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Early Literature

Early Literature (1500-)

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The art of the written word.
Timeline
    1340  CEGeoffrey Chaucer (circa 1340/43-1400), English poet, the son of John Chaucer, a vintner, was born in London. He later begins the literary tradition with his Canterbury Tales.
c.    1392  CESir Jean Froissart authored 'The Chronicles of England, France and Scotland'.
 25 Oct 1400  CEAuthor Geoffrey Chaucer died in London. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
c.    1500  CE(Between 1500-1600) 'Hsi Yu Chi' was a 16th century Chinese novel based on the account of a 7th century monk, Tripitaka, who traveled to India for 16 years for Buddhist scriptures.
    1500  CEDesiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist scholar, published his 'Adagia'.
c.    1500  CE(Between 1500-1600) The first Russian book printed was the 15th century 'Apostle'.
    1509  CEErasmus lectured at Cambridge and dedicated his 'In Praise of Folly', a witty satire on church corruption and scholastic philosophy, to Thomas More.
    1509  CESebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools', a satire first published in 1494, appeared in an English version by Alexander Barclay.
c.    1510  CEAlexander Barcley wrote his long poetic essay on the 'Miseries of Courtiers'. It described the psychology of feasting.
    1513  CENiccolo Machiavelli wrote 'The Prince' in which he gave reasons for the rise and fall of states. It was not published until 1532. He justified the ruthless subjection of religion and morality to politics.
    1515  CEAlexander Barclay began composing his 'Eclogues', the earliest pastoral poems in English.
    1516  CEThomas More published his 'Utopia', the 'golden little book' that invented a literary-world immune from the evils of Europe, where all citizens were equal and believed in a good and just God.
    1519  CEGil Vicente, Portuguese dramatist, wrote a second farce, 'The Ship of Heaven'.
    1520  CEThe book 'Prester John of the Indies' was written. It was translated in 1810. Later Robert Silverberg wrote: 'The Realm of Prester John' and John Buchanon wrote 'Prester John'. In 1952 the French work 'Le Pretre Jean' was written.  
    1520  CEKing Francis founded the Royal Library of France at Fountainebleu.
    1524  CEPierre de Ronsard (1524-1585), was born. He established the use of the vernacular in French verse.
    1527  CEMachiavelli, Italian writer, author of 'The Prince', died. 'When the effect is good... it will always excuse the deed'.
    1528  CEBaldassare Castiglione published 'Il Libro del Cortegiano', an exhaustive study of etiquette and court life that was read and copied throughout Europe.  
    1530  CEBrunfels published 'Herbarium Vivae Eicones' which was the first newly written and printed botanical book.
    1531  CEDesiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and scholar, published the first complete edition of Aristotle's works.
    1531  CEAndrea Alciati published the 'Emblemata', the first and most influential emblem book.  
    1532  CEFrancois Rabelais, French satirist, published 'Pantagruel', a grotesque and humorous satire on almost every aspect of contemporary religion and culture.
    1532  CELudovico Ariosto, Italian Renaissance poet, published the third and last edition of his epic poem, Orlando Furioso. This skeptical and humorous work about legendary chivalry later influenced the writing of Edmund Spenser and Miguel de Cervantes.
    1535  CERabelais published the second edition of 'Gargantua'. It was published after Pantagruel even though it was the first part of the two part work.  
    1537  CEGerhardus Mercator, Flemish geographer, established a business as globe and map maker.
    1537  CEThe complete works of Cicero, 'Opera Omnia', was published in Venice in four volumes.
    1545  CEBenvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith, wrote his autobiography.
    1545  CEConrad von Gesner, Swiss naturalist, published the first volume of his 'Bibliotheca Universalis', a catalogue of all the writers who ever lived.
    1546  CEThe Farnese Hours manuscript was illuminated by Giulio Clovio.  
 23 Apr 1547  CEMiguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, was born. 
    1549  CELa Pleiade, a group of 7 French poets, established the Alexandrine metre of a 12-syllable line. Pierre de Ronsard was in the group.
    1549  CEGiorgio Vasari wrote the first biography of Leonardo da Vinci.  
    1550  CEGiorgio Vasari, Italian architect and painter, published his definitive 'Lives of the Artists', and founded the Fine Arts Academy in Florence.
    1550  CEWilliam Shakespeare (1550-1615) was born in England and authored about thirty-five plays.
    1552  CE(1552-1599) Edmund Spencer, helped establish the form of modern English in literature.
    1552  CEEtienne Jodelle, French dramatist, completed his 'Cleopatre Captive', the first French neoclassical tragedy.
    1553  CEVirgil's 'Aeniad' was translated into English for the first time.
    1553  CEPierre Belon, French naturalist and traveler, wrote 'Les Observations de Plusieurs Singularitez et Choses Memorables'. It included an account of Turkish fruit sorbets.
    1553  CEChristopher Tye composed 'The Acts of the Apostles'.
 30 Nov 1554  CESir Philip Sidney, poet, was born.  
    1554  CEJorg Wickram, German writer, wrote the first German romance novel: 'Der Goldfaden'.
    1554  CEPalladio wrote 'L'Antichita', a guidebook to Roman antiquities.
    1554  CEPalestrina composed his first book of Masses.
    1555  CETung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636), painter and master of calligraphy, was born. He also mastered the play of void and presence at the heart of Chinese ink painting.
    1555  CEPierre Belon, French naturalist, published the first comprehensive study of birds in 'L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux'.
    1555  CEThe first Aztec dictionary was published.
    1555  CEGuillaume Rondelet wrote a classic taxonomy of fishes. His categories, based on general shape and habitation, precluded any deep insight into a genealogical basis of historical order.
    1558  CEGiovanni Battista della Porta, Italian artist, published his 'Natural Magic', the first published account of the use of the camera obscura as an aid to artists.
    1558  CEJohn Knox published his 'The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'.  
    1560  CEHsu Wei wrote the first classic Chinese novel, 'Ching Ping Mei'.
    1562  CEWilliam Turner published a survey of spas in Europe.
    1563  CEGerardus Mercator, Flemish geographer, produced the first detailed map of Lorraine.
    1563  CEFoxe's 'Book of Martyrs' appeared in its first illustrated English edition.
 26 Apr 1564  CEWilliam Shakespeare was baptized.
    1564  CEChristopher Marlowe, dramatist and author of 'Dr Faustus', was baptized.
    1565  CEPencils were invented and first manufactured in England.
    1566  CEOne of the world's first newspapers, 'Notizie Scritte', appeared in Venice.
  5 Sep 1568  CETommasso Campanella (1568-?), Italian philosopher and poet, who wrote 'City of the Sun', was born.
    1569  CEAlfonso de Ercilla y Zuniga published about this time the first part of a Spanish epic on the conquest of Chile, 'La Araucana'.
    1570  CEEgidius Coppens publishes Abraham Ortelius' 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum'.
    1570  CEThe Scholemaster', a treatise on education by the English scholar Roger Ascham, was published posthumously.
    1572  CEBen Jonson (1572-1637), English dramatist and poet, was born: 'Very few men are wise by their own counsel; or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself, had a fool to his master'.
    1572  CELuis Vaz de Camoes, Portuguese poet, published his epic poem about Vasco da Gama's voyages: 'Os Lusiadas'.
    1574  CEJustus Lipsius, Flemish scholar, edited 'The Histories and The Annals of Tacitus'.
    1575  CETorquatto Tasso, Italian poet, wrote 'Jerusalem Liberated', an epic of the First Crusade.
    1576  CEJean Bodin, French political theorist, published his Six Books of the Commonwealth, wherein he argues that the basis of any society is the family.
    1577  CERobert Burton (1577-1640), English author, was born.
    1577  CERaphael Holinshed published his 'Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland'.
    1578  CEJohn Lely, English dramatist and novelist, began 'Eupheus, the Anatomy of Wit', an early novel of manners.
    1579  CEThe biographies of noble Greeks and Romans of the first and second centuries AD, 'Plutarch's Lives', were translated into English from the French.
    1580  CEMichel de Montaigne, French scholar and nobleman, wrote his personal essays entitled 'essais'.
 18 Jun 1581  CESir Thomas Overbury, English poet and courtier who became involved in numerous scandals in London, was born.
    1582  CESir Philip Sidney completed his collection of sonnets on one theme, 'Astrophil and Stella'. He also wrote his 'Defense of Poetry' about this time.
    1582  CERichard Hakluyt, English clergyman and geographer, wrote 'Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America'.
    1587  CEA collection of stories about the ancient magi appeared. These stories had been retold during the Middle Ages about such reputed wizards as Merlin, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon. 
    1587  CEJohann Spies completed the 'Historia von D. Johann Fausten', the first published version of the Faust legend.  
    1588  CEThe first shorthand manual, 'An Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character', was published by English clergyman Timothy Bright.
    1588  CESir Robert Filmer (1588-1653), author of 'Patriarcha', a vindication of the absolute right of kingship, was born. The book was used in the 1670s to shore up proponents for the so-called divine right of kings.  
    1589  CEThomas Nashe, English satirical pamphleteer and dramatist, wrote 'Anatomie of Absurdities', a criticism of contemporary literature.
    1589  CERichard Hakluyt wrote the 'Principle Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation'.
 
  1589  CEThoinot Arbeau published 'Orchesographie', an early treatise on dancing, with tunes.
 
 
  1593  CEGeorge Herbert (1593-1633), English author, was born.
 
 
  1593  CEIzaak Walton (1593-1683), English writer, was born.
 
 
21 Feb 1595  CEThe Jesuit poet Robert Southwell was hanged for 'treason' being a Catholic.
 
 
31 Mar 1596  CERene Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher, was born in La Haye, France, and died in Sweden.
 
 
  1596  CE(Between 1596-1597) Shakespeare wrote his tragedy 'King John'.
 
 
  1599  CECanon Mikalojus Dauksa published his 'Postille Catholicka' in Vilnius. He was the first author of Lithuanian Proper.
 
 
  1604  CEChristopher Marlowe, English writer, published his version of the 'Tragical History of Dr. Faustus'.
 
 
  1605  CEBacon published his 'Advancement of Learning'.
 
 
  1606  CEShakespeare wrote the tragedy 'King Lear', 'Antony and Cleopatra' and 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.
 
 
  1608  CEWilliam Shakespeare wrote his play 'Pericles'. It was about a prince who journeys through evil kingdoms until he meets his bride and then loses her at sea.
 
 
  1612  CEAnne Bradstreet (1612-1672), American poet, was born.
 
 
  1613  CEKhushhal Khan Khattak (1613-1689), an Afghan warrior-poet, was born. He initiated a national uprising against the foreign Moghul government.
 
 
  1613  CEFrancois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), French author, was born.
 
 
  1614  CEJohn Webster, English playwright, wrote his play 'The Duchess of Malfi'. It is a 'Jacobean melodrama set in an Italy that was viewed as a hotbed of sexual and political depravity'.
 
 
  1614  CECrispijn de Passe the Younger published 'Hortus Floridus' in Holland.
 
 
23 Apr 1616  CEThe Spanish poet Cervantes died in Madrid.
 
 
  1619  CECyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655), French poet, was born. His radical writings prefigured Voltaire and Diderot. His noted nose was an invention of the poet Theophile Gautier introduced in an 1844 book. Edmond Rostand's play on Cyrano was unveiled in 1897.
 
 
  1620  CEJohn Evelyn (1620-1706) was born. He was a meditative and sententious English diarist.
 
 
8 Jul 1621  CEJean La Fontaine, poet and author of Fables, was born.
 
 
  1622  CEThomas Middleton and William Rowley wrote the Jacobean tragedy 'The Changeling'.
 
 
  1623  CEBen Jonson, playwright, wrote his poem Shakespeare 'Sweet Swan of Avon'.
 
 
  1625  CEJohn Donne, English poet, wrote his 'Westmoreland Manuscript'
 
 
28 Nov 1628  CEJohn Bunyan, English preacher and writer who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, was born.
 
 
  1630  CEUS Governor John Winthrop begins 'History of New England'.
 
 
9 Aug 1631  CEJohn Dryden, poet laureate of Great Britain from 1668-1700 , was born.
 
 
  1631  CEBarker and Lucas, the king's printers at Blackfriars were fined 300 pounds for their bible misprint that omitted 'not' from the 7th commandment. The fine helped to ruin the printer. The edition was called 'The Wicked Bible'. A list of variant bible editions due to misprints is in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
 
 
29 Aug 1632  CEEnglish philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset, England. The philosopher of liberalism influenced the American founding fathers and was famous for his treatise 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'.
 
 
  1632  CEBaruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Dutch philosopher, was born.
 
 
  1634  CEThe Academie Francaise was established by Cardinal Richelieu. Its task was to preserve the purity of the French language, which included maintaining a dictionary. Members came to be known as the 'immortals' and by 1998 they were struggling to with masculine nouns of positions held by women who desired feminine endings.
 
 
  1637  CEA King James version of the Bible was printed with only 14 known copies made.
 
 
  1637  CEDescartes wrote 'To solve any problem, it is helpful to divide the question into a set, or series, of smaller problems, and solve each one in turn' in 'Discourse on Method'.
 
 
  1639  CEThe Academie Francaise begins the Dictionary of the French Language.
 
 
  1639  CEDescartes published his 'Discourse on Method'. It is here that his famous statement 'I doubt; therefore I am', was expounded. His Discourse was placed by Catholic theologians on the Index of forbidden books.
 
 
  1641  CE(Between 1641-1642) Descartes published 'Meditationes de prima philosophia, in quibus Dei Existentia et animae humanae a corpore distinctio demonstrantur'.
 
 
  1644  CE'Principia Philosophiae' by Rene Descartes was published in Amsterdam.
 
 
  1644  CEBasho Matsuo (1644-1694), Japanese poet, was born. His work include 'The Narrow Road'. One of his poems celebrated the entrancing cry of the cicada. wa
 
 
16 Aug 1645  CEJean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work 'Characters of Theophratus', was born.
 
 
  1647  CEGian Francesca Abela, vice-chancellor of the Knights of St. John and the father of Maltese historiography, authored 'Descrittione di Malta'. His antiquities, willed to the College of Jesuit Fathers in Valetta, later formed the nucleus of Malta's National Museum of Archeology.
 
 
  1647  CEThe birth of John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, poet, scandalous pornographer and bawdy playwright.
 
 
  1647  CEPierre Bayle (1647-1706), French philosopher and critic, was born. He authored the 'Historical and Critical Dictionary'. 'If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history'.
 
 
  1647  CEPietro della Valle first published an illustration of a cuneiform inscription.  
 
 
1 Sep 1649  CEDescartes departed Amsterdam to go to Sweden at the invitation of Queen Kristina.
 
 
  1649  CEDescartes published 'Traite des passions de l'ame' in Paris.
 
 
  1650  CELeipzig has a daily newspaper.
 
 
  1653  CEIzaak Walton wrote 'The Compleat Angler'.  
 
 
  1660  CEThe first entry in Samuel Pepys' diary.
 
 
  1660  CEDaniel Defoe (1660-1731), English novelist and political journalist, was born. He was born as Daniel Foe and became a successful merchant in woolen goods.
 
 
  1664  CEMoliere wrote Tartuffe, his satire on holier-than-thou hypocrites and their fatuous dupes.  
 
 
  1664  CEThe Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher wrote the 'Mundus subterraneus'.
 
 
7 Nov 1665  CEThe London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, was first published.
 
 
20 Aug 1667  CEJohn Milton published 'Paradise Lost', an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
 
 
8 May 1668  CEAlain Rene Lesage, French novelist and dramatist, was born. He is best known for his works 'The Adventures of Gil Blas' and 'Turcaret'.
 
 
  1670  CEJohn Ray printed a book of aphorisms such as: 'Blood is thicker than water..'. and 'Haste makes waste'.  
 
 
  1672  CEJoseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist and poet, was born.
 
 
20 Jun 1674  CENicholas Rowe, poet laureate of England, was born.
 
 
  1682  CEThomas Otway wrote his Restoration tragedy 'Venice Preserv'd'.
 
 
13 Jul 1683  CEEdward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic, was born. He wrote 'Night Thoughts'.
 
 
  1685  CESylvestre Dufour published 'Traitez Nuveaux et Curieux de Cafe, du The, et du Chocolat'.
 
 
  1688  CEAlexander Pope (1688-1744), English poet, was born.
 
 
  1688  CEJoseph de la Vega published his work 'Confusion de Confusiones'. It offered trading strategies to speculators and was built around a conversation between a merchant, a philosopher, and a shareholder. The book was republished in 1996.  
 
 
  1689  CEMemorable Providences, Related to Witchcrafts and Possessions', published by Cotton Mather, contributed to the hysteria that led to the Salem witch trials of 1692.
 
 
  1689  CEJohn Locke returned to England with his two Treatises which were published late in the same year. He also published his letter on Toleration, in opposition to the strong religious intolerance then prevalent.
 
 
  1689  CECharles Louis de Montesquieu (1689-1755), French philosopher, was born.
 
 
  1689  CERacine wrote a drama based on the Book of Esther. It tells the biblical story of how Esther, the Jewish daughter of Mordecai, is persuaded by her father to intervene on behalf of the Jews to her husband, King Ahaseurus of Persia, who has been persuaded by his lieutenant, Haman, to have all the Jews killed
 
 
  1690  CEGiuseppe Ghezzi found the Codex Leicester, a notebook of Leonardo da Vinci in Rome. It was primarily a treatise on the nature of water in all its properties, manifestations and uses.
 
 
22 Sep 1694  CEPhilip Dormer Stanhope, statesman of letters whose writings provide a classic portrayal of an ideal 18th-century gentleman, was born.
 
 
  1694  CELord Chesterfield (1694-1773), English author and statesman, was born.
 
 
  1696  CEDuke Eberhard Ludwig of Wurttemberg, Germany, learned of Eberhard Gockel's findings on lead poisoning in wine and banned all lead-based wine additives.
 
 
  1697  CEEberhard Gockel published: 'A Remarkable Account of the Previously Unknown Wine Disease'.
 
 
  1709  CEScottish sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a Fernandez Island for 5 years. His story inspires the Daniel DeFoe desert island novel 'Robinson Crusoe'.
 
 
  1710  CEIrish philosopher, George Berkeley (1685-1753) describes an idealist philosophy against materialism.
 
 
  1714  CERichard Steele publishes 'The Crisis', defending Hanoverian success. 
 
 
  1732  CEBenjamin Franklin begins publication of 'Poor Richard's Almanack'.
 
 
  1749  CEThe first edition of Henry Fieldings' 'Tom Jones' is published. 
 
 
  1755  CESamuel Johnson publishes 'Dictionary of the English Language'.
 
 
  1758  CEFrancis Williams, the first US black college graduate, publishes his poems.
 
 
  1760  CEJean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788) publishes the Social Contract.
 
 
  1760  CEJuptier Hammon, New York slave, publishes poetry in 'An Evening Thought'.
 
 
  1762  CEThe Sorbonne Library first opens in Paris.
 
 
  1763  CESamuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London.
 
 
  1764  CEThe London Literary Club is founded.
 
 
  1764  CEGerman historian Johann Winckelmann publishes his 'History of the Art of Antiquity'.
 
 
  1764  CEThomas Chatterton writes the Rowley poems at the age of 12. 
 
 
  1765  CEHorace Walpole publishes his Gothic novel 'The Castle of Otranto'.
 
 
  1768  CEThe first edition of 'Encyclopedia Brittanica' is published in Scotland.
 
 
  1768  CEThe first weekly numbers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica are issued. 
 
 
  1773  CEThe work 'She Stoops to Conquer' is written by Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith.
 
 
  1773  CEBenjamin Franklin writes 'There never was a good war or bad peace'.
 
 
23 Apr 1775  CEJoseph Mallord William Turner, often called 'the painter of light', as well as 'the great pyrotechnist', was born in London, England, at his parents home on 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.
 
 
14 Feb 1776  CEThomas Paine wites 'Common Sense'.
 
 
23 Dec 1776  CEThomas Paine publishes his first 'American Crisis' essay.
 
 
  1776  CEThe first volume of Gibbon's 'Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire' published. 
 
 
  1780  CESteel pen points begin to replace quill feathers.
 
 
  1780  CEThe first British Sunday newspaper appears, the British Gazette & Sunday Monitor.
 
 
  1781  CEThe first edition of Pieter It Hoen's 'Post of Neder-Rhijn' is published. 
 
 
  1783  CEBenjamin Tower of Philadelphia publishes first daily newspaper in US.
 
 
  1789  CEThe first American novel, WH Brown's 'The Power of Sympathy', is published.
 
 
  1798  CERussia appoints first Jewish censor to censor Hebrew books.
 
 
  1808  CEGoethe completed 'Faust' his great philosophical verse drama.
 
 
  1811  CEThe Jane Austin novel Sense and Sensibility was published in England.
 
 
  1814  CELord Byron's 'The Corsair' sells 10,000 copies on the day of publication.
 
 
  1814  CEStendahl's first book is published. 
 
 
  1817  CEPoems by John Keats published in England.
 
 
  1818  CEGerman philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer set out his pessimistic but influential world view in 'The World as Will and Idea'
 
 
  1818  CEGothic horror story 'Frankenstein' is published by English novellist Mary Shelley.
 
 
  1818  CEKeats writes his poem 'On a Lock of Milton's Hair'.
 
 
  1822  CEEnglish poet Percy Bysshe Shelley dies from drowning in Italy.
 
 
  1828  CENoah Webster publishes first American dictionary.
 
 
  1829  CEFrench novelist Balzac has first success with 'La Physiologie du Marriage'.
 
 
  1830  CEOliver Wendell Holmes publishes 'Old Ironsides'. 
 
 
  1836  CECharles Dickens published the first number of the 'Pickwick Papers' called 'Sketches by Boz'.
 
 
  1836  CESketches by Boz (essays) are published by Charles Dickens.
 
 
  1841  CEEdgar Allan Poe's 'Murders in the Rue Morgue', the first detective story, is published. 
 
 
  1843  CECharles Dickens publishes 'A Christmas Carol', in England.
 
 
  1845  CEDomingo Sarmiento publishes 'Civilizacion y Barbarie'. 
 
 
  1845  CEIn New York City, Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven' is first published.
 
 
  1845  CEPoets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning begin corresponding. 
 
 
  1846  CEElizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope.
 
 
  1846  CEThe first edition of Charles Dickens' the 'Daily News'.
 
 
  1847  CECharlotte Bronte published 'Jane Eyre' in England.
 
 
  1847  CEEmily Bronte published 'Wuthering Heights' in England.
 
 
  1850  CEAlfred Lord Tennyson was made British poet laureate.
 
 
  1851  CEThe novel 'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville was published. 
 
 
  1852  CEHarriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published in Boston.
 
 
  1852  CEThe first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus is published. 
 
 
  1854  CEAstor Library opens in New York City.
 
 
  1854  CELord Tennyson's poem, 'Charge of the Light Brigade', published.
 
 
  1855  CEUS poet Walt Whitman published the first version of his 'Leaves of Grass'.
 
 
  1857  CEFrench novellist Gustave Falubert first published 'Madame Bovary' in France.
 
 
  1858  CEWilliam Wells Brown published the first Black drama, 'Leap to Freedom'.
 
 
  1859  CEEnglish philosopher John Stuart Mill published the classic defence of liberalism 'On Liberty'.
 
 
  1859  CEEdward Fitzgerald published his tranlation of 'The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' from Persian (Iranian).
 
 
  1860  CEE. Douwes Dekker published his novel 'Max Havelaar' under a pseudonym revealing the inhumane treatment of native workers in Dutch East Indian colonies.
 
 
  1862  CERussian writer Ivan Turgenev's novel 'Fathers and Sons' was published.
 
 
  1862  CEVictor Hugo's novel 'Les Miserables' dramatically highlighted social problems in France.
 
 
  1863  CERussian novelist Leo Tolstoy began writing 'War and Peace'.
 
 
  1863  CESamuel Clemens becomes 'Mark Twain' for the first time.
 
 
  1865  CELewis Caroll's clasic children's story 'Alices Adventures in Wonderland' was published in the UK.
 
 
  1865  CEMark Twain publishes 'Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'.
 
 
  1866  CERussian novelist Fyador Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' was published.
 
 
  1867  CEThe first volume of 'Das Kapital' was published by Karl Marx.
 
 
  1870  CEMark Twain, 34, marries Olivia Langdon in Elmira New York.
 
 
  1884  CEThe first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, 'A-Ant', is published.
 
 
  1887  CEThe first US public reading of a Charles Dickens book in New York.
 
 
  1890  CEThe first US edition of Sherlock Holmes, 'Study in Scarlet', is published.
 
 
  1896  CEFanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook.
 
 
  1905  CEFrench newspapers publish lists of Jules Vernes' unpublished work.
 
 
  1907  CEThe Nobel prize for Litertaure is awarded to Rudyard Kipling.
 
 
  1909  CEItalian writer Marinetti publishes Futurist Manifest in Paris.
 
 
  1911  CEL D Swamikannu publishes the 'Manual of Indian Chronology' in Bombay.
 
 
  1912  CEEdgar Rice Burroughs' publishes 'Tarzan'. 
 
 
  1915  CEThe work 'Of Human Bondage', by William Somerset Maugham, is published. 
 
 
  1921  CELittle Review faces obscenity charges for publishing 'Ulysses' in New York.
 
 
  1922  CEJames Joyce's 'Ulysses' is published in Paris. 1,000 copies were first printed.
 
 
  1922  CEThe Reader's Digest magazine is first published. 
 
 
  1929  CEErich Maria Remarques publishes 'Im West nieces Neues' in Berlin.
 
 
  1950  CEDutch poet Gerrit Achterberg wins PC Hooft prize.
 
 
  1950  CEGwendolyn Brooks, is the first Black person awarded a Pulitzer Prize (for poetry).
 
 
  1960  CEDH Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' ruled not obscene in New York.
 
 
  1960  CEIn Britain, the News Chronicle & Daily Mail merge, & The London Evening Star merges with the Evening News
 
 
  1960  CEUS appeals court rules novel, 'Lady Chatterly's Lover', is not obscene.
 
 
  1962  CEAmerican author John Steinbeck awarded Nobel Prize in literature.
 
 
14 Feb 1989  CEIran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of 'The Satanic Verses', a novel condemned as blasphemous.
 
 
Note 1: Events described with text like this have been entered from one source but have not yet been verified against a subsequent source ( Explain ).
Note 2: The events are sorted in semi-chronological order according to what is factually known about the date of the event ( Explain ).
Note 3: Events with more information are marked as follows:
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Has geographic locations associated with this event Has geographic locations associated with this event,
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Has external links associated with the geographic location Has external links associated with the geographic location of this event,
Has external links specifically assocated with this event Has external links specifically assocated with this event.
 
     
 
 
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