1931 in literature

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	In poetry 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1931.

Events

January 10 – A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Other Poems together with first editions of The Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick, are stolen from the New York Public Library by Samuel Dupree acting on behalf of crooked New York antiquarian book dealer Harry Gold.^[1]
January 26 – Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs' play Green Grow the Lilacs opens in New York on Broadway. It will later be adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Oklahoma!^[2]
April – Gerald Brenan and Gamel Woolsey make a form of marriage in Rome.
June 1 – Near v. Minnesota decided in the Supreme Court of the United States affirms the principle that prior restraint is unconstitutional.
July 4 – James Joyce marries his long-time partner Nora Barnacle at Kensington register office in London.
October 4 – First appearance of the Dick Tracy comic strip, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.^[3]
The publisher Hamish Hamilton is founded by Jamie Hamilton in London.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is banned in Hunan, China, for anthropomorphism.^[4]
The Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 journées de Sodome), written in 1785, begins its first publication in a scholarly edition as a literary text.

New books

Non-fiction

Samuel Beckett – Proust
Adrian Bell – Silver Ley
Marc Bloch – Les Caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française
Arthur Bryant – King Charles the Second
Herbert Butterfield – The Whig Interpretation of History
W. Chapman & V.C.A. Ferraro – A New Theory of Magnetic Storms
Ali Akbar Dehkhoda et al. – Dehkhoda Dictionary of the Persian language
Julius Evola – The Hermetic Tradition
Dion Fortune – Spiritualism in the Light of Occult Science
John Middleton Murry – Son of Woman: The Story of D. H. Lawrence
Irma S. Rombauer – The Joy of Cooking
Helen Thomas – World Without End

Births

January 6
- E. L. Doctorow, American author (died 2015)
- P. J. Kavanagh, English poet, novelist, lecturer, actor, broadcaster and columnist (died 2015)
January 9 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction author (died 2008)
January 10 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (died 2004)
January 17 – Mark Brandis (Nikolai von Michalewsky), German journalist and science fiction author (died 2000)
January 24 – Leonard Baker, American historian and Pulitzer-winning author (died 1984)
January 27
- John Hopkins, English screenwriter (died 1998)
- Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (died 2001)
- Allan W. Eckert, American historian and novelist (died 2011)
- Shirley Hazzard, Australian author (died 2016)
February 9 – Thomas Bernhard, Dutch-born Austrian author (died 1989)
February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
February 12 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American crime writer (died 2008)
February 18
- Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (died 2007)
- Toni Morrison, American writer and Nobel Prize winner
February 19 – Robert Sobel, American business writer (died 1999)
March 2 – Tom Wolfe, American novelist (died 2018)
March 16 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theater director and writer (died 2009)
March 22 – Leslie Thomas, Welsh novelist (died 2014)
March 26 – Alison Prince, English-born Scottish children's writer and illustrator
April 1 – Rolf Hochhuth, German dramatist
April 15 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet and translator (died 2015)
April 21 – Gabriel de Broglie, French historian
April 29 – Robert Gottlieb, American editor
June 12 – Robin Cook (Derek Raymond), English crime novelist (died 1994)
June 21 – Patricia Goedicke, American poet (died 2006)
July 4 – Sébastien Japrisot, French novelist and screenwriter (died 2003)
July 7 – David Eddings, American novelist (died 2009)
July 10
- Nick Adams, American screenwriter (died 1968)
- Julian May, American science fiction author
- Alice Munro, Canadian short story writer
August 2 – Karl Miller, British writer and literary editor (died 2014)
August 12 – William Goldman, American author
August 14 – Frederic Raphael, American-born English screenwriter, novelist and non-fiction author
September 14 – Ivan Klíma, Czech novelist and dramatist
September 22
- Ashokamitran (Jagadisa Thyagarajan), Indian fiction writer (died 2017)
- Fay Weldon, English novelist
October 8 – Dennis Silk, American-born English writer on literature and cricket, and first-class cricketer
October 13 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer (died 1995)
October 19 – John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell), English spy novelist
November 3 – Arun Sarma, Assamese playwright and novelist (died 2017)
November 18 – Nikoloz Janashia, Georgian historian (died 1982)

Deaths

January 26 – Graça Aranha, Brazilian diplomat and writer (born 1868)
March 27 – Arnold Bennett, English novelist (born 1867)
April 4 – André Michelin, French originator of Michelin Guides (born 1853)
April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-born American poet (born 1883)
June 29 – Nérée Beauchemin, French-Canadian poet (born 1850)
July 2 – Harald Høffding, Danish philosopher (born 1843)
August 1 – Bertha McNamara, German-born Australian pamphleteer and bookseller (born 1853)
August 15 – Delfín Chamorro, Spanish poet and language teacher (born 1863)
August 27 – Frank Harris, Irish-born American author and editor (born 1856)
August 31 – Hall Caine, Manx novelist and dramatist (born 1853)
October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish novelist (born 1868)
October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian dramatist (born 1862)
November 3 – Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Uruguayan epic poet (born 1855)
November 5 – Ole Edvart Rolvaag, Norwegian American writer (born 1876)
November 19 – Xu Zhimo (徐志摩), Chinese poet (air accident, born 1897)
December 10 – Enrico Corradini, Italian novelist, essayist and journalist (born 1865)
December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American inventor of library classification system (born 1851)
December 27 – Alfred Perceval Graves, Irish author and collector of songs and ballads (born 1846)
December 31 – Ieronim Yasinsky, Russian writer, poet and essayist (born 1850

Awards

Chancellor's Gold Medal: Robert Gittings
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: J. Y. R. Greig, David Hume
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Cat Who Went to Heaven
Nobel Prize for literature – Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Susan Glaspell, Alison's House
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost: Collected Poems
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Ayer Barnes – Years of Grace

References

^ McDade, Travis (2013). Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199922666.
^ Lynn Riggs: An Oklahoma Treasure Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine, Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Doherty, Jim (2009). "I Like 'Em Tough". ME.
^ "Topics of the Times". The New York Times. 1931-05-05. p. 26.
^ Keating, H. R. F. (1982). Whodunit? – a guide to crime, suspense and spy fiction. London: Windward. ISBN 0-7112-0249-4.

[1] McDade, Travis (2013). Thieves of Book Row: New York's Most Notorious Rare Book Ring and the Man Who Stopped It. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199922666.

[2] Lynn Riggs: An Oklahoma Treasure Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine, Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine.

[3] Doherty, Jim (2009). "I Like 'Em Tough". ME.

[4] "Topics of the Times". The New York Times. 1931-05-05. p. 26.

[5] Keating, H. R. F. (1982). Whodunit? – a guide to crime, suspense and spy fiction. London: Windward. ISBN 0-7112-0249-4.

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Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References