1906 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1906 in literature involved some significant new books.
David Maclean Parry - The Scarlet Empire
Felix Salten
(attributed) - Josephine Mutzenbacher
Upton Sinclair
- The Jungle
Natsume Sōseki
- Botchan
Frank Thiess
- Men At War
Mark Twain
- What Is Man?
Mary Augusta Ward
- Fenwick's Career
H. G. Wells
- In the Days of the Comet
Owen Wister
- Lady Baltimore
Events
- December 24 - Reginald FessendenReginald FessendenReginald Aubrey Fessenden , a naturalized American citizen born in Canada, was an inventor who performed pioneering experiments in radio, including early—and possibly the first—radio transmissions of voice and music...
transmits the first radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
program, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts. - Annie Carroll MooreAnnie Carroll MooreAnne Carroll Moore was an American educator and advocate for children's libraries. She was named Annie after an aunt, and officially changed her name to Anne in her fifties, to avoid confustion with Annie E...
opens the children's department at the New York Public Library.
New books
- Henry Adams - The Education of Henry AdamsThe Education of Henry AdamsThe Education of Henry Adams records the struggle of Bostonian Henry Adams , in his later years, to come to terms with the dawning 20th century, so different from the world of his youth. It is also a sharp critique of 19th century educational theory and practice. In 1907, Adams began privately...
- Pio BarojaPío BarojaPío Baroja y Nessi was a Spanish Basque writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family, his brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his nephew Julio Caro Baroja, son of his younger sister Carmen, was a well known...
- King Paradox - L. Frank BaumL. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
- John Dough and the CherubJohn Dough and the CherubJohn Dough and the Cherub is a children's fantasy novel written by L. Frank Baum, about a living gingerbread man and his adventures.-The book:...
- - AnnabelAnnabel (novel)Annabel: A Novel for Young Folk is a 1906 juvenile novel written by L. Frank Baum, the author famous for his series of books on the Land of Oz. The book was issued under the pen name "Suzanne Metcalf," one of Baum's various pseudonyms...
(as "Suzanne Metcalf") - - Aunt Jane's NiecesAunt Jane's NiecesAunt Jane's Nieces is the title of a juvenile novel published by Reilly & Britton in 1906, and written by L. Frank Baum under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne." Since the book was the first in a series of novels designed for adolescent girls, its title was applied to the entire series of ten books,...
(as "Edith Van Dyne") - - Daughters of DestinyDaughters of Destiny (novel)Daughters of Destiny is a 1906 adventure novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the author of the Oz books. Baum published the novel under the pen name "Schuyler Staunton," one of his several pseudonyms...
(as "Schuyler Staunton") - - Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and SeaSam Steele's Adventures on Land and SeaSam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea is a juvenile adventure novel written by L. Frank Baum, famous as the creator of the Land of Oz. The book was Baum's first effort at writing specifically for an audience of adolescent boys, a market he would pursue in the coming years of his career. The novel...
(as "Capt. Hugh Fitzgerald") - - The Twinkle TalesThe Twinkle TalesThe Twinkle Tales is a 1905 series by L. Frank Baum, published under the pen name Laura Bancroft. The six stories were issued in separate booklets by Baum's publisher Reilly & Britton, with illustrations by Maginel Wright Enright...
(as "Laura Bancroft")
- - Annabel
- Rex BeachRex BeachRex Ellingwood Beach was an American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player.- Biography :...
- The SpoilersThe Spoilers (novel)The Spoilers is a novel written by English author Desmond Bagley, and was first published in 1969.-Plot introduction:When film tycoon, Sir Robert Hellier, loses his daughter to heroin, he declares war on the drug peddlers... - Hall CaineHall CaineSir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
- Drink: A Love Story on a Great Question - Paul CarusPaul CarusPaul Carus, Ph.D. was a German-American author, editor, a student of comparative religion, and professor of philosophy.-Life and education:...
- AmitabhaAmitabhaAmitābha is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism... - Mary CholmondeleyMary CholmondeleyMary Cholmondeley was an English novelist.The daughter of the vicar at St Luke's Church in the village of Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, where she was born, Cholmondeley spent much of the first thirty years of her life taking care of her sickly mother...
- PrisonPrisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
ers - William de MorganWilliam De MorganWilliam Frend De Morgan was an English potter and tile designer. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles are often based on medieval designs or Persian patterns, and he experimented with innovative glazes and...
- Joseph VanceJoseph VanceJoseph Vance was a Whig politician from Ohio. He was the 13th Governor of Ohio and the first Whig to hold the position.Vance was born in Catfish , Pennsylvania... - Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
- Sir NigelSir NigelSir Nigel is a historical novel set during the Hundred Years' War, by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Written in 1906, it is a fore-runner to Doyle's earlier novel The White Company, and describes the early life of that book's hero Sir Nigel Loring in the service of King Edward III at... - Ford Madox FordFord Madox FordFord Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
- The Fifth Queen - Zona GaleZona GaleZona Gale was an American author and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, in 1921.-Biography:Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing...
- Romance Island - John GalsworthyJohn GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
- The Man of Property - Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
- The Wheel of LifeThe Wheel of LifeThe Wheel of Life is a famous boulder problem in Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians of Australia.The problem which consists of over 60 moves was first completed by Dai Koyamada in 2004, and it links up several V8 to V15 problems that were established by climbers such as Klem Loskot and Fred... - Elinor GlynElinor GlynElinor Glyn , born Elinor Sutherland, was a British novelist and scriptwriter who pioneered mass-market women's erotic fiction. She popularized the concept It...
- Beyond the RocksBeyond the RocksBeyond the Rocks is a 1906 novel by Elinor Glyn. The novel was later adapted into a 1922 silent film in which Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino starred together for the only time. The film was directed by Sam Wood and distributed by Paramount Pictures.-Plot summary:The book is a melodrama... - Remy de GourmontRemy de GourmontRemy de Gourmont was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars...
- A Night in the Luxembourg - O. HenryO. HenryO. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
- The Four MillionThe Four MillionThe Four Million is the second published collection of short stories by O. Henry originally released in 1906. There are twenty five stories of various lengths including several of his best known works such as "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem"... - Hermann HesseHermann HesseHermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
- Beneath the WheelBeneath the WheelBeneath the Wheel is a 1906 novel written by Hermann Hesse. It is also sometimes titled The Prodigy in English.-Plot summary:... - Selma LagerlöfSelma LagerlöfSelma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
- The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgerson - Arthur MachenArthur MachenArthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...
- The House of Souls - George Moore (novelist)George Moore (novelist)George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
- My Dead Life - Edith Nesbit - The Railway ChildrenThe Railway ChildrenThe Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906...
- The Story of the AmuletThe Story of the AmuletThe Story of the Amulet is a novel for children, written in 1906 by English author Edith Nesbit.It is the final part of a trilogy of novels that also includes Five Children and It and The Phoenix and the Carpet . In it the children re-encounter the Psammead—the "it" in Five Children and It...
- The Story of the Amulet
- Baroness OrczyBaroness OrczyBaroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
- I Will Repay (novel)I Will Repay (novel)I Will Repay was written by Baroness Emmuska Orzcy and originally published in 1906, this is a sequel novel to the Scarlet Pimpernel. The second Pimpernel book written by Orzcy, it comes third in the series and should be read after Sir Percy Leads the Band and before The Elusive Pimpernel.-Plot...
A Son of the PeopleA Son of the People, is a 'A romance of the plains' set in her native Hungary, Baroness Orczy used scenes from her own childhood when writing; describing the house in Tarna-Örs in which she born and the life of the territorial magnates of Hungary with which she had been familiar.Orczy claims in her...
The Scarlet Empire
The Scarlet Empire is a dystopian novel written by David MacLean Parry, a political satire first published in 1906. The book was one item in the major wave of utopian and dystopian literature that characterized the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.-Plot summary:John Walker is a young...
Felix Salten
Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
(attributed) - Josephine Mutzenbacher
Josephine Mutzenbacher
Josephine Mutzenbacher – The Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself is an erotic novel first published anonymously in Vienna, Austria in 1906...
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
- The Jungle
The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel with the intention of portraying the life of the immigrant in the United States, but readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the corruption of the American meatpacking...
Natsume Soseki
, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...
- Botchan
Botchan
Botchan is a novel written by Natsume Sōseki in 1906. It is considered to be one of the most popular novels in Japan, read by most Japanese during their childhood. The central theme of the story is morality.-Narrative:...
Frank Thiess
Frank Thiess was a German writer.-Biography:Born in Eluisenstein, Russian Livonia , Thiess grew up in Berlin, where his family moved after Russia had annexed Livonia. He worked as a journalist for four years until he was enlisted into the German army in World War I...
- Men At War
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
- What Is Man?
What Is Man?
"What Is Man?", published by Mark Twain in 1906, is a dialogue between a young man and an older man jaded to the world. It involves ideas of destiny and free will, as well as of psychological egoism. The Old Man asserted that the human being is merely a machine, and nothing more...
Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...
- Fenwick's Career
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
- In the Days of the Comet
In the Days of the Comet
In the Days of the Comet is a 1906 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells in which the vapors of a comet are used as a device which brings about a profound and lasting transformation in the attitudes and perspectives of humankind.-Plot summary:...
Owen Wister
Owen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...
- Lady Baltimore
New drama
- John GalsworthyJohn GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
- The Silver Box - Harley Granville-BarkerHarley Granville-BarkerHarley Granville-Barker was an English actor-manager, director, producer, critic and playwright....
- Waste - George Barr McCutcheonGeorge Barr McCutcheonGeorge Barr McCutcheon was an American popular novelist and playwright. His best known works include the series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, Brewster's Millions, a play and several films....
- Brewster's MillionsBrewster's MillionsBrewster's Millions is a novel written by George Barr McCutcheon in 1902, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Greaves. It was adapted into a play in 1906, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre, and the novel or play has been made into a film nine times .-Plot introduction:The novel's...
(adaptation) - Emma Orczy - The Sin of William Jackson
Non-fiction
- Hall CaineHall CaineSir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
- My Story - Joseph ConradJoseph ConradJoseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
- The Mirror of the Sea: Memories and Impressions
Births
- January 22 - Robert E. HowardRobert E. HowardRobert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, American fantasy author (d. 1936) - January 23 - Anya SetonAnya SetonAnya Seton was the pen name of Ann Seton, an American author of historical romances.-Biography:...
, American romantic author (d. 1990) - February 8 - Henry RothHenry RothHenry Roth was an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Roth was born in Tysmenitz near Stanislaviv, Galicia, Austro-Hungary...
, novelist and short story writer (d. 1995) - February 15 - Musa CalilMusa CälilMusa Cälil was a Soviet Tatar poet and resistance fighter. He is the only poet of the Soviet Union who was simultaneously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his resistance fighting, and the Lenin Prize for authoring The Moabit Notebooks; both the awards were awarded to him...
, poet (d. 1944) - March 25 - A.J.P. Taylor, historian (d. 1990)
- April 13 - Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literatureNobel Prize in LiteratureSince 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
(d. 1989) - June 20 - Catherine CooksonCatherine CooksonDame Catherine Cookson DBE was a British author. She became the United Kingdom's most widely read novelist, with sales topping 100 million, while retaining a relatively low profile in the world of celebrity writers...
, best-selling novelist (d. 1998) - July 18 - Clifford OdetsClifford OdetsClifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
, dramatist (d. 1963) - August 30 - Elizabeth LongfordElizabeth LongfordElizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, CBE, better known as Elizabeth Longford was a British author.-Life:...
, biographer (d. 2002) - September 25 - Franklin GarrettFranklin GarrettFranklin Miller Garrett was the only official historian of Atlanta. His massive Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of its People and Events remains the best reference for the city's history.-Biography:...
, historian of Atlanta (d. 2000) - October 10 - R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)
- October 16 - Dino BuzzatiDino BuzzatiDino Buzzati-Traverso was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere della Sera. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel Il deserto dei Tartari, translated into English as The Tartar Steppe.-Life:Buzzati was born at San Pellegrino,...
, Italian author (d. 1972) - October 14 - Hannah ArendtHannah ArendtHannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, German/US intellectual (d. 1975) - November 30 - John Dickson CarrJohn Dickson CarrJohn Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn....
, American detective fiction author (d. 1977)
Deaths
- February 9 - Paul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
, poet - March 2 - Ellen Mary ClerkeEllen Mary ClerkeEllen Mary Clerke was an author, journalist, poet and popular science writer in the field of astronomy. She was born in Skibbereen, County Cork, in Ireland. She wrote for the London Tablet, and also spent much time in Italy...
, novelist - April 6 - Alexander KiellandAlexander KiellandAlexander Lange Kielland was one of the most famous Norwegian realistic writers of the 19th century. He is one of the so-called "The Four Greats" in Norwegian literature, along with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Jonas Lie.-Background:Born in Stavanger, Norway, he grew up in a rich...
, Norwegian novelist (b. 18491849 in literatureThe year 1849 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*La Tribune des Peuples, a pan-European romantic nationalist periodical, is published between March and November by Adam Mickiewicz.*Who's Who is published for the first time....
) - April 11 - Francis Pharcellus ChurchFrancis Pharcellus ChurchFrancis Pharcellus Church was an American publisher and editor. He was a member of the Century Association.-Biography:...
, American editor and publisher - April 14 - Nora ChessonNora ChessonNora Hopper was an English poet. She was born in Exeter, of an Irish father Capt Harman Baillie Hopper. She was a participant in the Irish literary movement of the 1890s, having some influence on W. B...
, poet - May 23 - Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, Norwegian playwright (b. 18281828 in literatureThe year 1828 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first volume of John James Audubon's 10-volume The Birds of America is published....
) - June 29 - Albert SorelAlbert SorelAlbert Sorel , was a French historian. He was born at Honfleur and remained throughout his life a lover of his native Normandy. His father, a rich manufacturer, wanted him to take over the business but his literary vocation prevailed. He went to live in Paris, where he studied law and, after a...
, historian - June 30 - Jean LorrainJean LorrainJean Lorrain , born Paul Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school....
, Symbolist poet - December 6 - Anne Ross CousinAnne Ross CousinAnne Ross Cousin was a Scottish poet, musician and songwriter. She was a student of John Muir Wood and later became a popular writer of hymns, most especially "The Sands Of Time Are Sinking", while travelling with her minister husband from 1854 to 1878...
, poet