The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.
1931 Literary Facts
The U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of Near v. Minnesota, determining that prior restraint in publishing is unconstitutional except in rare and extreme circumstances
Spain declares itself a republic
Japanese forces invade and conquer Manchuria
The “Scottsboro Boys,” nine young black men accused of raping two white women, are tried and convicted in Scottsboro, Alabama; this case gains widespread publicity and discussion
Margaret Ayer Barnes receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Years of Grace
Erik Axel Karlfeldt receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Frans Eemil Sillanpää publishes Nuorena nukkunut (The Maid Silja)
George Dillon publishes The Flowering Stone
Caroline Gordon publishes Penhally
Henry Steele Commager and Samuel Eliot Morison publish The Growth of the American Republic
Edmund Wilson publishes Axel’s Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930
Pearl S. Buck publishes The Good Earth
Okot p’Bitek is born
Roberto Arlt publishes Los lanzallamas
Ogden Nash publishes Hard Lines
Georges Simenon publishes Pietr-le-Letton (The Strange Case of Peter the Lett)
Morley Callaghan publishes No Man’s Meat
Juan Goytisolo is born
Explore: Juan Goytisolo, Quarantine
E. L. Doctorow is born
Explore: E. L. Doctorow, A House on the Plains
Floyd Salas is born
Mordecai Richler is born
Explore: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordecai Richler
Judith Viorst is born
Toni Morrison is born
Explore: The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Toni Morrison
Arnold Bennett dies
Explore: Anna of the Five Towns, Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives' Tale
Rolf Hochhuth is born
Explore: Rolf Hochhuth
Donald Barthelme is born
Explore: The Indian Uprising, Snow White, Donald Barthelme
Kahlil Gibran dies
Explore: The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings
Tomas Transtroemer is born
Etheridge Knight is born
Explore: Etheridge Knight, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane, The Idea of Ancestry
Gene Wolfe is born
Explore: Soldier of the Mist/Soldier of Arete, Gene (Rodman) Wolfe
George Starbuck is born
David Eddings is born
Alice Munro is born
Explore: Lives of Girls and Women, How I Met My Husband, Alice Munro
Clive Cussler is born
Caroline Blackwood is born
Explore: Caroline Blackwood
Adrienne Kennedy is born
Explore: Funnyhouse of a Negro, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, Adrienne Kennedy
Ivan Klima is born
Explore: Ivan Klíma
Fay Weldon is born
Explore: Fay Weldon, Ind Aff
Desmond Tutu is born
David Cornwell (John Le Carré) is born
Explore: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, A Perfect Spy, John le Carré
Abelardo B. Delgado is born
Vachel Lindsay dies
Explore: Vachel Lindsay
Lonne Elder III is born
Explore: Ceremonies in Dark Old Men