the author's father, Charles Altamont Doyle.
  • October
  • English publisher Henry Vizetelly is prosecuted in London by the National Vigilance Association and fined for obscene libel for his English translation of Zola's La Terre.
  • The first book to feature Jack the Ripper in fiction is published while the Whitechapel murders attributed to Jack the Ripper are still taking place in London, the short gothic novel The Curse Upon Mitre Square by John Francis Brewer, which features the murder of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square on September 30 as a key plot element.
  • Sholem Aleichem edits the first issue of the anthology Di Yidishe Folksbibliotek in Kiev, giving important exposure to young writers in Yiddish, including I. L. Peretz's long ballad "Monish".
  • The Finnish epic Kalevala is published for the first time in English by American linguist John Martin Crawford.
  • German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert ("Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer", published 1889), Der Antichrist (1895) and his autobiography, Ecce homo: Wie man wird, was man ist (posthumous, 1908), his last works before his total mental collapse.
  • "Papus" founds the esoteric magazine L'Initiation in France.
  • Approximate date – The sexual memoir My Secret Life by "Walter", perhaps Henry Spencer Ashbee, begins publication, being printed in Amsterdam for clandestine sale in Britain.
  • Fiction

  • Grant Allen
  • The Devil's Die
  • The White Man's Foot
  • Edward BellamyLooking Backward: 2000–1887
  • Rolf Boldrewood – Robbery Under Arms
  • Mary Elizabeth BraddonThe Fatal Three
  • Richard Francis Burton (translator) – The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (publication completed)
  • Félicien ChampsaurL'Amant des danseuses
  • Louis CouperusEline Vere
  • James De MilleA Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
  • Antonio FogazzaroThe Mystery of the Poet
  • Theodor FontaneIrrungen, Wirrungen
  • H. Rider Haggard – Maiwa's Revenge
  • Thomas HardyWessex Tales
  • Henry James
  • The Aspern Papers
  • Princess Casamassima
  • Rudyard Kipling
  • The Man Who Would Be King
  • Plain Tales from the Hills
  • Amy LevyReuben Sachs
  • Jean LombardL'agonie
  • George MacDonaldThe Elect Lady
  • Herman MelvilleJohn Marr and Other Sailors
  • Octave MirbeauL'Abbé Jules
  • George MooreSpring Days – A Prelude to Don Juan
  • Shardha Ram PhillauriBhagyawati
  • Raul Pompéia – O Ateneu
  • José Maria de Eça de Queiroz – Os Maias
  • Arthur Quiller-CouchTroy Town
  • Henryk SienkiewiczFire in the Steppe (Pan Wołodyjowski)
  • Theodor StormThe Rider on the White Horse (Der Schimmelreiter)
  • Lew WallaceThe Boyhood of Christ
  • Mrs Humphrey Ward – Robert Elsmere
  • Oscar WildeThe Happy Prince and Other Tales
  • Children and young adults

  • G. A. Henty
  • Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden
  • In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy
  • George MacDonald – The Elect Lady
  • Robert Louis StevensonThe Black Arrow (book publication)
  • Jules Verne
  • Family Without a Name (Famille-sans-nom)
  • Two Years' Vacation (Deux ans de vacances)
  • Oscar WildeThe Happy Prince and Other Tales
  • Drama

  • Sarah BernhardtL'Aveu, drame en un acte en prose
  • Félicien ChampsaurLulu
  • Henrik IbsenThe Lady from the Sea
  • Alexander KiellandProfessoren
  • August StrindbergMiss Julie
  • Poetry

  • Sir Edwin Arnold (translator) – With Saʿdi in the Garden; or, The Book of Love
  • W. E. Henley – A Book of Verses, containing the first publication of the poem Invictus.
  • Andrejs PumpursLāčplēsis ("The Bear-Slayer")
  • Non-fiction

  • Joseph BertrandCalcul des probabilités
  • John D. Billings – Hard Tack and Coffee
  • Helena BlavatskyThe Secret Doctrine
  • Esperanza (Jane, Lady Wilde) – Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, with sketches of the Irish past
  • Papus – Traité méthodique de science occulte
  • A. F. W. Schimper – Die epiphytische Vegetation Amerikas (The Epiphytic Vegetation of America)
  • A. E. Waite
  • Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers
  • The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan
  • Births

  • January 24Vicki Baum, Austrian-born writer (died 1960)
  • January 25 – A. L. Zissu, Romanian novelist and Zionist leader (died 1956)
  • February 10Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian modernist poet and writer (died 1970)
  • April 26Anita Loos, American novelist and screenwriter (died 1981)
  • June 13Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (died 1935)
  • July 23Raymond Chandler, American novelist and screenwriter (died 1959)
  • September 22Lucia Mantu, born Camelia Nădejde, Romanian writer (died 1971)
  • September 26 – T. S. Eliot, American-born English poet and playwright (died 1965)
  • October 14Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand short story writer (died 1923)
  • October 16Eugene O'Neill, American playwright and Nobel laureate (died 1953)
  • October 26 – Dem. Theodorescu, Romanian novelist and journalist (died 1946)
  • Deaths

  • January 30Mary Howitt, English writer, poet and translator (born 1799)
  • March 4Amos Bronson Alcott, American writer and philosopher (born 1799)
  • March 6Louisa May Alcott, American novelist (born 1832)
  • March 14James Hogg, Scottish-born publisher (born 1806)
  • April 15Matthew Arnold, English poet (born 1822)
  • May 12Edward Lear, English writer of comic verse and artist (born 1812)
  • August 9Charles Cros, French poet (born 1842)
  • August 20Henry Richard, Welsh political writer (born 1812)
  • September 24Karl von Prantl, German philosopher (born 1820)
  • December 8Frederick Apthorp Paley, English scholar (born 1815)
  • December 23Laurence Oliphant, Scottish travel writer and novelist (born 1829)
  • Awards

  • Newdigate prize – Arthur Waugh
  • References

    1888 in literature Wikipedia


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