1904 in literature

Children and young people

• L. Frank Baum – The Marvelous Land of Oz
• Laura Lee Hope (pseudonym) – The Bobbsey Twins (first of a series of 72)
• Selma Lagerlöf – The Treasure (Herr Arnes penningar)
• E. Nesbit – The Phoenix and the Carpet
• Beatrix Potter
• The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
• The Tale of Two Bad Mice
• Leo Tolstoy – Classic Tales and Fables for Children
• P. G. Wodehouse (prose), John W. Houghton (verse) and Philip Dadd (illustrations) – William Tell Told Again

Drama

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• J. M. Barrie – Peter Pan
• Hall Caine – The Prodigal Son
• Anton Chekhov – The Cherry Orchard
• Gabriele D'Annunzio – The Daughter of Iorio
• Octave Mirbeau – Farces and Moralities
• Erich Mühsam – The Con Men
• George Bernard Shaw – John Bull's Other Island
• Tsubouchi Shōyō (坪内 逍遥)
• Kiri Hitoha (A Paulownia Leaf; performed)
• Shinkyoku Urashima (The New Urashima)
• J. M. Synge – Riders to the Sea
• Edgar Wallace – An African Millionaire
• Frank Wedekind – Pandora's Box
• Nik Welter – Die Söhne des Öslings
• Stanisław Wyspiański – November Night (Noc listopadowa)</onlyinclude>

Poetry

• Marie Dauguet
• Les Paroles du vent
• Par l'Amour
• Zinaida Gippius – «Собрание стихов. 1889–1903» (Collected Poems, 1889–1903)
• Giovanni Pascoli
• Primi poemetti
• Primi conviviali

Non-fiction

• A. C. Bradley – Shakespearean Tragedy
• Ernst Haeckel – Kunstformen der Natur
• Philip Henslowe (died 1616), edited by Walter W. Greg – Henslowe's Diary (publication begins)
• Thomas Nashe (died c.1601), edited by R. B. McKerrow – The Works of Thomas Nashe (publication begins)
• Okakura Kakuzo (岡倉 覚三) – The Awakening of Japan
• Thorstein Veblen – The Theory of Business Enterprise
• John Henry Wigmore – A Treatise on the System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law

Births

• January 14 – Robert Speaight, English actor, biographer and essayist (died 1976)
• January 22 – Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (died 1941)
• January 23 – Louis Zukofsky, American modernist poet (died 1978)
• February 1 – S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (died 1979)
• February 4 – MacKinlay Kantor, American historian (died 1977)
• February 19 – Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, Irish memoirist (drowned 1950)
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), American children's writer (died 1991)
• March 26 – Joseph Campbell, American author and expert on mythology (died 1987)
• April 4 – Soeman Hs, Indonesian (East Indies) novelist and short story writer (died 1999)
• April 27 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet (died 1972)
• May 6 – Harry Martinson, Swedish author and Nobel laureate (died 1978)
• May 20
• Margery Allingham, English writer of detective fiction (died 1966)
• Alexander Skutch, American scientific writer and naturalist (died 2004)
• May 22 – Anne de Vries, Dutch novelist (died 1964)
• June 16 – Eileen Colwell, English children's librarian (died 2002)
• July 13 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and Nobel laureate (died 1973)
• July 21 – Ion Biberi, Romanian social scientist, novelist, and essayist (died 1990)
• August 4 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish playwright and novelist (died 1969)
• August 10 – Dorothy B. Hughes, American crime writer and critic (died 1993)
• August 24 – Gwyn Williams, Welsh writer and poet (died 1990)
• August 26 – Christopher Isherwood, Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer (died 1986)
• September – Abdulla Goran, Kurdish poet (died 1962)
• September 27 – John Gwilym Jones, Welsh dramatist and writer (died 1988)
• October 2 – Graham Greene, English novelist and journalist (died 1991)
• October 12 – Ding Ling (丁玲), born Jiang Bingzhi, Chinese fiction writer (died 1986)
• November 25 – Ba Jin (巴金), born Li Yaotang, Chinese novelist (died 2005)
• November 28 – Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer (died 1973)
• December 13 – Glen Byam Shaw, English theatrical director (died 1986)
• December 21 – Johannes Edfelt, Swedish poet, translator and critic (died 1997)
• December 26 – Alejo Carpentier, Swiss-born Cuban novelist (died 1980)

Deaths

• January 3 – Larin Paraske, Finnish folk poet (born 1833)
• January 20 – Hermann Eduard von Holst, German historian of the United States (born 1841)
• February 3 – Olive E. Dana, American author (born 1859)
• February 8 – Alfred Ainger, English biographer and critic (born 1837)
• February 22 – Sir Leslie Stephen, English essayist and critic (born 1832)
• March 2 – Mary C. Billings, American writer, evangelist, missionary (born 1824)
• April 16 – Samuel Smiles, British reformer and writer, advocate of self-help (born 1812)
• May 5 – Mór Jókai, Hungarian dramatist and novelist (born 1825)
• June 5 – Olivia Langdon Clemens, American editor (born 1845)
• July 3 – Theodor Herzl, Austro-Hungarian journalist (cardiac sclerosis, born 1860)
• July 6 – Abai Qunanbaiuly, Kazakh poet, philosopher and cultural reformer (born 1845)
• July 15 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (tuberculosis, born 1860)
• August 22 – Kate Chopin (Kate O'Flaherty), American novelist and short story writer (brain hemorrhage, born 1850)
• September 26 – Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo, 小泉 八雲), Greek-born writer in English on Japan (heart failure, born 1850)
• October 11:
• Mary Tenney Gray, American editorial writer (born 1833)
• Trumbull Stickney, American classicist and poet (brain tumor, born 1874)
• October 17
• Dumitru Theodor Neculuță, Romanian poet (heart failure, born 1859)
• Ștefan Petică, Romanian Symbolist poet and writer (tuberculosis, born 1877)
• October 21 – Euphemia Vale Blake, British-born American author and critic (born 1817)
• October 23 – Emilia, Lady Dilke, English art historian (born 1840)
• November 19 – Hans von Hopfen, German poet and novelist (born 1835)

Awards

• Newdigate Prize: George Bell, "Delphi"
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray y Eizaguirre
• First Prix Femina: Myriam Harry for La Conquête de Jérusalem

References