January 2014 | Jeremy Dibbell

Literary Anniversaries 2014

Some literary anniversaries coming up in 2014. Obviously not an exhaustive list!


50 years ago (1964):


Bret Easton Ellis born, 7 March.

Elizabeth Kostova born, 26 December.

T.H. White dies, 17 January.

Rachel Carson dies, 14 April.

Flannery O'Connor dies, 3 August.

Ian Fleming dies, 12 August.

- Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory published.

- Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang published.

- Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree published.


100 years ago (1914):


William S. Burroughs born, 5 February.

Ralph Ellison born, 1 March.

Octavio Paz born, 31 March.

Bernard Malamud born, 26 April.

Dylan Thomas born, 27 October.

Patrick O'Brian born, 12 December.

- James Joyce's Dubliners published.


150 years ago (1864):


Nathaniel Hawthorne dies, 19 May.

Walter Savage Landor dies, 17 September.

- J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas and Wylder's Hand published.

- Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth published.


200 years ago (1814):


J. Sheridan Le Fanu born, 28 August.

William Wells Brown born, 6 November.

Marquis de Sade dies, 2 December.

- Walter Scott's Waverley published.

- Lord Byron's The Corsair published.

- Jane Austen's Mansfield Park published.


250 years ago (1764):


Ann Radcliffe born, 9 July.

Robert Dodsley dies, 23 September.

- Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto published.

- George Psalmanazar's Memoirs published.

- Cesare Beccaria's Of Crimes and Punishments published.


300 years ago (1714):


William Shenstone born, 13 November.

Scriblerus Club founded.

- Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees published in book form.


350 years ago (1664):


Matthew Prior born, 21 July.

- John Evelyn's Sylva published in book form.


400 years ago (1614):


Isaac Casaubon dies, 1 July.


450 years ago (1564):


Galileo Galilei born, 15 February.

Christopher Marlowe born, February (bap. 26 February).

William Shakespeare born, April (bap. 26 April).

John Calvin dies, 27 May.

Andreas Vesalius dies, 15 October.

- First datable printed work in Russian printed, 1 March.


500 years ago (1514):


Georg Joachim Rheticus born, 16 February.

Andreas Vesalius born, 31 December.

Hartmann Schedel dies, 28 November.

- Albrecht Dürer engraves Melencolia I and St. Jerome in His Study.