1902 in literature

See also: 1901 in literature, other events of 1902, 1903 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• April – Mark Twain purchases a home in Terrytown, New York.
• June 4 – Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of literature degree from Missouri University.
• June – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege informing him of the problem that would become known as Russell's Paradox.
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is published.
• The Wings of the Dove by Henry James is published.

New books

• Anna of the Five Towns – Arnold Bennett
• The Battle-Ground – Ellen Glasgow
• Buddenbrooks – Thomas Mann
• The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop – Hamlin Garland
• The Earthen Floor (poetry) – Edwin James Brady
• Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
• The Hole in the Wall – Arthur Morrison
• The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle
• Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
• Lavinia – Rhoda Broughton
• L'immoraliste – André Gide
• Mrs Craddock – W. Somerset Maugham
• The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci – Dmitri Merejkowski
• The Sport of the Gods – Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Supermaschio – Alfred Jarry
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
• Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy – Marie Corelli
• Valley of Decision – Edith Wharton
• The Varieties of Religious Experience – William James
• The Virginian – Owen Wister
• The Wings of the Dove – Henry James

Births

• January 20 – Nazim Hikmet, lyricist and dramatist (d. 1963)
• February 19 – Kay Boyle, writer, educator, political activist (d. 1992)
• February 27 – John Steinbeck writer (d. 1968)
• August 16 – Georgette Heyer, British novelist (d. 1974)
• August 19 – Ogden Nash, poet(d. 1971)

Deaths

• May 6 – Bret Harte, author, poet
• June 10 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet
• June 18 – Samuel Butler, novelist
• September 29 – Emile Zola, French author
• October 25 – Frank Norris, novelist

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen