1879 in literature

See also: 1878 in literature, other events of 1879, 1880 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• The Rabelais Club founded in London, holding a literary dinner once every two months. High-profile members included novelists Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Bret Harte, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Walter Besant, and George Du Maurier.

New books

• Beau Nash – William Harrison Ainsworth
• The Begum's Fortune – Jules Verne
• The Cloven Foot – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• Daisy Miller – Henry James
• The Egoist – George Meredith
• The Fallen Leaves – Wilkie Collins
• Jack and Jill: A Village Story – Louisa May Alcott
• John Caldigate – Anthony Trollope
• Kings in Exile – Alphonse Daudet
• The Red Room – August Strindberg
• Roda Rummet – August Strindberg
• A Rogue's Life – Wilkie Collins
• Les Soeurs Vatard – Joris-Karl Huysmans
• Vixen – Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Births

• January 1 – E.M. Forster (d. 1970)
• April 14 – James Branch Cabell, (d. 1958)
• October 2 – Wallace Stevens, poet (d. 1955)
• December 24 – Émile Nelligan, poet (d. 1941)

Deaths

• February 11 – Willem J van Zeggelen, Dutch author
• October 31 – Jacob Abbott, writer

Awards