Calendar of Literary Facts

1880

  • Sean O’Casey is born
  • W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is first produced
  • Fedor Dostoevsky publishes Bratya Karamazovy (The Brothers Karamazov)
  • Julia Mood (Peterkin) is born
  • The Dutch Boers living in the Transvaal declare independence from Great Britain
  • Contruction of the Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248, is completed
  • Carl Spitteler publishes his two-volume work Prometheus und Epimetheus
  • Existentialism flourishes as a literary and philosophical movement in Europe
  • Realism is established as a literary movement in the United States
  • Naturalism flourishes as a literary movement
  • Sholem Asch is born (November 1)
  • Gustave Flaubert dies (May 8)
  • H. L. Mencken is born (September 12)
  • Louis Hemon is born (October 12)
  • Mary Ann Evans Cross (George Eliot) dies (December 22)
  • Ernest Poole is born (January 23)
  • Guillaume Apollinaire is born (August 26)
  • Angelina Weld Grimke is born (February 27)