1920 in literature

The year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

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

 * Sherwood Anderson &mdash; Poor White
 * L. Frank Baum &mdash; Glinda of Oz
 * Marjorie Bowen &mdash; The Burning Glass
 * Rhoda Broughton &mdash; A Fool in Her Folly
 * Edgar Rice Burroughs &mdash; Tarzan the Untamed
 * Agatha Christie &mdash; The Mysterious Affair at Styles (first Hercule Poirot mystery)
 * Colette &mdash; Chéri
 * John Dos Passos &mdash; Three Soldiers
 * F. Scott Fitzgerald &mdash; This Side Of Paradise
 * Robert Frost &mdash; Mountain Interval
 * Zona Gale &mdash; Miss Lulu Bett
 * John Galsworthy - In Chancery
 * D.H. Lawrence &mdash; Women in Love
 * Sinclair Lewis &mdash; Main Street
 * David LINDA &mdash; ''A Voyage to Arcturus
 * Hugh Lofting &mdash; The Story of Doctor Dolittle
 * H.L. Mencken &mdash; Prejudices: Second Series
 * E. Phillips Oppenheim &mdash; The Great Impersation
 * Dowell Philip O'Reilly &mdash; Five Corners
 * Sigrid Undset &mdash; The Bridal Wreath
 * Mary Augusta Ward &mdash; Harvest
 * Edith Wharton &mdash; The Age of Innocence
 * Owen Wister &mdash; A Straight Deal
 * Zara Wright &mdash; Black and White Tangled Threads

New drama

 * Karel Čapek - R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
 * Nikolai Evreinov - The Storming of the Winter Palace
 * John Galsworthy - The Skin Game
 * Georg Kaiser - Gas II
 * Vladimir Mayakovsky - The Championship of the Universal Class Struggle
 * Eugene O'Neill - The Emperor Jones
 * Ernst Toller - Man and Masses
 * Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - They

Poetry

 * Robert Bridges - October and Other Poems
 * T.S. Eliot - Poems (Twelve poems including "Lune de Miel" and "The Hippopotamus")
 * Robert Frost - Miscellaneous Poems
 * Ezra Pound - Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
 * Carl Sandburg - Smoke and Steel
 * Siegfried Sassoon - Picture Show
 * Edna St. Vincent Millay - A Few Figs From Thistles

Non-fiction

 * Sigmund Freud - Beyond the Pleasure Principle
 * Frederick Jackson Turner &mdash; The Frontier in American History
 * H. G. Wells - The Outline of History

Births

 * January 2 - Isaac Asimov, author (d. 1992)
 * January 24 - Keith Douglas, English poet (d. 1944)
 * February 11 - Daniel F. Galouye, American science fiction author (d. 1976)
 * February 19 - Jaan Kross, Estonian writer (d. 2007)
 * February 21 - Ishigaki Rin, Japanese poet (d. 2004)
 * February 29 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
 * March 10 - Boris Vian, French novelist (d. 1959)
 * March 11 - D. J. Enright, English writer (d. 2002)
 * April 5 - Arthur Hailey, novelist (d. 2004)
 * June 8 - Gwen Harwood, Australian poet (d. 1995)
 * June 18 - Rosemary Dobson, Australian poet
 * June 20 - Amos Tutuola, Nigerian writer (d. 1997)
 * July 12 - Pierre Berton, Canadian author (d. 2004)
 * August 3 - P. D. James, English 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 (d. 1986)
 * October 15 - Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather (d. 1999)
 * November 23 - Paul Celan, poet (d. 1970)
 * December 15 - Albert Memmi, Tunisian writer
 * December 20 - Väinö Linna, Finnish author (d. 1992)

Deaths

 * January 2 - Paul Adam, French novelist (b. 1862
 * January 4 - Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (b. 1843))
 * January 18 - Giovanni Capurro, Italian poet (b. 1825)
 * March 15 - Edith Holden, diarist and illustrator (b. 1871) (drowned)
 * March 26 - Mary Augusta Ward, novelist (b. 1851)
 * May 11 - William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)
 * May 21 - Eleanor H. Porter, American novelist (b. 1868)
 * June 5
 * Rhoda Broughton, Welsh novelist (b. 1840)
 * Julia A. Moore, American poet (b. 1847)
 * June 14 - Max Weber, German political economist (b. 1864)
 * June 27 - Adolphe Basile Routhier, Canadian poet (b. 1839)
 * October 19 - John Reed, American journalist (b. 1887)
 * November 22 - Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (b. 1884)

Awards

 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: D. H. Lawrence, The Lost Girl
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill
 * 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