1898 - Literature

Literature

The National Cyclopedia of American Biography in published in its first volumes at New York. The work will run to more than 40 volumes, specializing in deceased business leaders (almost all men) whose families will pay steep prices to have illustrations accompany the glowing accounts.

Nonfiction: Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War by New York Evening Journal humorist Finley Peter Dunne, 31, whose book Mr. Dooley in the Hearts of His Countrymen also appears, beginning a series by a fictitious Chicago bartender whose witty and skeptical remarks to his silent and gloomy companion Malachi Hennessey are published in Dunne's weekly newspaper column; The Evidence (Les Preuves) by French socialist Chamber member (Auguste-Marie-Joseph-) Jean Jaurès, 38, who asks for the retrial and rehabilitation of Alfred Dreyfus and loses his bid for reelection; Studies of Good and Evil by Josiah Royce; Wild Animals I Have Known by English-born Canadian author Ernest Thompson Seton, 38, launches its author on a career.

Fiction: "The Turn of the Screw" (story) by Henry James; The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (see communications, 1938); The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure by Stephen Crane, who was sent last year from Jacksonville, Fla., to report on the insurrection in Cuba, was reported to have drowned when his tugboat Commodore sank in a squall with $5,000 worth of ammunition, but actually made it to safety, rowing for 30 hours in a dinghy that carried also the ship's captain, cook, and oiler, although Crane had to jettison his money belt with all its gold before swimming ashore through rough Florida surf. Crane then took off for Greece to report on the Greco-Turkish war and hear musket fire for the first time. He leaves in April to cover the Spanish-American War for the New York World (publisher William Randolph Hearst soon hires him away to work for his New York Journal); David Harum, A Story of American Life by the late New York banker-novelist Edward N. (Noyes) Westcott: "Them that has gits;" The Prisoners of Hope: A Cautionary Tale of Colonial Virginia by Virginia novelist Mary Johnston, 27; Evelyn Innes by George Moore; The Forest Lovers by English novelist Maurice Hewlett, 37; Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope, who describes the fictional adventures of Rudolph Rassendyll in the mythical kingdom of Ruritania; The Woman and the Puppet (La Femme et le pantin) by French novelist-poet Pierre Loüys (Pierre Louis), 28; As a Man Grows Older (Senilita) by Italo Svevo (published at his own expense as was his 1892 novel); Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane; Petty Sin (Kamertjeszonde) by Dutch novelist Koos Habbema (Herman Heijermans), 33, attacks prevailing attitudes toward sex; Offspring (Afkom) by Amalie Skram completes her seven-volume series The People of Hellemyr (Hellemyrsfolket).

Banker-novelist Edward N. Westcott dies of tuberculosis at New York March 31 at age 51 (his novel is published posthumously); Edward Bellamy dies at his native Chicopee Falls, Mass., May 22 at age 48; Theodor Fontane at Berlin September 20 at age 78.

Poetry: From the Dawn to the Evening Angelus (De l'Angelus d'aube à l'angelus du soir) by French poet Francis Jammes, 30; The Modern Traveller by Hilaire Belloc; "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde, who was released from prison last year after serving the 2-year sentence imposed in 1895 and has emigrated to Paris: "Yet each man kills the thing he loves,/ By each let this be heard,/ Some do it with a bitter look/ Some with a flattering word,/ The coward does it with a kiss,/ The brave man with a sword!"

Stéphane Mallarmé dies in his summer cottage at Valvins, near Fontainbleau, September 9 at age 56.

Juvenile: The Rebellion of Lil by L. T. Meade.

Author-mathematician-poet-photographer Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) dies of influenza at Guilford, England, January 14 at age 65.