1877 in literature explained
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1877.
Events
- January 24 – Émile Zola's L'Assommoir (sometimes translated as "The Dram Shop"), seventh in his novel sequence Les Rougon-Macquart, is first published in book format a few weeks after its serialisation ends in Le Bien public (Paris). It sells more than 50,000 copies by the end of the year.
- February 24–March 17 – Robert Louis Stevenson's first published work of fiction, the novella "An Old Song", appears anonymously in four episodes in the magazine London. It is first attributed to Stevenson in 1980.[1]
- July – The ending of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is published in Russkiy vestnik.[2]
- July 15 – "Coppino Law" in Italy makes elementary schools mandatory, free and secular.
- October – Robert Louis Stevenson publishes the short story "A Lodging for the Night" (in Temple Bar magazine), later collected in New Arabian Nights.
- October 15 – Edward L. Wheeler's first story featuring Deadwood Dick, set on the American frontier, opens the first number of Beadle's Half-Dime Library, published in New York.[3]
- November 5 – The Mitchell Library is established in Glasgow.[4]
- November 14 – Henrik Ibsen's first contemporary realist drama The Pillars of Society is premièred at the Odense Teater (having been first published on October 11 in Copenhagen).[5]
- November 24 – Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty, his grooms and companions: the autobiography of a horse "translated from the equine" is published by Jarrolds of Norwich in England. Her only book, published five months before her death arising from long-standing illness, it rapidly establishes its position as an all-time bestseller, going on to sell fifty million copies[6] and becoming the sixth best seller in the English language.[7]
- December 30 – Swedish dramatist August Strindberg marries his mistress, the divorced actress Siri von Essen, a member of the Finnish-Swedish minor nobility.
New books
Fiction
Children and young people
Drama
Poetry
Non-fiction
Births
- January 4 – Sextil Pușcariu, Romanian linguist, philologist and journalist (died 1948)
- February 7 – Alfred Williams, English "hammerman poet" (died 1930)
- March 6 – Rose Fyleman, English writer and poet (died 1957)[9]
- April 14 – Donald Maxwell, English travel writer and illustrator (died 1936)[10]
- April 29 – Henri Stahl, Romanian historian, short story writer, memoirist and stenographer (died 1942)
- June 11 – Renée Vivien, born Pauline Mary Tarn, English-born French-language Symbolist poet (died 1909)
- July 2 – Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter (died 1962)
- August 27 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American novelist and pastor (died 1951)
- September 1 – Rex Beach, American novelist and playwright (died 1949)
- September 9 – James Agate, English diarist and critic (died 1947)
- November 15 – William Hope Hodgson, English fiction writer (killed in action 1918)
Deaths
- January 29 – Caroline Howard Jervey, American author, poet, and teacher (born 1823)
- February 18 – Henrietta A. Bingham, American writer and editor (born 1841)
- April – Ernst Moritz Ludwig Ettmüller, German philologist (born 1802)
- June 15 – Caroline Norton (née Caroline Sheridan), English poet, pamphleteer and social reformer (born 1808)
- June 17 – John Stevens Cabot Abbott, American historian and pastor (born 1805)
- August 30 – Toru Dutt, multilingual Indian Bengali poet, novelist and translator, of pulmonary tuberculosis (born 1856)
- September 12 – Emily Pepys, English child diarist (born 1833)
- October 10 – Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist and critic (born 1801)
- October 16 – Théodore Barrière, French dramatist (born 1823)
- October 28 – Julia Kavanagh, Irish novelist (born 1824)
- December 12 – José de Alencar, Brazilian novelist (born 1829)
Notes and References
- Swearingen . Roger G. . "An Old Song" (1877): Robert Louis Stevenson's First Published Story, A New Discovery in the Yale Libraries . The Yale University Library Gazette . 1980 . 54 . 3 . 101-113 . Sep 9, 2021.
- Book: Stenbock-Fermor, Elizabeth . The Architecture of Anna Karenina . B. R. Grüner . 1975 . 1588116751.
- Web site: Wheeler, Edward L. . Johannsen . Albert . The House of Beadle and Adams and its dime and nickel novels: the story of a vanished literature . Northern Illinois University Libraries . DeKalb . 1950 . 2014-05-30.
- Web site: The opening of the Mitchell Library. The Scotsman. 5 November 2015. 27 October 2020.
- Web site: Facts about Pillars of Society . Ibsen.net . 2001-08-10 . Jens-Morten . Hanssen . 2013-02-08.
- News: Fifty million copies of Black Beauty have been sold in the years since Anna Sewell's publisher paid her £20 for the story . . London . 29 February 2008.
- Book: Wells, E. B. . Grimshaw, A. . The annotated "Black Beauty". 1989.
- Web site: A Chronology of Edward Lear's Life. Edward Lear Home Page. nonsenselit.org. 2012-08-10. 2017-02-24.
- Book: Hay, Ann G.. Fyleman, Rose (Amy). D.L.. Kirkpatrick. Twentieth-century Children's Writers. London. Macmillan. 1978. 978-0-33323-414-3. 485.
- Book: The Year's Art. 1937. 314.