1913 - Literature

Literature

Nonfiction: The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Peoples (Del sentimento tragico de la vida en los hombres y en los pueblos) by Basque philosopher-novelist-poet-dramatist Miguel de Unamuno, 49, whose early realistic novel Paz en la guerra appeared in 1897. Man can exist, says Unamuno, only by resisting the absurdity and injustice of the fact that death brings oblivion, and he urges readers to base their "faith" in "doubt," which alone gives life meaning; Principia Mathematica (three volumes) by University College, London, philosopher-mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, 52, and his onetime Cambridge student Bertrand (Arthur William) Russell, 41, whose first volume appeared in 1910 (see technology [Simon, Newell], 1955); Before the War (L'Avant Guerre) by Léon Daudet, who anticipates what is to come next year; An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution by Indiana-born Columbia University history professor Charles A. (Austin) Beard, 38, points out that America's founding fathers were all men of property when they drafted the Constitution in 1787. Beard suggests certain consequent inequities; The Theory of Social Revolutions by Brooks Adams, who concludes that the very rich exercise enormous power but neglect their public responsibilities; Youth and Life by New Jersey-born New York writer Randolph S. (Silliman) Bourne, 27, who maintains that the youth of today will sweep away much of what is out-of-date and unworthy in U.S. life; "Behind the Beyond," and other Contributions to Human Knowledge by Stephen Leacock includes "Familiar Incidents," "Parisian Pastimes," and "The Retroactive Existence of Mr. Juggins."

Fiction: Swann's Way (Du côté de chez Swann) by French novelist Marcel Proust, 42, whose memories of childhood have been revived by tasting shell-shaped madeleine cakes dipped in tea and who will follow his psychological novel with six more, all under the title Remembrance of Things Past (A la récherche du temps perdu). Proust has paid publisher Bernard Grasset, 32, to bring out his book; The Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes) by French novelist Alain-Fournier (Henri Alban Fournier), 26; The Boys in the Back Room (Les Copains) by Jules Romains; Sons and Lovers by English novelist D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence, 38; The Village and the Jungle by English writer Leonard (Sidney) Woolf, 32, who last year married feminist writer Virginia Stephen, now 31 (daughter of the late author-critic Sir Leslie Stephen and with uncertain health, she attempts suicide this year); Fortitude by Hugh Walpole; O Pioneers by former McClure's magazine managing editor Willa (Sibert) Cather, 39, who grew up on the Nebraska frontier; Virginia by Virginia novelist Ellen (Anderson Gholson) Glasgow, 39; Pollyanna by Littleton, N.H.-born novelist Eleanor Porter (née Hodgman), 45, whose saccharine heroine always looks for the bright side of everything; The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu (The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu in the United States) by English mystery novelist Sax Rohmer (Arthur Sarsfield Wade), 30; The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton by London-born novelist E. (Edward) Phillips Oppenheim, 46, who has been churning out three to five spy and suspense novels since 1896, some of them under the nom de plume Anthony Partridge.

Author-playwright Sholom Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz) dies at his home in the Bronx May 13 at age 57 and is memorialized as the "Jewish Mark Twain"; Baron Corvo (Frederick William Rolfe) dies destitute at Venice October 26 at age 53.

Poetry: General William Booth Enters Heaven by Illinois-born poet (Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay, 33; The Tempers by Rutherford, N.J., poet-physician William Carlos Williams, 29; Poems Written in Discouragement by William Butler Yeats; The Daffodil Fields and Dauber: A Poem by John Masefield; Eve by Ralph Hodgson; Stone (Kamen) by Warsaw-born Russian poet Osip (Emilyevich) Mandelstam, 22, whose earliest verses were published in the avant-garde journal Apollo (Apollon) 3 years ago; Eve by Charles Péguy; Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire; From Two Books (Iz dvukh knig) by Marina Tsvetaeva; "Trees" by New Brunswick, N.J.-born New York Times Book Review editor and poet (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer, 27, appears in the August issue of Poetry magazine and wins worldwide acclaim: "I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree" (see song, 1922).

Poet Joaquin Miller dies at his Eugene, Oregon, home February 17 at age 69; British poet laureate Alfred Austin at Asford, Kent, June 2 at age 78.

Juvenile: Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter; Kewpies and Dottie Darling and Kewpies: Their Book, Verse, and Poetry by Rose Cecil O'Neill; The Tale of Pigling Bland by Beatrix Potter.