istoryworld
Events relating to literature
Stephen Crane succeeds handsomely with his second novel, The Red Badge of Courage, set in the American Civil War
Oscar Wilde loses a libel case that he has brought against the marquess of Queensberry for describing him as a sodomite
Oscar Wilde is sent to Reading Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour after being convicted of homosexuality
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine, a story about a Time Traveller whose first stop on his journey is the year 802701
The prolific US poet Edwin Arlington Robinson publishes The Torrent and the Night Before, his first poems about the fictional Tilbury Town
English poet A.E. Housman publishes his first collection, A Shropshire Lad
Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull has a disastrous premiere in St Petersburg (but is well received two years later in Moscow)
Henry James views the feckless adults in Maisie's life through the eyes of the child herself in What Maisie Knew
Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, based on the London life he has observed as a medical student
English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania
Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes Women and Economics, developing the feminist theme in US cultural and political life
Henry James moves from London to Lamb House in Rye, Sussex, which remains his home for the rest of his life
Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, succeeds at the Moscow Art Theatre
H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth
Henry James publishes The Turn of the Screw in a collection of short stories
US social scientist Thorstein Veblen publishes The Theory of the Leisure Class, an attack on capitalist exploitation and 'consumerism'
E. Nesbit publishes The Story of the Treasure Seekers, introducing the Bastable family who feature in several of her books for children
Frank Baum introduces children to Oz, in his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
After a prodigiously productive career as novelist and journalist, Stephen Crane dies of tuberculosis at the age of 28
Joshua Slocum publishes Sailing Alone Around the World, an account of his famous 1895-8 circumnavigation
Jack London's first collection of stories, The Son of the Wolf, brings him a wide readership
Theodore Dreiser's first novel, Sister Carrie, receives no publicity because his publisher, Frank Doubleday, considers it immoral
The Voice of the People is the first of Ellen Glasgow's novels set in her native state, Virginia
Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya is directed by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre
Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Lord Jim about a life of failure and redemption in the far East
