# 1926 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1926.

## Events

* February 8 – Seán O'Casey's play The Plough and the Stars opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. At the February 11 performance there is a near-riot: one audience member strikes an actress.
* February 12 – The Irish Free State Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints a Committee on Evil Literature.
* February 26 – The future English novelist Graham Greene is received into the Catholic Church.
* April 1 – Hugo Gernsback launches his pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories in the United States.
* May 11 – C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien first meet in Oxford.
* October 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The White Guard (Белая гвардия), partly serialized in Rossiya before the magazine's suppression earlier in the year, opens as a dramatic adaptation, The Days of the Turbins, at the Moscow Art Theatre. It is enjoyed by Stalin.
* October 14 – The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne first appears, published by Methuen in London.
* December 3 – The English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey. On December 14 she is found at a Harrogate hotel by the journalist Ritchie Calder, staying under her husband's mistress's surname.
* December – Thomas Mann begins writing Die Geschichten Jaakobs in Munich, first of the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder), on which he will work until January 1943.
* unknown dates
** Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac establish the Théatre Alfred-Jarry in Paris to produce surrealist drama.
** The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont.
** Vsevolod Meyerhold stages an expressionistic production of Gogol's satirical comedy The Government Inspector (Ревизор, 1836) in Moscow.
** Margaret Mitchell begins the novel Gone with the Wind, which will appear 1936.
** The remains of the English poet Isaac Rosenberg (killed in battle in 1918) are re-interred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, Plot V, St. Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.
** Peter Llewelyn Davies establishes the London publishing house Peter Davies Ltd.

## New books
### Fiction

* Ion Agârbiceanu – Legea trupului
* Marcel Arland – Monique
* Roberto Arlt – Mad Toy (El juguete rabioso)
* Isaac Babel – Red Cavalry («Конармия», short stories)
* Henry Bellamann – Petenera's Daughter
* Anthony Berkeley – The Wychford Poisoning Case
* Louis Bromfield – Early Autumn
* Edgar Rice Burroughs – The Moon Maid
* Willa Cather – My Mortal Enemy
* Marjorie Bowen – Mistress Nell Gwynne
* G. K. Chesterton – The Incredulity of Father Brown
* Agatha Christie – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
* J.J. Connington
** The Dangerfield Talisman
** Death at Swaythling Court
* Freeman Wills Crofts – The Cheyne Mystery
* James R. Crowell and Samuel C. Hildreth – The Spell of the Turf
* Ramón del Valle-Inclán – Tirano Banderas: novela de tierra caliente (Tyrant Banderas)
* Arthur Conan Doyle – The Land of Mist
* Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – Number 17
* William Faulkner – Soldiers' Pay
* Ronald Firbank – Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli
* F. Scott Fitzgerald – All the Sad Young Men
* Ford Madox Ford – A Man Could Stand Up (third book of the four-volume Parade's End)
* C. S. Forester – Payment Deferred
* Dion Fortune – The Secrets of Dr. Taverner
* Zona Gale – Preface to Life
* Hugo Gernsback – Ralph 124C 41+ (in book form)
* Ellen Glasgow – The Romantic Comedians
* Ricardo Güiraldes – Don Segundo Sombra
* H. Rider Haggard – The Treasure of the Lake
* Ernest Hemingway
** The Sun Also Rises
** The Torrents of Spring
* Harold Heslop – Pod vlastu uglya (Under the Sway of Coal, translation of Goaf)
* Georgette Heyer – These Old Shades
* Sydney Horler – The House of Secrets
* Mikheil Javakhishvili – The White Collar (თეთრი საყელო, Tetri sakelo)
* Franz Kafka – The Castle
* Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成) – "The Dancing Girl of Izu" (伊豆の踊子, "Izu no odoriko", short story)
* D. H. Lawrence – The Plumed Serpent
* Marie Belloc Lowndes – What Really Happened
* Agnes Mure Mackenzie – The Quiet Lady
* Compton Mackenzie – Fairy Gold
* Hope Mirrlees – Lud-in-the-Mist
* George Moore – Ulich and Soracha
* Vladimir Nabokov (as V. Sirin) – Mary («Машенька», Mashen'ka)
* Carola Oman – King Heart
* E. Phillips Oppenheim
** The Golden Beast
** Prodigals of Monte Carlo
* Baroness Orczy – The Celestial City
* Cassiano Ricardo – Vamos caçar papagaios
* Grigol Robakidze – The Snake's Skin (გველის პერანგი)
* Sagitta (John Henry Mackay) – Der Puppenjunge (The Pansy; in English as The Hustler)
* Marquis de Sade – Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man
* Dorothy L. Sayers – Clouds of Witness
* Arthur Schnitzler – Dream Story (Traumnovelle)
* Thorne Smith – Topper (aka The Jovial Ghosts)
* Cecil Street – Dr. Priestley's Quest
* A. H. Tammsaare – Tõde ja Õigus (Truth and Justice, begins publication)
* Sylvia Thompson – The Hounds of Spring
* B. Traven – The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff)
* S. S. Van Dine – The Benson Murder Case (the first Philo Vance mystery)
* Henry Wade – The Verdict of You All
* Edgar Wallace
** The Avenger
** Barbara on Her Own
** The Northing Tramp
** The Terrible People
** The Yellow Snake
* Sylvia Townsend Warner – Lolly Willowes
* H. G. Wells – The World of William Clissold
* Walter F. White – Flight
* Monteiro Lobato — O Presidente Negro

### Children and young people

* Angela Brazil – Joan's Best Chum
* Will James – Smoky the Cowhorse
* A. A. Milne – Winnie-the-Pooh
* Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Hungry Tiger of Oz (20th in the Oz series overall and the sixth written by her)

### Drama

* Dorothy Brandon – Blind Alley
* Bertolt Brecht – Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann)
* Mikhail Bulgakov – The Days of the Turbins («Дни Турбиных»)
* G. D. H. Cole – The Striker Stricken
* St. John Greer Ervine – Anthony and Anna
* J. B. Fagan – And So To Bed
* Joseph Jefferson Farjeon – After Dark
* John Galsworthy – Escape
* Patrick Hastings – Scotch Mist
* Zora Neale Hurston – Color Struck (published)
* Seán O'Casey – The Plough and the Stars
* Eden Phillpotts – Blue Comet
* Ben Travers – Rookery Nook
* Sergei Tretyakov – I Want a Baby («Хочу ребёнка»)

### Poetry

* Mário de Andrade – Losango cáqui
* Langston Hughes – The Weary Blues
* Robert McAlmon – The Portrait of a Generation
* Hugh MacDiarmid – A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
* Dorothy Parker – Enough Rope
* Vita Sackville-West – The Land

### Non-fiction

* Germán List Arzubide – El movimiento estridentista
* Benedictine Vulgate (begins publication)
* Angela Brazil – My Own Schooldays
* Arthur Conan Doyle – The History of Spiritualism
* H. Rider Haggard – The Days of My Life
* T. E. Lawrence – Seven Pillars of Wisdom
* Otto Schmidt (chief editor) – Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Большая советская энциклопедия, Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya; begins publication)
* Dan Simonescu – Încercări istorico-literare (Literary and Historical Essays)
* R. H. Tawney – Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
* Helen Thomas – As It Was
* W. B. Yeats – Autobiographies
* Paul Zarifopol – Din registrul ideilor gingașe (A Register of Tender Ideas)
* Alfred Eckhard Zimmern – The Third British Empire

## Births

* January 5 – W. D. Snodgrass, American poet (died 2009)
* January 12 – Shumon Miura, Japanese novelist (died 2017)
* January 13 – Michael Bond, English fiction writer and creator of Paddington Bear (died 2017)
* January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
* January 27 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian-born musician and writer (died 2003)
* February 3 – Richard Yates, American novelist (died 1992)
* February 8 – Neal Cassady, American writer and poet (died 1968)
* February 20 – Richard Matheson, American science fiction writer (died 2013)
* March 3 – James Merrill, American poet (died 1995)
* March 7 – Chemmanam Chacko, Indian poet (died 2018)
* March 24 – Dario Fo, Italian dramatist and actor (died 2016)
* March 27 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (died 1966)
* March 31 – John Fowles, English novelist (died 2005)
* April 3 – Luís de Sttau Monteiro, Portuguese novelist and dramatist (died 1993)
* April 12 – Khozh-Akhmed Bersanov, Chechen ethnographer (died 2018)
* April 13 – Egon Wolff, Chilean dramatist (died 2016)
* April 23
** J. P. Donleavy, Irish American novelist (died 2017)
** Éva Janikovszky, Hungarian novelist and children's writer (died 2003)
* April 28 – Harper Lee, American novelist (died 2016)
* April 30 – Edmund Cooper, British poet and author (died 1982)
* May 15 – English twins
** Anthony Shaffer, dramatist and screenwriter (died 2001)
** Peter Shaffer, dramatist (died 2016)
* May 21 – Robert Creeley, American author (died 2005)
* June 3 – Allen Ginsberg, American Beat Generation poet (died 1997)
* June 4 – Ain Kaalep, Estonian poet, playwright and critic (died 2020)
* June 13
** Kanam EJ, Malayalam novelist and lyricist (died 1982)
** Dalmiro Sáenz, Argentinian writer (died 2016)
* June 19 – Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Italian publisher (died 1972)
* July 7 – Spencer Holst, American writer and storyteller (died 2001)
* July 11 – Frederick Buechner, American author and minister (died 2022)
* July 18 – Elizabeth Jennings, English poet (died 2001)
* August 6 – Elisabeth Beresford, English children's author (died 2010)
* August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
* August 13 – Roy Heath, Guyanese novelist (died 2008)
* August 14
** Alice Adams, American short story writer (died 1999)
** René Goscinny, French writer and co-creator of Astérix (died 1977)
* September 3 – Alison Lurie, American novelist and academic (died 2020)
* September 6 – Clancy Sigal, American writer (died 2017)
* September 14 – Michel Butor, French writer (died 2016)
* September 16 – John Knowles, American novelist (died 2001)
* October 2 – Jan Morris, born James Morris, Anglo-Welsh historian and travel writer (died 2020)
* October 15 – Evan Hunter, American author and screenwriter (died 2005)
* November 5 – John Berger, English art critic and novelist (died 2017)
* November 11
** José Manuel Caballero, Spanish novelist and poet (died 2021)
** Harold Perkin, English social historian (died 2004)
* November 19 – Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright (died 2011)
* November 20 – John Gardner, English thriller writer (died 2007)
* November 25 – Poul Anderson, American science fiction writer (died 2001)
* December 23 – Robert Bly, American writer (died 2021)

## Deaths

* January 14
** René Boylesve, French author (born 1867)
** August Sedláček, Czech historian (born 1843)
* January 26 – Bucura Dumbravă, Romanian novelist and spiritualist (malaria, born 1868)
* February 1 – Ishibashi Ningetsu (石橋 忍月), Japanese author and critic (born 1865)
* February 6 – Wolf Wilhelm Friedrich von Baudissin, German theologian (born 1847)
* February 12 – Radu Rosetti, Romanian politician, historical novelist and memoirist (born 1853)
* March 3 – Sir Sidney Lee, English biographer (born 1859)
* May 9 – J. M. Dent, English publisher (born 1849)
* May 21 – Ronald Firbank, English novelist (born 1886)
* May 23 – Sigrid Elmblad, Swedish author and translator (born 1860)
* May 26 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian Expressionist poet (meningitis, born 1904)
* June 27 – Addie C. Strong Engle, American author and publisher (born 1845)
* July 8 – Karel Václav Rais, Czech realist novelist (born 1859)
* July 11 – Fran Detela, Slovenian academic and writer (born 1850)
* July 14 – Elisabeth Cavazza, American author, journalist, and music critic (born 1849)
* July 19 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (born 1844)
* July 22 – John Burland Harris-Burland, British writer (born 1870)
* August 1 – Israel Zangwill, English poet (born 1864)
* October 5 – Javier de Viana, Uruguayan writer (born 1868)
* October 9 – Helena Nyblom, Danish-born poet and writer of fairy tales (born 1843)
* October 11 – Albert Robida, French illustrator and novelist (born 1848)
* November 10 – Lyubov Dostoyevskaya, Russian memoirist (born 1869)
* December 8 – Sarah Doudney, English novelist, children's writer and hymnist (born 1841)
* December 12 – Jean Richepin, French poet, dramatist and novelist (born 1849)
* December 29 – Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet (born 1875)
* unknown date
** Emma Whitcomb Babcock, American litterateur and author (born 1849)
** Susanne Vandegrift Moore, American editor and publisher (born 1848)

## Awards

* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Radclyffe Hall, Adam's Breed
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Herbert Brook Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Arthur Bowie Chrisman, Shen of the Sea
* Nobel Prize for Literature: Grazia Deledda
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: George Kelly, Craig's Wife
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Amy Lowell, What's O'Clock
* Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
* Blindman International Poetry Prize: Ruth Manning-Sanders, The City