This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1883.
Events
- January 13 â Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People (En folkefiende, 1882) gains its first performance at the Christiania Theatre.
- February â Carlo Collodi's children's story The Adventures of Pinocchio appears first in Italy complete in book form as Le avventure di Pinocchio.
- May 23 â Robert Louis Stevenson's children's pirate adventure novel Treasure Island first appears in book form from Cassell in London.
- June â Footlights, the University of Cambridge drama club in England, gives its first performance.
- June 4 â Mihai Eminescu reads his nationalist poem Doina to an enthusiastic crowd at Junimea in IaÃÂi. It is sometimes described as his last work before a mental breakdown later this year. Eminescu's host Ion Creangàrecalls it being composed on the spot, but some researchers date it back to 1870.
- June 30âÂÂOctober 20 â Robert Louis Stevenson's novel ' is serialized in the British magazine Young Folks as by "Captain George North". Stevenson completes writing it at the end of the summer in France.
- July â The first issue of Fiamuri Arbërit, an Albanian literary and political magazine, is published from Cosenza. Managed by Girolamo de Rada, it promotes Ottomanism against Philhellenism.
- August â Ivan Turgenev dictates his last story, "An end", to Pauline Viardot (who writes it in French) on his deathbed at Bougival in France.
- August 29 â Dunfermline Carnegie Library, the first Carnegie library, opens in Andrew Carnegie's home town, Dunfermline, Scotland.
- October 3âÂÂ9 â Turgenev's body is returned by train from Paris to Saint Petersburg with crowds turning out to honor him.
- December 27âÂÂ28 â The Modern Language Association of America holds its first meeting.
- Uncertain dates
- Mark Twain's memoirs Life on the Mississippi are published simultaneously in Boston (Massachusetts) and London, as the first major book submitted to a publisher in typescript.
- Kisari Mohan Ganguli begins publication of the first English-language translation of the Mahabharata.
- The Deutsches Theater company is formed in Berlin.
New books
Fiction
Children and young people
Drama
Poetry
Non-fiction
Births
- January 1 â Alberto Gerchunoff, Argentine writer (died 1949)
- January 6 â Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-born poet and novelist writing in Arabic and English (died 1931)
- January 10 â Aleksei Tolstoy, Russian writer (died 1945)
- January 20 â Forrest Wilson, American journalist and author (died 1942)
- January 21 â Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet and teacher (died 1929)
- February 8 â Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian/American political economist (died 1950)
- February 15 â Sax Rohmer (Arthur Henry Ward), English novelist (died 1959)
- February 16 â Elizabeth Craig, British writer (died [1980)
- February 20 â Naoya Shiga, Japanese novelist (died 1971)
- March 2 (February 18 O.S.) â Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek novelist (died 1957)
- March 9 â Umberto Saba, Italian poet and novelist (died 1957)
- March 17 â Urmuz, Romanian short prose writer (died 1923)
- March 27 (March 15 O.S.) â Marie Under, Estonian poet (died 1980)
- April 18 â Aleksanteri Aava, Finnish poet (died 1956)
- April 27 – Hubert Harrison, African-American writer, critic, and activist (died 1927)
- April 30 â Jaroslav HaÃ
¡ek, Czech novelist (died 1923)
- June 3 â Franz Kafka, Czech novelist writing in German (died 1924)
- June 4 â Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, English crime writer (died 1955)
- July 29 â Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian writer (died 1942)
- September 14 â Rose Combe, French writer and railway worker (died 1932)
- September 22 â Ferenc Oslay, Hungarian-Slovene historian, writer and irredenta (died 1932)
- October 18 â Helena Boguszewska, Polish writer, columnist and a social activist (died 1978)
- December 13 â Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian (died 1950)
- December 23 â Yoshishige Abe, Japanese philosopher and politician (died 1966)
- December 30 â Marie Gevers, Belgian novelist writing in French (died 1975)
- unknown date â May Edginton, English popular novelist (died 1957)
Deaths
- January 21 â Anna Eliza Bray, English novelist and travel writer (born 1790)
- March 14 â Karl Marx, German philosopher (born 1818)
- April 24 â Jules Sandeau, French novelist (born 1811)
- May 15 â Mary Elizabeth Mohl ("Clarkey"), English-born literary salonnière (born 1793)
- May 23 â Cyprian Norwid, Polish poet, dramatist and artist (born 1821)
- June 20 â Gustave Aimard, French novelist (born 1818)
- June 11 â Caroline Leigh Gascoigne, English poet, novelist, short story writer (born 1813)
- July 16 â Edward Backhouse Eastwick, Anglo-Indian orientalist and translator (born 1814)
- August 31 â Levin Schücking, German novelist (born 1814)
- September 2 â Léon Halévy, French historian and dramatist (born 1802)
- September 3 â Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist (born 1818)
- September 10 â Hendrik Conscience, Flemish novelist (born 1812)
- September 25 â George Ayliffe Poole, English writer and cleric (born 1809)
- November 26 â Sojourner Truth, African American abolitionist, women's rights activist, and author (born 1797)
- December 13 â Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (born 1812)
- unknown date â Mary S. B. Shindler, American poet (born 1810)
References