Calendar of Literary Facts

1879

  • The Zulu War rages in southern Africa; the Zulus are defeated by the British
  • George Meredith publishes The Egoist: A Comedy in Narrative
  • In the “Nitrate War,” Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia over control of the region’s saltpetre mines
  • Henrik Ibsen’s Et Dukkehjem: Skuespil i tre akter (Nora) is produced
  • E. M. Forster is born
  • Wallace Stevens is born (October 2)
  • Will Rogers is born (November 4)
  • Vachel Lindsay is born (November 10)
  • Felix Paul Greve (later Frederick Philip Grove) is born (February 14)
  • James Branch Cabell is born (April 14)
  • Josef Stalin is born (December 21)
  • Thomas Edison invents the electric light bulb (October 21)