Literary Hit Parade: 1924 - 1929
1924
Nobel Prize for Literature
Wladyslaw Reymont (1868-1925), Polish
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction The Able McLaughlins, Margaret Wilson
Poetry New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes, Robert Frost
Drama Hell-Bent for Heaven, Hatcher Hughes
Best-Sellers
Fiction 1. So Big, Edna Ferber 2. The Plastic Age, Percy Marks
NonFiction 1. Diet and Health, Lulu Hunt Peters 2. The Life of Christ, Giovanni Papini 4. Etiquette, Emily Post 7. Mark Twain's Autobiography 8. Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw
Other Notable Literary Events
A Passage to India, E. M. Forster; The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann; The Captive, 5th part of Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust; Billy Budd, Foretopman, Herman Melville's last novel (published 33 years after completion); The Marble Faun, William Faulkner's poetic work; Some Do Not, 1st novel in post-WWI quartet Parade's End, Ford Madox Ford; Mark Twain's Autobiography; Principles of Literary Criticism, I. A. Richards; The American Mercury began publication; Saturday Review (of Literature), founded by Henry Seidel Canby, Christopher Morley, William Rose Benet, and Amy Loveman; All God's Chillun Got Wings, Eugene O'Neill (Controversial for interracial marriage theme) opened at Provincetown Playhouse, NY, starring Paul Robeson; Juno and the Paycock Sean O'Casey, Dublin Abbey Theatre; What Price Glory?, Maxwell Anderson-Lawrence Stallings antiwar play, opened in NY.
Died
Joesph Conrad (Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (b. 1857)
Franza Kafka (b. 1883)
Anatole France (Jacques Anatole Francois Thilbault) (b. 1844)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (b. 1849)
1925
Nobel Prize for Literature
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), British (b. Ireland)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction So Big, Edna Ferber
Poetry The Man Who Died Twice, Edwin Arlington Robinson
Drama They Knew What They Wanted, Sidney Howard
Best-Sellers
Fiction 1. Soundings, A. Hamilton Gibbs 2. The Constant Nymph, Margaret Kennedy
Nonfiction 1. Diet and Health, Lulu Hunt Peters 2. The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Farmer 3. When We Were Very Young, A. A. Milne
Other Notable Literary Events
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser; The Sweet Cheat Gone, 6th part of Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust (Published posthumously); The Informer, Liam O'Flaherty; The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Hollow Men, T. S. Eliot; Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf; Phantom of the Opera (Horror Novel), Gaston Leroux; The Cantos, Ezra Pound (Unfinished work--1925-1972); No More Parades, 2nd novel in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy Parade's End; Dark Laughter, Sherwood Anderson; Color (Poetry Collection), Countee Cullen; In Our Time (Short Stories), Ernest Hemingway; Porgy and Bess, DuBose Heyward; Human Shows, Far Phantasies: Songs and Trifles (Poetry), Thomas Hardy; Giants in the Earth, Ole Rolvaag; Manhattan Transfer, John Dos Passos; Tales of Hearsay (Short Stories), Joseph Conrad; The Tales of the Don, Mikhail Sholokov; The New Yorker Magazine founded by Harold Ross; The Circle of Chalk, Max Reinhardt; Hay Fever, Noel Coward; The Butter and Egg Man, George S. Kaufman opened at Longacre Theatre, NY; Man, Beast, and Virtue, Luigi Pirandello; The Golem, Halper Leivick
Died
Amy Lowell (b. 1874)
George Washington Cable (b. 1844)
H(enry) Rider Haggard (b. 1856)
Wladyslaw Reymont (b. 1867)
1926
Nobel Prize for Literature
Grazia Deledda (1871-1936), Italian
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis (Declined award)
Poetry What's O'Clock, Amy Lowell
Drama Craig's Wife, George Kelly , 0pened at Morosco Theatre, NY
Best Sellers
Fiction 1. The Private Life of Helen of Troy, John Erskine 2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos 7. Beau Geste, P. C. Wren 8. Show Boat, Edna Ferber
Nonfiction 1. The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton 2. Why We Behave Like Human Beings, George A. Dorsey 3. Diet and Health, Lulu Hunt Peters 8. The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant 9. The Light of Faith, Edgar A. Guest
Other Notable Literary Events
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway; Soldier's Pay, William Faulkner; The Castle, Franz Kafka; Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, two-volume biography by Carl Sandburg; Show Boat (novel), Edna Ferber; A Man Could Stand Up, 3rd novel in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy Parade's End; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie; Last Essays, Joseph Conrad; Israfel, biography of Poe by Hervey Allen; The Cabala, Thornton Wilder; A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Henry W. Fowler; Book-of-the-Month Club founded in the United States; The Plough and the Stars by Sean O'Casey produced by Abbey theatre; Brooks Atkinson became New York Times dramatic critic (1926-1960); The Great God Brown by Eugene O'Neill opened at Greenwich Village Theatre, NY; Eva Le Gallienne founded Civic Repertory Theatre (1926-1933) in NYC, bringing theatre to mass audiences at popular prices; The Constant Wife, by Somerset Maugham, opened in NY; David, D. H. Lawrence; The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence.
Died
Charles Montagu Doughty, English traveler and writer (b. 1843)
Rainer Maria Rilke, Austro-German poet (b. 1875)
Georges Ancey, French playwright (b. 1860)
Israel Zangwill, Jewish writer (b. 1864)
1927
Nobel Prize for Literature
Henri Bergson (1859-1941), French
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction Early Autumn, Louis Bromfield
Poetry Fiddler's Farewell, Leonora Speyer
Drama In Abraham's Bosom, Paul Green
Best Sellers
Fiction 1. Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis 2. The Plutocrat, Booth Tarkington 7. Twilight Sleep, Edith Wharton 10. A Good Woman, Louis Bromfield
Nonfiction 1. The Story of Philosophy, Will Durant 2. Napoleon, Emil Ludwig 3. Revolt in the Desert, T. E. Lawrence 4. Trader Horn, Vol. 1, Alfred Aloysius Horn & Ethelreda Lewis 5. We, Charles A. Lindberg
Other Notable Literary Events
Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis; Time Regained, 7th part of Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, published posthumously; To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf; Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse; God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, James Weldon Johnson; Copper Sun and The Ballad of the Brown Girl, poetry collections by Countee Cullen; Amerika, Franz Kafka; Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather; Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster; Main Currents in American Thought, Vernon L. Parrington (1927-1930); Saturday's Children, play by Maxwell Anderson, opened at Booth Theatre, NY.
1928
Nobel Prize for Literature
Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), Norwegian (b. Denmark)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
Poetry Tristram, Edwin Arlington Robinson
Drama Strange Interlude, Eugene O'Neill (Opened at John Golden Theatre, NYC)
Best Sellers
Fiction 1. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder 2. Wintersmoon, Hugh Walpole
Nonfiction 1. Disraeli, Andre Maurois 2. Mother India, Katherine Mayo 5. Strange Interlude, Eugene O'Neill 10. The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, George Bernard Shaw
Other Notable Literary Events
Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence; Collected Poems, D.H. Lawrence; The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, D. H. Lawrence; The Well of Loneliness, novel about lesbians living openly as such, by Radclyffe Hall; Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley; The House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne; Winter Words in Various Moods and Meters (poetry), Thomas Hardy; Decline and Fall, Evelyn Waugh; Old New York, four novelettes by Edith Wharton; The Last Post, 4th and last novel in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy Parade's End; Home to Harlem, Claude McKay; Justice Denied in Massachusetts, poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay about Sacco-Vanzetti case; Little Caesar (novel), William Riley (W. R.) Burnett; The Dark Princess (novel), W. E. B. DuBois; Oxford English Dictionary publication completed; The Threepenny Opera (musical), Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill; The Front Page, (play), Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur; Holiday (play), Philip Barry, opened at Plymouth Theatre, NYC; Gods of the Lightning, play by Maxwell Anderson, opened in NY; him, play by e e cummings, produced at Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village, NY
Died
Hugo von Hofmannstal, Austrian writer (b. 1874)
Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet (b. 1840)
Vicente Blasco Ibaņez, Spanish writer (b. 1867)
John Hartley Manners, Irish-American playwright (b. 1870)
Richard Claude Carton, English playwright (b. 1856)
1929
Nobel Prize for Literature
Thomas Mann (1875-1955), German
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia M. Peterkin
Poetry John Brown's Body, Stephen Vincent Benet
Drama Street Scene, Elmer Rice
Best Sellers
Fiction 1. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque 2. Dodsworth, Sinclair Lewis
Nonfiction 1. The Art of Thinking, Ernest Dimnet 2. Henry the Eighth, Francis Hackett 7. Believe It or Not, Robert L. Ripley 8. John Brown's Body, Stephen Vincent Benet
Other Notable Literary Events
A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf essay expressing strong feminist view; The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner; Sartoris, Wm. Faulkner; Dodsworth, Sinclair Lewis; A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway; Banjo, Claude McKay novel; Pornography and Obscenity, The Escaped Cock, novel; Pansies, poems-all by D. H. Lawrence; Red Harvest & The Dain Curse (mystery novels), Dashiell Hammett; A Modern Comedy, series of John Galsworthy novels (incl. The White Monkey, The Silver Spoon, Swan Song) further developing characters in The Forsyte Saga; The Winding Stair (poetry), William Butler Yeats; The Roman Hat Mystery, 1st of Ellery Queen mystery novels, by team of Frederic Danny and Manfred Lee; Look Homeward, Angel, 1st novel by Thomas Wolfe; Is Sex Necessary? James Thurber and E. B. White; The Lady Is Cold (short fiction, verse, and essays), E.B. White; Dark Summer, Louise Bogan; Dear Judas, and Other Poems Robinson Jeffers; Death of a Hero, Richard Aldington; Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge, S. J. Perlman; Round Up (short stories), Ring Lardner; Clare Drummer (novel), V. S. Pritchett; Practical Criticism, I. A. Richard; The Modern Temper, Joseph Wood Krutch; Bitter Sweet (musical), Noel Coward; Dynamo, Eugene O'Neill play, opened at Martin Beck Theatre, NY; Strictly Dishonorable, comedy by Preston Sturges, Avon Theatre, NY; The Apple Cart, George Bernard Shaw play, 1st to be performed at the Malvern Festival; The Silver Tassie, Sean O'Casey play, opened in London; British Actors' Equity Association was founded; Tonight We Improvise, Luigi Pirandello
Died
Bliss Carmen, Canadian-born American poet (b. 1861)
Vernon L. Parrington, American literary scholar (b. 1871)
Gunnar Edvard Rode Heiberg, Norwegian playwright (b. 1857)
Henry Arthur Jones, English playwright (b. 1851)