literature and language - events

626 BC	Palestine, Neo-Assyrian Empire	According to the Old Testament, the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (credited with writing Lamentations and the Book of Jeremiah) warns his countrymen of a disaster that is about to befall them, in an invective full of phrases that have survived to become part of European literature. His warning refers to the Captivity, in which Jewish deportees are exiled to Babylon. The Hebrew prophets Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakkuk are also active at this time.
523	Roman Empire	While imprisoned in Rome for suspected treason, the philosopher Boethius writes his De consolatione philosophiae/On the Consolation of Philosophy, a prose dialogue in which the lady, Philosophy, responds to Boethius's misfortunes with Stoic, Platonic, and Christian advice.
704	Korea	The earliest known printed book, the Buddhist text Dharani Sutra, is written; it is discovered in modern South Korea on 14 October 1966.
1000	Japan	Makura no Soshi/The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is written around this time. A Japanese lady's commonplace book with often mischievous reflections and anecdotes about court life, it is one of the masterpieces of Japanese literature.
1284	Germany, Holy Roman Empire	A plague of rats throughout Europe gives rise to the German tale The Pied Piper of Hamlin, a story which may have some basis in fact.
c. 1330	Italy	I fioretti di San Francisco/The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, a popular collection of stories and legends describing the life of Saint Francis, is written and widely circulated.
1335	Persia	An illustrated edition of the Shah-nama/Book of Kings, the Persian national epic, is produced at Tabriz. This edition is one of classics of Persian bookmaking.
1451–1456	Germany, Holy Roman Empire	German craftsman Johann Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible, in Mainz, Germany, using movable, reusable, metal type. The work is printed in Gothic type, with 42 lines per page; 48 copies of the original printing currently survive.
1470	Wales, England	Sir Thomas Malory completes Le Morte d'Arthur/The Death of Arthur. Based on French originals, it is the first prose account in English of the Arthurian legend. Malory remains a shadowy figure. He is thought to be a Welsh knight who translated the story from French while languishing in prison. The book is published by Caxton in 1485.
1473	Germany	De imitatione Christi/On the Imitation of Christ attributed to the German mystic Thomas à Kempis (Thomas Hemerken) is first printed in Augsburg. The text had been widely circulated in manuscript for many years before being published. A classic of devotional literature, it will become the most widely read Christian book after the Bible.
1532	France	French writer François Rabelais publishes the first book of his Pantagruel series, a satire which includes a discussion of the merits of an educational curriculum based on the study of the sciences. Four books are attributed to Rabelais, with a doubtful fifth published in 1553 after his death.
1561	England	Il libro del cortegiano/The Book of the Courtier, written in 1528 by the Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione, is translated into English by the English scholar Thomas Moby.
1580	France	French writer Michel de Montaigne publishes Essais/Essays, a two-volume collection of his essays. Covering a wide range of subjects, personal as well as scholarly, these reflections help to create a new literary form, the essay. A second edition appears in 1588.
1616	Germany	The pamphlet Chymische Hochzeit/The Chemical Wedding appears under the pseudonym Christian Rosenkreutz, written by the German theologian Johann Valentin Andreä. The secret (and fictitious) religious society the pamphlets describe causes a great deal of interest throughout Europe and leads to the creation of the Rosicrucian society.
1624	England	English poet John Donne publishes Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, a selection of his prayers and meditations.
1637	England	The English poet John Milton publishes the masque (an entertainment involving theatre, music, and dance) Comus. It was first performed in 1634 at Ludlow Castle, in celebration of the Earl of Bridgwater's appointment to the presidency of Wales.
1640–1700	North America	Literacy rates in the colonies, particularly in New England, are high relative to those in the Old World. Shipton, New England has a 95% literacy rate; males in Virginia have a literacy rate between 54% and 60%.
1663	England	The English poet Samuel Butler publishes the first part of his satire Hudibras, written in ‘Hudibrastics’ (eight-syllable rhyming couplets). Part two appears in 1664, part three in 1678.
1667	England	The English poet John Milton publishes his epic poem Paradise Lost. A revised edition appears in 1674.
1668	France	The French poet Jean de La Fontaine publishes the first volume of his Fables choisies mises en vers/Selected Fables Put Into Verse, his best-known work. A second volume appears in 1678, a third in 1693.
1669	Germany	The German writer Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen publishes his novels: Der Abentheurliche Simplicissimus/The Adventurous Simplicissimus. Picaresque novels, they are a satire on the Thirty Years' War. Further volumes appear in 1670 and 1672.
1671	England	The English poet John Milton publishes the epic in four books Paradise Regained, a sequel to Paradise Lost (1667).
1671	France	Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné begins a long series of letters to her daughter. In total she writes over a thousand letters, creating a vivid and detailed picture of French society in the second half of the 17th century.
1673	England	The English poet John Milton publishes Poems Upon Various Occasions.
1674	France	French poet and critic Nicolas Boileau Despréaux publishes L'Art poétique/The Art of Poetry, a defence of the classical tradition.
1678	England, America	The English-born American poet Anne Bradstreet publishes Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning, the first American edition of her poems (an unauthorized edition appeared in London, England, in 1650).
1678	France	The French writer Marie-Madeleine (Madame) de La Fayette anonymously publishes the novel La Princesse de Clèves/The Princess of Clèves, a landmark in the development of the French novel.
1681	England	The English poet and dramatist John Dryden publishes part one of his satirical allegory Absalom and Achitophel. Part two appears in 1682.
1687	England	The English poet and dramatist John Dryden publishes his religious allegory The Hind and the Panther.
1688	England	The English writer Aphra Behn publishes her novel Oroonoko. She is the first English woman to earn her living as a writer.
1688	France	French writer Jean de la Bruyère publishes his collection of satirical sketches Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits de Grec avec les caractères ou les moeurs de ce siècle/The Characters of Theophrastus Translated from Greek, with the Characters or Manners of the Age.
1689	England	Miscellaneous Poems by Andrew Marvell Esq, the first collection of poems by the English poet Andrew Marvell, is published posthumously. It contains his famous poem ‘To His Coy Mistress’.
1694	England	The Journal of the English Quaker George Fox is published posthumously, edited by Thomas Ellwood.
1697	France	The French writer Charles Perrault publishes Contes de ma mère l'oye/Mother Goose Stories. This famous collection of fairy stories contains such classics as ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Cinderella’, and ‘Bluebeard’.
1704	Ireland, England	The Irish writer Jonathan Swift publishes A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, both satires on contemporary intellectual disputes.
1705	England	Dutch-born English writer Bernard de Mandeville publishes his verse satire The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turned Honest. A revised version appears as The Fable of the Bees in 1714.
1721	France	The French writer Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, publishes his satirical novel Lettres Persanes/Persian Letters, anonymously.
1722	England	The English writer Daniel Defoe publishes the partly factual A Journal of the Plague Year and the novel Moll Flanders.
1726	Ireland, England	The Irish churchman and writer Jonathan Swift publishes the prose satire Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, anonymously.
1728	England	The English poet Alexander Pope publishes the satire The Dunciad anonymously. He acknowledges its authorship in 1735.
1729	Ireland, England	The Irish churchman and writer Jonathan Swift publishes A Modest Proposal, a savage satire suggesting that poverty in Ireland could be remedied if children were reared to be eaten.
1740	England	The English writer Samuel Richardson publishes Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, generally considered the first English novel.
1741	England	The English writer Henry Fielding anonymously publishes Shamela, a satirical parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740).
1742	England	The English writer Henry Fielding publishes his novel Joseph Andrews.
1748	Scotland	The Scottish writer Tobias George Smollett publishes his novel The Adventures of Roderick Random.
1748	England	The English writer John Cleland publishes part of his novel The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (better known as Fanny Hill). The remainder is published in 1749.
1749	England	The English writer Henry Fielding publishes his novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, widely considered one of the finest novels of the century.
1751	England	The English poet Thomas Gray publishes An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, his best-known poem.
1751	Scotland	The Scottish writer Tobias George Smollett publishes The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle.
1755	England	English writer and critic Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language. A revised edition appears in 1773.
1759	England	The English writer and critic Samuel Johnson publishes his philosophical romance The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
1759	France	The French writer Voltaire publishes his novel Candide, ou L'Optimisme/Candide, or Optimism, a satire on the thinkers and institutions he considers a hindrance to human progress. It becomes his most widely read work and is soon translated.
1760	England	The English writer Laurence Sterne publishes the first two volumes of his novel The Life and Adventure of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Volumes three and four appear in 1761, volumes five and six in 1762, volumes seven and eight in 1765, and volume nine in 1767. He also publishes his first volume of sermons under the title The Sermons of Mr Yorick (the name of the parson in his novel).
1774	England	The English writer and statesman Lord Chesterfield publishes Letters to his Son, a guide to good manners and success in society.
1812	France	French zoologist Georges Cuvier, publishes Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes/Research on the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds, and establishes comparative vertebrate palaeontology. He theorizes that the extinction of species has been caused by great catastrophes such as sudden land upheavals and floods.
1813	Wales	The Welsh social reformer Robert Owen publishes A New View of Society.
1824	England	The English writer Mary Mitford publishes the first volume of her account of village life Our Village: Sketches of Rural Life, Character and Scenery. The final volume appears in 1832. The sketches began to appear in Lady Magazine in 1819.
1841	USA	The US poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his first volume of Essays. Among the essays are ‘The Over-Soul’, ‘Self-Reliance’, and ‘Friendship’.
1844	USA	The US essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his second volume of Essays. Among them are ‘The Poet’ and ‘Nature’.
20 April 1852	USA	Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin in book form. The book, previously serialized in the antislavery broadsheet National Era, is instantly controversial and popular, selling 1.2 million copies by mid-1853.
1868	Germany	The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Gözendammerung/Twilight of the Idols.
1878	Germany	The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Menschliches, Allzumenschliches/Human, All Too Human.
1882	Russia	The book Dieu et l'Etat/God and the State by the Russian anarchist Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin is published posthumously.
1883	India, UK	British explorer and translator Richard (Francis) Burton translates the Indian classic the Kama Sutra.
1888	Germany	The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche publishes Der Antichrist/The Anti-Christ, and Ecce Homo/Behold the Man.
1895	Austria	The Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud publishes Studien über Hysterie/Studies in Hysteria.
1895	Austria	The Austrian architect Otto Wagner publishes his influential book Moderne Architektur/Modern Architecture.
1903	USA	A donation from the US newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer is used to found the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, in New York City, and the Pulitzer prizes, awarded annually for outstanding achievement in journalism, letters, and music.
1925		The English writer Virginia Woolf publishes The Common Reader, a collection of essays.
April 1926	USA	US advertising executive Harry Scherman founds the first bookclub in the world, the Book-of-the-Month Club, in the USA.
1930		Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder publishes Little House on the Prairie.
1933		The English writer George Orwell publishes Down and Out in Paris and London, an account of his experience of working among the poor and dispossessed.
1937	Denmark	The Danish writer Isak Dinesen publishes Den Afrikanske Farm/The African Farm, which she translates into English the same year as Out of Africa.
1943	France	The Algerian-born French writer Albert Camus publishes his influential philosophical study Le Mythe de Sisyphe/The Myth of Sisyphus.
1944	Germany	The German philosopher Ernst Cassirer publishes An Essay on Man: An Introduction to Human Culture.
1955	Germany	The German physicist and philosopher Werner Heisenberg publishes Das Naturbild der heutigen Physik/The Physicist's Conception of Nature.
1963	USA	The US writer James Baldwin publishes The Fire Next Time, two essays warning of the threat of racial violence in the USA.
1964	USA	US writer Tom Wolfe publishes The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, a collection of essays. He is a pioneer of the ‘New Journalism’ style, combining the techniques of reportage and fiction.
1966	France	The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan publishes Ecrits/Writings.
1977	France	The French social and literary critic Roland Barthes publishes Fragments d'un discours amoureux/A Lover's Discourse.
1991	UK	Andrew Morton writes Diana: Her True Story, a biography of the Princess of Wales, with the collaboration of her friends.
23 April 1998	UK	The British publishing and bookseller industries launch World Book Day with events and celebrations; all schoolchildren in the country receive a £1 book token.