1888 in literature

See also: 1887 in literature, other events of 1888, 1889 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• Adrift In The Pacific – Jules Verne
• Aspern papers – Henry James
• L'Aveu, drame en un acte en prose – Sarah Bernhardt
• The Boyhood of Christ – Lew Wallace
• Confessions of a Young Man – George A. Moore
• The Devil's Die – Grant Allen
• The Fatal Three – Mary Elizabeth Braddon
• John Marr and Other Sailors – Herman Melville
• Looking Backward – Edward Bellamy
• Maiwa's Revenge – H. Rider Haggard
• Master of Ballantrae – Robert Louis Stevenson
• Princess Casamassima – Henry James
• Robbery Under Arms – Rolf Boldrewood
• Robert Elsmere – Mary Augusta Ward
• Spring Days--A Prelude to Don Juan – George A. Moore
• The White Man's Foot – Grant Allen
• A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder – James De Mille
• The Secret Doctrine – Helena Blavatsky

Births

• January 24 – Vicki Baum, writer
• April 26 – Anita Loos, novelist, screenwriter
• October 14 – Katherine Mansfield short story writer
• October 16 – Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• July 23 – Raymond Chandler, novelist, screenwriter
• Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Australian illustrator
• Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer

Deaths

• March 6 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist
• April 15 – Matthew Arnold, poet
• May 12 – Edward Lear, poet
• August 9 – Charles Cros, French poet
• August 20 – Henry Richard, political writer
• September 24 – Karl von Prantl, philosopher
• December 8 – Frederick Apthorp Paley, scholar
• December 23 – Laurence Oliphant, travel writer

Awards