1869 in literature

February 3 – Booth's Theatre opens on Manhattan with the owner, Edwin Booth, playing the male lead in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.^[1]
May 10 – As a protest against her drama school having been closed down by the Russian authorities, Swedish-born actress Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm delivers the lines in her next performance, Aleksis Kivi's Lea, in the Finnish language, the first time it has been spoken in the public theatre in Finland.
May 22 – Serial publication of Anthony Trollope's novel He Knew He Was Right concludes and it appears in London as the first book to include a fictional private investigator, ex-policeman Samuel Bozzle.^[2]
August
- Ambrose Bierce, writing a satirical column for the San Francisco News Letter, begins to produce the cynical definitions which will eventually become The Devil's Dictionary.
- Macmillan Publishing opens its first American office in New York City, headed by George Edward Brett.^[3]
October 5 – Model, poet and artist Elizabeth Siddal (d. 1862) is exhumedatHighgate Cemetery in London in order to recover the manuscript of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Poems buried with her.^[4]
December – Publication of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace («Война и миръ», Voyna i mir) complete in book form concludes. It is printed in Moscow and sold by the author on subscription.^[5]
unknown dates – Eiríkur Magnússon and William Morris publish their first translations of Old Icelandic sagas into English: Grettis Saga: The Story of Grettir the Strong (from Grettis saga) and The Story of Gunnlaug the Worm-tongue and Raven the Skald (from Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu).

Fiction

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Thomas Bailey Aldrich – The Story of a Bad Boy^[6]
Ignacio Manuel Altamirano – Clemencia (debut novel)^[7]
Horatio Alger, Jr. – Luck and Pluck^[8]
R. M. Ballantyne – Erling the Bold
R. D. Blackmore – Lorna Doone^[9]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky – The Idiot (Идіотъ)
Alexandre Dumas, père – The Knight of Sainte-Hermine (Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine, unfinished; first published 2005)
Gustave Flaubert – Sentimental Education (L'Éducation sentimentale)^[10]
Émile Gaboriau – Monsieur Lecoq
Ivan Goncharov – The Precipice (Обрыв)
Edmond and Jules de Goncourt – Madame Gervaisais
Victor Hugo – The Man Who Laughs (L'Homme qui rit)
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Wyvern Mystery
Nikolai Leskov – Old Years in Plodomasovo («Ста′рые го′ды в селе′ Плодома′сове» published serially in Russkiy Vestnik)
Joaquim Manuel de Macedo – A Luneta Mágica (The Magical Glasses)^[11]
Hector Malot – Romain Kalbris^[12]
Florence Montgomery – Misunderstood^[13]
Charles Reade – Foul Play
Capt. Hawley Smart – Breezie Langton
Hesba Stretton – Alone in London
Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace
Charlotte M. Yonge – The Chaplet of Pearls

Children and young people

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Louisa May Alcott – Good Wives^[14]
Frances Freeling Broderip
- Tales of the Toys told by Themselves^[15]
- The Daisy and her Friends: Tales and Stories for Children
Juliana Horatia Ewing – Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances^[16]
Jean Ingelow – Mopsa the Fairy^[17]
A. D. T. Whitney – Hitherto

Drama

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Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson – Sigurd Slembe (Sigurd the Bastard, trilogy, first performed, in Germany)
François Coppée – Le Passant
Navalram Pandya – Veermati
Mendele Mocher Sforim – Di Takse (The Tax, unperformed)
Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin – Scenes from the Past

Poetry

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Henry Kendall – Leaves from Australian Forests

Non-fiction

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Matthew Arnold – Culture and Anarchy^[18]
P. T. Barnum – Struggles and Triumphs
Josephine Butler (editor) – Women's Work and Women's Culture
Warren Felt Evans – The Mental Cure, illustrating the influence of the Mind on the Body
William Ewart Gladstone – Juventus Mundi: The gods and men of "the heroic" age
John Stuart Mill – The Subjection of Women
John Neal — Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life: An Autobiography^[19]
Mark Twain – The Innocents Abroad
Richard Wagner – Das Judenthum in der Musik (Jewishness in Music)
Garnet Wolseley – Soldier’s Pocket-book for Field Service

January 10 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (died 1969)
January 15 – Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish dramatist, poet, painter and architect (died 1907)
February 8 – Victor Ido, born Hans van de Wall, Dutch East Indian journalist, novelist and playwright (died 1948)
February 11 – Else Lasker-Schüler, German-born poet, playwright and short story writer (died 1945)
March 11
- F. G. Loring, English writer and naval officer (died 1951)
- Rosa Louise Woodberry, American journalist and educator (died 1932)
March 14 – Algernon Blackwood, English writer (died 1951)^[20]
May 10 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (died 1969)
May 23 – Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, American poet (died 1944)
June 10 – Arthur Shearly Cripps, English-born poet, short story writer and Anglican priest in Africa (died 1952)
July 1 – William Strunk, Jr., American professor of English (died 1946)
July 8 – William Vaughn Moody, American dramatist and poet (died 1910)
July 29 – Booth Tarkington, American novelist (died 1946)
August 10 – Laurence Binyon, English poet and dramatist (died 1943)^[21]
September 6 – Felix Salten, Austrian author and critic (died 1945)^[22]
October 6 – Bo Bergman, Swedish poet (died 1967)^[23]
November 15 – Charlotte Mew, English poet (died 1928)^[24]
November 20 – Zinaida Gippius, Russian writer (died 1945)
November 22 – André Gide, French writer (died 1951)^[25]
December 22 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (died 1935)^[26]
December 30 – Stephen Leacock, English-born Canadian humorist and economist (died 1944)

January 20 – Carl Wilhelm Göttling, German classical commentator (born 1793)^[27]
January 28 – Sophie Bolander, Swedish writer (born 1807)^[28]
January 30
- Frances Catherine Barnard, English writer (born 1796)
- William Carleton, Irish writer (born 1794)
February 15 – Ghalib, Indian poet (born 1796)
February 28 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and politician (born 1790)^[29]
March 31 – David Rees (Y Cynhyrfwr), Nonconformist leader and author (born 1801)^[30]
May 18 – Peter Cunningham, British literary scholar and antiquarian (born 1816)
July 7 – Paul Botten-Hansen, Norwegian librarian, book collector, magazine editor and literary critic (born 1824)^[31]
July 11 – William Jerdan, Scottish-born editor (born 1782)
July 15 – Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker, German publisher (born 1781)
July 19 – Victor Aimé Huber, German travel writer and literary historian (born 1800)
July 22 – Julius Braun, German historian (born 1825)
August 2 – Thomas Medwin, English poet, biographer and translator (born 1788)
September 12 – Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (born 1779)
October – John Jones (Talhaiarn), poet (born 1810)^[32]
October 13 – Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French literary critic (b. 1804)^[33]
October 18 – Simon Jenko, Slovene poet (born 1835)
November 3 – Andreas Kalvos, Greek Romantic poet and dramatist (born 1792)
November 12 – Gheorghe Asachi, Moldavian polymath (born 1788)

Hahn, Daniel (2015). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Second ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198715542.

^ Mark Twain (28 July 1992). Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 3: 1869. University of California Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-520-90608-2.

^ Super, R. H. (1990). The chronicler of Barsetshire : a life of Anthony Trollope. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 241. ISBN 9780472081394.

^ Trager, James. The New York Chronology: The Ultimate Compendium of Events, People, and Anecdotes from the Dutch to the Present. p. 154.

^ Jeremy Cooper (1998). Victorian and Edwardian Decor: From the Gothic Revival to Art Nouveau. Abbeville Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-7892-0446-2.

^ Martin, R. Eden (July 2012). "The Original War and Peace" (PDF). Caxtonian. 20 (7). Caxton Club: 1–5. Retrieved 2015-10-21.

^ Aldrich, Thomas (1990). The story of a bad boy. Hanover, NH: University of New Hampshire Press. ISBN 9780874517941.

^ "Reseña: Clemencia de Ignacio Manuel Altamirano" [Summary: Clemencia by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano]. Compartiendo grafias (in Spanish). Retrieved June 1, 2019.

^ Hahn 2015, p. 15

^ Cooper, Robert (1998). The literary guide & companion to southern England. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9780821412251.

^ Schwab, Gail (1995). The French Revolution of 1789 and its impact. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. p. 159. ISBN 9780313293399.

^ Bosi, Alfredo (2018). História concisa da literatura brasileira (in Portuguese). São Paulo: Editora Cultrix. p. 130. ISBN 9788531601897.

^ Malot, Hector (1992). Romain Kalbris. Paris: Hachette jeunesse. ISBN 9782010195655.

^ John, Juliet (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 619. ISBN 978-0-19-959373-6.

^ Hahn 2015, pp. 12-13

^ Hahn 2015, p. 95

^ Hahn 2015, p. 190

^ Hahn 2015, p. 301

^ Arnold, Matthew (1993). Culture and anarchy and other writings. Cambridge New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. vi. ISBN 9780521377966.

^ Sears, Donald A. (1978). John Neal. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. p. 145. ISBN 080-5-7723-08.

^ "Blackwood, Algernon Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31913. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Binyon, Laurence" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

^ McColl, Sandra (1996). Music criticism in Vienna, 1896-1897: critically moving forms. Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 9780198165644.

^ World Biography. Institute for Research in Biography. 1954. p. 91.

^ Warner, Val, ed. Collected Poems and Selected Prose of Charlotte Mews. New York: Routledge, 2003, p. ix.

^ Sheridan, Alan (1999). André Gide: a life in the present. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780674035270.

^ Smith, Danny D. "Biography of Edwin Arlington Robinson". A Virtual Tour of Robinson's Gardiner, Maine. Gardiner Public Library. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2021.

^ Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Göttling, Karl Wilhelm" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

^ "Sophie C M Bolander - Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon". sok.riksarkivet.se (in Swedish). Retrieved January 30, 2019.

^ Carruth, Gorton (1993). The Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates. New York: HarperCollins. p. 492. ISBN 9780062700124.

^ John Dyfnallt Owen (1959). "Rees, David (1801-1869), Congregational minister, and editor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

^ "Paul Botten-Hansen 1824–1869". selhistorie.no. Retrieved March 1, 2018.

^ David Gwenallt Jones (1959). "Jones, John (Talhaiarn; 1810-1869), architect and poet". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

^ LastName, FirstName (1990). Gateway to the Great Books : Ten-volume Set. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 62. ISBN 9781593392215.

1869 in literature

Contents

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Notes

References

Languages