1920 in literature

See also: 1919 in literature, other events of 1920, 1921 in literature, List of years in literature.

Events

• Hercule Poirot makes his first appearance.
• Beyond the Horizon, Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, opens at a special matinee at the Morosco Theater on February 2 – partly as an experiment on the part of the producer, partly to quiet the pleading of actor Richard Bennett who has demanded a chance to play the lead role. Reviewers hail the play and O'Neill becomes famous. The Emperor Jones is staged in November.
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is published. It is a sensation, immediately establishing Fitzgerald as a writer and celebrity. Though the book's reputation will dim in later years, Dorothy Parker will recall that it was regarded as an innovative work when it first appeared.
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is published.
• Main Street by Sinclair Lewis is published.
• D.H. Lawrence publishes Women in Love.
• Hart Crane publishes his poem My Grandmother's Love Letters in The Dial. This is his first real step towards recognition as a poet.
• Van Wyck Brooks publishes The Ordeal of Mark Twain, arguing that Twain's genius was perverted by the conditions and culture of late 19th-century America. This is the beginning of the reassessment of Mark Twain, who until this point has been regarded primarily as a humorous entertainer. The 1920s will force a reconsideration of many 19th-century writers, most importantly Melville and Dickinson.

New books

• The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
• Black and White Tangled Threads  – Zara Wright
• The Bridal Wreath  – Sigrid Undset
• The Burning Glass – Marjorie Bowen
• Chéri  – Colette
• A Few Figs From Thistles  – Edna St. Vincent Millay
• A Fool in Her Folly – Rhoda Broughton
• The Frontier in American History – Frederick Jackson Turner
• Harvest – Mary Augusta Ward
• Hugh Selwyn Mauberly – Ezra Pound
• Main Street – Sinclair Lewis
• Miscellaneous Poems – Robert Frost
• Miss Lulu Bett – Zona Gale
• Mountain Interval – Robert Frost
• Mysterious Affair of Styles  – Agatha Christie (first Hercule Poirot mystery)
• The Outline of History – H.G. Wells
• Picture Show  – Siegfried Sassoon
• Poems  – T.S. Eliot (Twelve poems including “Lune de Miel” and “The Hippopotamus.”)
• Poor White – Sherwood Anderson
• Prejudices: Second Series – H.L. Mencken
• A Straight Deal – Owen Wister
• Smoke and Steel – Carl Sandburg
• This Side Of Paradise – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Women in Love  – D.H. Lawrence

Births

• January 2 – Isaac Asimov, author (d. 1992)
• February 11 – Daniel Francis Galouye, American science fiction author (d. 1976)
• March 10 – Boris Vian, French novelist (d. 1959)
• April 5 – Arthur Hailey, novelist (d. 2004)
• July 12 – Pierre Berton, Canadian author
• August 16 – Charles Bukowski, American writer (d. 1994)
• August 22 – Ray Bradbury, American science fiction writer
• October 8 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction author
• October 15 – Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather (d. 1999)

Deaths

• March 26 – Mary Augusta Ward, author
• May 11 – William Dean Howells, writer
• June 5 – Rhoda Broughton, author

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Knut Hamsun
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel : no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: No award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Eugene O'Neill, Beyond the Horizon