1929 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of **1929**.

## Events

* January 10 – *The Adventures of Tintin* begin with the first appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero in *Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets)*, serialized in the children's newspaper supplement *Le Petit Vingtième*.
* February–August – Voltaire's *Candide* (1759) is held to be obscene by the United States Customs Service in Boston.
* February – The first of Margery Allingham's crime novels to feature Albert Campion, *The Crime at Black Dudley* (U.S. title: *The Black Dudley Murder*), is published in the UK.
* March – Norah C. James's first novel, *Sleeveless Errand*, is held to be obscene on publication in London, for its portrayal of the city's bohemian life. An edition appears later in Paris from Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press.
* April 1 – The Faber and Faber publishing company is founded in London by Geoffrey Faber, with T. S. Eliot as its literary editor.
* May – Hugo Gernsback first uses the term "science fiction" in its modern sense, for his pulp magazine *Amazing Stories*.
* c. June – The first of Gladys Mitchell's crime novels appears in the UK. Entitled *Speedy Death*, it introduces a psychologist detective character, Mrs Bradley.
* July – British publisher William Collins, Sons launches its Detective Story Club imprint with Edgar Wallace's novelization of *The Terror*.
* July 5 – Scotland Yard seizes 13 paintings of male and female nudes by D. H. Lawrence from a Mayfair, London, gallery on grounds of indecency, citing the Vagrancy Act 1838.
* August – The Censorship of Publications Act sets up the Censorship of Publications Board in the Irish Free State.
* August 15 – The first Ellery Queen mystery novel, *The Roman Hat Mystery*, is published in New York City.
* Mid year – Serialization begins of one of the first Thai novels – the first by a woman, M. L. Bubpha Kunjara Nimmanhemin writing as Dokmai Sot – entitled *Sattru Khǫng Čhaolon* (Her Enemy). Soon after comes the semi-autobiographical *Lakhǫn Haeng Chiwit* (The Circus of Life) of Prince Arkartdam-keung Rapheephat, writing as M. C. Akat. Several Thai writers join Kulap Saipradit in the Suphapburut literary group.
* October – Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir become a couple, having met while he studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Twenty-one-year-old De Beauvoir becomes the youngest person ever to obtain an *agrégation* in philosophy, and comes second in the final examination, beaten only by Sartre.
* October 11 – Seán O'Casey's play *The Silver Tassie*, set in World War I, receives its première at the Apollo Theatre, London, directed by Raymond Massey. It stars Charles Laughton and Barry Fitzgerald, and has a set design by Augustus John. Rejected the year before by W. B. Yeats for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, it will not open in Ireland until 1935.
* October 5 – The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice confiscates copies of Samuel Roth's pirated edition of James Joyce's 1922 novel *Ulysses* – the first complete edition printed in the U.S. He serves two prison terms for publishing an obscene work.
* October 29 – Released in the U.S. is the first sound film adaptation of a Shakespeare play: *The Taming of the Shrew*, starring Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks.
* December – George Orwell returns to England after a period living in Paris.
* *unknown dates*
	+ Father Ronald Knox codifies the "rules" for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in a "Decalogue" introducing *The Best Detective Stories of 1928–1929.*
	+ *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes* is banned in the Soviet Union due to the interest its author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, shows in the occult.
	+ Foyles bookshop in London moves to larger premises in the Foyles Building, Charing Cross Road.
	+ Monotype introduces Stanley Morison's revival of the Bembo typeface for book printing.

## New books

* All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
* The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
* Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
* A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
* A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
* Tintin in the Land of the Soviets by Hergé
* Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
* The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft
* The Silver Key by H. P. Lovecraft

## Births

* January 9
	+ Brian Friel, Irish dramatist (died 2015)
	+ Heiner Müller, German dramatist (died 1995)
* February 17 – Chaim Potok, American author (died 2002)
* February 18 – Len Deighton, English thriller writer
* March 18 – Christa Wolf, German literary critic, novelist and essayist (died 2011)
* April 1 – Milan Kundera, Czech-French novelist (died 2023)
* April 23 – George Steiner, French-born literary critic and philosopher (died 2020)
* May 10 – Sándor Kányádi, Hungarian poet and translator (died 2018)
* May 16 – Adrienne Rich, American poet and essayist (died 2012)
* June 12 - Anne Frank (Annelies Marie Frank), German-born Dutch child diarist (died 1945)
* June 25 – Eric Carle, American children's writer and illustrator (died 2021)
* June 29 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and author (d. 2006)
* July 8 - Shirley Ann Grau, American short story writer (died 2020)
* July 12 – Tayeb Salih, Sudanese fiction writer and cultural commentator (died 2009)
* July 22 – U. A. Fanthorpe, English poet (died 2009)

## Deaths

* June 28 – Edward Carpenter, English socialist poet and philosopher (born 1844)
* July 15 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian novelist and poet (born 1874)
* July 31 – José de Castro, Portuguese journalist (born 1868)
* September 12 – Rainis, Latvian poet and playwright (born 1865)
* September 19 – Francis Darwin, English botanist and academic (born 1848)
* October – Arno Holz, German Naturalist poet and dramatist (born 1863)

## Awards

* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: J. B. Priestley, *The Good Companions*
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lord David Cecil, *The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper*
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eric P. Kelly, *The Trumpeter of Krakow*
* Newdigate prize: Phyllis Hartnoll
* Nobel Prize in literature: Thomas Mann
* O. Henry Award: Dorothy Parker, "Big Blonde" (short story)
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Elmer L. Rice, *Street Scene*
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Vincent Benét, *John Brown's Body*
* Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Julia Peterkin, *Scarlet Sister Mary*

## References

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7. ↑ *The Times*, 3 October 1929.
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