Calendar of Literary Facts
1885
- H. Rider Haggard publishes King Solomon’s Mines
- Congo becomes the possession of King Leopold II of Belgium
- Symbolism flourishes in French poetry
- The Irish Literary Renaissance flourishes
- William Dean Howells publishes The Rise of Silas Lapham
- William Alexander Percy is born
- The public library in Concord, Massachusetts bans Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; other American libraries follow suit
- Sappho: Selected Renderings and a Literal Translation is published in English translation
- Rosalia de Castro dies
- Ezra Pound is born
- François Mauriac is born
- Timothy Shay Arthur dies (March 6)
- Ring Lardner is born (March 6)
- Sinclair Lewis is born (February 7)
- D. H. Lawrence is born (September 11)
- Victor Hugo dies (May 22)