1888 in literature

The year 1888 in literature involved some significant new books.

New books

 * Grant Allen - The Devil's Die
 * The White Man's Foot
 * Edward Bellamy - Looking Backward
 * Rolf Boldrewood - Robbery Under Arms
 * Mary Elizabeth Braddon - The Fatal Three
 * James De Mille - A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
 * H. Rider Haggard - Maiwa's Revenge
 * Henry James - The Aspern Papers
 * Princess Casamassima
 * Rudyard Kipling
 * The Man Who Would Be King
 * Plain Tales from the Hills
 * George MacDonald - The Elect Lady
 * Herman Melville - John Marr and Other Sailors
 * Octave Mirbeau, L'Abbé Jules
 * George A. Moore
 * Spring Days--A Prelude to Don Juan
 * Shardha Ram Phillauri - Bhagyawati
 * Raul Pompéia - O Ateneu
 * José Maria de Eça de Queiroz - Os Maias
 * Henryk Sienkiewicz - Pan Wołodyjowski
 * Robert Louis Stevenson - The Black Arrow
 * Jules Verne - Family Without a Name (Famille-sans-nom)
 * Two Years' Vacation
 * Lew Wallace - The Boyhood of Christ
 * Mary Augusta Ward - Robert Elsmere

New drama

 * Sarah Bernhardt - L'Aveu, drame en un acte en prose
 * Henrik Ibsen - The Lady from the Sea
 * August Strindberg - Miss Julie

Non-fiction

 * Joseph Bertrand - Calcul des probabilités
 * John D. Billings - Hard Tack and Coffee
 * Helena Blavatsky - The Secret Doctrine

Births

 * January 24 - Vicki Baum, writer (died 1960)
 * April 26 - Anita Loos, novelist, screenwriter (d. 1981)
 * July 23 - Raymond Chandler, novelist, screenwriter (d. 1959)
 * September 26 - T. S. Eliot, poet, playwright (d. 1965)
 * October 14 - Katherine Mansfield short story writer (d. 1923)
 * October 16 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright (d. 1953)
 * Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (d. 1935)

Deaths

 * March 6 - Louisa May Alcott, American novelist (born 1832)
 * April 15 - Matthew Arnold, poet (b. 1822)
 * May 12 - Edward Lear, poet (b. 1812)
 * August 9 - Charles Cros, French poet (b. 1842)
 * August 20 - Henry Richard, political writer (b. 1812)
 * September 24 - Karl von Prantl, philosopher (b. 1820)
 * December 8 - Frederick Apthorp Paley, scholar (b. 1815)
 * December 23 - Laurence Oliphant, travel writer (b. 1829)

Awards

 * Newdigate prize - Arthur Waugh