Editing 1868 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1868|literature|poetry}}

Events from the year '''1868 in literature '''.

==Events==
*January – [[Émile Zola]] defends his first major novel, ''[[Thérèse Raquin]]'' ([[1867 in literature|1867]]), against charges of pornography and corruption of morals.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Ferragus |author-link=Louis Ulbach |title=La littérature putride |newspaper=[[Le Figaro]] |location=Paris |date=23 January 1868}}</ref> 
*[[January 4]]–[[August 8]] – [[Wilkie Collins]]' [[epistolary novel]] ''[[The Moonstone]]: a Romance'' is serialised in ''[[All the Year Round]]'' (U.K.), being published in book format in July by [[Tinsley Brothers]] of London.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wilkie Collins ''The Moonstone'' in Serial and Triple-Decker Publication |first=Philip V. |last=Allingham|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/collins/moonstone1.html |publisher=The [[Victorian Web]] |date=2007-06-08 |accessdate=2013-10-15}}</ref> It is seen as a precursor of full-length [[mystery fiction]] (with its introduction of the police detective [[Sergeant Cuff]]) and the [[psychological thriller]].<ref>[[T. S. Eliot]] calls it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins".{{Cite book |last=David |first=Deirdre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXQXzUbCSygC&q=the+first%2C+the+longest%2C+and+the+best+of+modern+English+detective+novels&pg=PA179 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel |page=179 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001|isbn=9780521646192 }}</ref>
*[[January 9]] – [[John William De Forest]], writing for ''[[The Nation]]'', calls for a more specifically [[American literature]];<ref>{{Cite journal |last=DeForest|first=John|date=9 January 1868 |title=The Great American Novel |journal=The Nation |place=New York |url=http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/articles/n2ar39at.html |accessdate=2010-10-11}}</ref> the essay's title, "The [[Great American Novel]]", is the first known use of the term.
*[[April 29]] – The [[Court of King's Bench (England)]] decides on appeal the legal case ''Regina v. Hicklin'' on interpretation of the word "obscene" in the [[Obscene Publications Act 1857]], applying the "[[Hicklin test]]": that any part of a publication with a "tendency... to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall"<ref>{{Cite wikisource |Regina v. Hicklin#Decision}}</ref> makes the whole publication obscene, regardless of the author's intentions.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Craig R. |last=Ducat |title=Constitutional Interpretation: Rights of the individual |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFy8Xf86S5QC&pg=PT540 |accessdate=2011-09-30 |date=2008-02-29 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-50324-8 |page=540}}</ref>
*September – The first volume of [[Louisa May Alcott]]'s novel for girls ''[[Little Women]]'' is published by [[Roberts Brothers (publishers)|Roberts Brothers]] of [[Boston]], Massachusetts.
*November
**[[Robert Browning]]'s [[narrative poem]] ''[[The Ring and the Book]]'' begins four-part publication by [[Smith, Elder & Co.]] in London. It is a major commercial and critical success.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Browning |first=Robert |editor=Karlin, Daniel |year=2004 |title=Selected Poems |publisher=Penguin |page=11}}</ref>
**[[Norman MacLeod (1812–1872)|Norman MacLeod]], editor of ''[[Good Words]]'' (U.K.), begins publishing its companion juvenile version, ''Good Words for the Young''. The first issue begins the serial publication of [[George MacDonald]]'s ''[[At the Back of the North Wind]]''.
*December – The [[Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street)]] in London opens with the première of the recently bankrupted [[Henry James Byron]]'s semi-autobiographical comedy ''Cyril's Success''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thornbury |first=Walter |author-link=George Walter Thornbury |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45129 |publisher=Old and New London |year=1897 |volume=3 |title=Chapter 4 |pages=32&nbsp;–35 |accessdate=2013-10-15}}</ref>
*''unknown dates''
**The first edition of ''The [[World Almanac]] and Book of Facts'' is published by the ''[[New York World]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.worldalmanac.com/ |title=The World Almanac |accessdate=2013-02-12}}</ref>
**The first substantial translation into English from ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'' is made by [[Edward Charles Bowra]].
**[[Tauchnitz publishers]] of Leipzig begin their ''Collection of German Authors'', a series of cheap, authorized paperback reprints.

==New books==
<!-- (''Title of published book translation''), ("Title of published poem/story translation"), (Literal translation of title) -->

===Fiction===
* [[William Harrison Ainsworth]] – ''[[Myddleton Pomfret]]''
*[[R. M. Ballantyne]] – ''Deep Down''
*[[Henry Ward Beecher]] – ''Norwood, or Village Life in New England''
*[[Mary Elizabeth Braddon]] – ''Dead-Sea Fruit'' 
*[[Mary Elizabeth Braddon]] – ''Run to Earth''
*[[Mortimer Collins]] – ''Sweet Anne Page''
*[[Wilkie Collins]] – ''[[The Moonstone]]''
*[[Alphonse Daudet]] – ''[[Le Petit Chose]]''
*[[Comte de Lautréamont]] (anonymously as "***") – ''[[Les Chants de Maldoror]]'', Chant premier
*[[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] – ''[[The Idiot]]'' («Идио́т»)
*[[Émile Gaboriau]] – ''Slaves of Paris (Les Esclaves de Paris)''
*[[Hermann Goedsche]] – ''[[Biarritz (novel)|Biarritz]]''
*[[Bret Harte]] – ''[[The Luck of Roaring Camp]]''
*[[Sheridan Le Fanu]] – ''Haunted Lives''
*[[George MacDonald]] – ''Robert Falconer''
*[[Anthony Trollope]] – ''Linda Tressel''
*[[Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward]] – ''[[The Gates Ajar]]''
*[[Émile Zola]] – ''[[Madeleine Ferat]]'', "[[Therese Raquin]]"

===Children and young people===
*[[Louisa May Alcott]] – ''[[Little Women]]'' (Vol. 1; Vol. 2 in 1869)
*[[Horatio Alger Jr.]]
**''Fame and Fortune''
**''[[Ragged Dick]]'' (book publication)
**''Struggling Upward''
*[[Rosa Nouchette Carey]] – ''Nellie's Memories''
*[[James Greenwood (journalist)|James Greenwood]] – ''The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel''<ref>Jarndyce Catalogue CCXXIV, ''A Summer Miscellany'' (London, 2017), No. 201.</ref>
*[[Hesba Stretton]] – ''[[Little Meg's Children]]''
*[[Jules Verne]] – ''[[In Search of the Castaways]] (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant)''

===Drama===
*[[Samson Bodnărescu]] – ''Rienzi''
*[[Henry James Byron]] – ''Cyril's Success''
*[[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]] – ''[[Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man]] (Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty)''
*[[Hendrik Jan Schimmel]] – ''Struensee''
*[[Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy]] – ''[[Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich]]''

===Poetry===
*[[William Morris]] – ''[[The Earthly Paradise]]'' Volume 1

===Non-fiction===
*[[Elizabeth Keckley]] – ''Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House''
*[[Eliza Lynn Linton]] – ''The Girl of the Period''
*[[Edward A. Pollard]] – ''The Lost Cause Regained''
*[[John Wisden]] – ''Cricket and How to Play it''
*''[[World Almanac]]'' (first edition)

==Births==
*[[January 1]] – [[Sophia Alice Callahan]], American Muscogee novelist and teacher (died [[1894 in literature|1894]])<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/S-Alice-Callahan Carolyn Stull, "S. Alice Callahan"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online, 2016; accessed 6 August 2016</ref>
*[[January 5]] – [[Edward Garnett]], English writer, critic and literary editor (died [[1937 in literature|1937]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Barbara McCrimmon|title=Richard Garnett: The Scholar as Librarian|publisher=American Library Association|year=1989|page=56}}</ref>
*[[February 4]] – [[Miyake Kaho]] (三宅花圃), Japanese novelist, essayist and poet (died [[1943 in literature|1943]])
*[[February 10]] – [[William Allen White]], American journalist (died [[1944 in literature|1944]])<ref>{{cite web | title = William Allen White House: History | publisher = Kansas State Historical Society | year = 2008 | url = http://www.kshs.org/places/white/history.htm | access-date = 2008-03-30 | archive-date = 2008-04-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080408142116/http://www.kshs.org/places/white/history.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref>
*[[February 23]] – [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], American sociologist, historian and Pan-Africanist (died [[1963 in literature|1963]])<ref>{{cite book|author=The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.|title=The Crisis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA399|date=November 1980|publisher=The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.|pages=399}}</ref>
*[[March 28]] – [[Maxim Gorky]], Russian novelist and dramatist (died [[1936 in literature|1936]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Frank Marshall Borras|title=Maxim Gorky, the Writer: An Interpretation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-pfAAAAMAAJ|year=1967|publisher=Oxford|page=ix}}</ref>
*[[April 1]] – [[Edmond Rostand]], French poet and novelist (died [[1918 in literature|1918]])<ref>{{cite book|author=E. J. Freeman|title=Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9pcAAAAMAAJ|year=1995|publisher=University of Glasgow French and German Publications|isbn=978-0-85261-467-9|page=10}}</ref>
*[[May 6]] – [[Gaston Leroux]], French journalist and novelist (died [[1927 in literature|1927]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Laura Paola Pellegrini|title=Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux: The novel's evolution and its theatrical and cinematic adaptations in the twentieth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnbQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|date=April 27, 2012|publisher=LED Edizioni Universitarie|isbn=978-88-7916-584-6|pages=20}}</ref>
*[[May 7]] – [[Stanisław Przybyszewski]], Polish novelist, dramatist and poet (died [[1927 in literature|1927]])<ref>{{cite book|author=James N. Hardin|title=German Fiction Writers, 1885-1913|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1YobAQAAMAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Gale Research Company|isbn=978-0-8103-1744-4|page=402}}</ref>
*[[July 10]] – [[Afevork Ghevre Jesus]], Ethiopian novelist and linguist (died [[1947 in literature|1947]])
* [[July 14]] &ndash; [[Gertrude Bell]], English archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator (died [[1926 in literature|1926]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Alan Myers|title=Myers' Literary Guide: The North East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_C8gAQAAIAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Mid Northumberland Arts Group|isbn=978-1-85754-199-1|page=8}}</ref>
*[[July 17]] – [[Henri Nathansen]], Danish writer and stage director (died [[1944 in literature|1944]])<ref>{{cite web|title=Henri Nathansen|url=http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Kunst_og_kultur/Litteratur/Dansk_litteratur/1900-14/Henri_Nathansen|publisher=[[Den Store Danske Encyklopædi]]|accessdate=26 June 2010|language=Danish}}</ref>
*[[August 1]] - [[Hjalmar Bergström (writer)|Hjalmar Bergström]], Danish playwright, novelist, and short story writer (died [[1914 in literature|1914]])<ref>{{cite book|title=Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti: A-Z|page=710|chapter= Bergström, Hjalmar|author=Istituto Giovanni Treccani|year=1930|editor-last=Treccani|editor-first= Giovanni|publisher=Bestetti & Tumminelli}}</ref>
*[[August 6]] – [[Paul Claudel]], French poet, dramatist and diplomat (died [[1955 in literature|1955]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Claudel|title=The Correspondence, 1899-1926, Between Paul Claudel and André Gide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4R4mAQAAMAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Beacon Press|page=242}}</ref>
*[[August 23]] – [[Edgar Lee Masters]], American poet, biographer, dramatist and lawyer (died [[1950 in literature|1950]])
*[[September 9]] – [[Mary Hunter Austin]], American writer of fiction and non-fiction (died [[1934 in literature|1934]])<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fink|first1=Augusta| title=I-Mary, A Biography of Mary Austin|url=https://archive.org/details/imarybiographyof00augu|url-access=registration| date=1983|publisher=University of Arizona Press|location=Tucson, AZ |oclc=9081799|pages=[https://archive.org/details/imarybiographyof00augu/page/170 170–213]|isbn=9780816507894}}</ref> 
*[[September 14]] – [[Théodore Botrel]], French poet and dramatist (died [[1925 in literature|1925]])
*[[October 18]] – [[Ernst Didring]], Swedish novelist (died [[1931 in literature|1931]])
*[[November 5]] – [[Kassian Bogatyrets]], Rusyn priest, politician and historian (died [[1960 in literature|1960]])
*[[November 14]] – [[Steele Rudd]], Australian author (died [[1935 in literature|1935]])<ref>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=davis-arthur-hoey-5911 |title=Davis, Arthur Hoey (1868–1935) |first=Van |last=Ikin |volume=8 |year=1981 |access-date=18 December 2015}}</ref>
*[[November 30]] – [[Angela Brazil]], English writer of schoolgirl fiction (died [[1947 in literature|1947]])<ref>{{cite book|author1=Sue Sims|author2=Hilary Clare|title=The Encyclopaedia of School Stories: The encyclopaedia of girls' school stories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8wqAQAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Ashgate|page=66|isbn=9780754600824 }}</ref>
*c. December 12 – [[Stephen Hudson]] (born Sydney Schiff), English novelist, translator and arts patron (died [[1944 in literature|1944]])
*[[December 14]] – [[Louise Hammond Willis Snead]], American writer, artist and composer (died [[1958 in literature|1958]])
*[[December 19]] – [[Eleanor H. Porter]], American novelist (died [[1920 in literature|1920]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Eleanor H Porter|title=Pollyanna : Om Illustrated Classics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEjDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT117|date=September 2018|publisher=Om Books International|isbn=978-93-80070-87-2|pages=117}}</ref>
*[[December 25]] – [[Ahmed Shawqi]], Egyptian poet (died [[1932 in literature|1932]])
*[[December 28]] – [[Bucura Dumbravă]], Romanian novelist and spiritualist (died [[1926 in literature|1926]])

==Deaths==
*[[January 6]] – [[Scarlat Vârnav]], Romanian journalist, educationist and librarian (digestive illness, ''year of birth unknown'')
*[[January 24]] – [[John Macbride (professor)|John David Macbride]], English Arabist and academic (born [[1778 in literature|1778]])
*[[March 8]] – [[Jón Thoroddsen elder]], Icelandic poet and novelist (born 1818 or 1819)<ref>{{cite book|author1=Merriam-Webster, Inc|author2=MERRIAM-WEBSTER STAFF|author3=Encyclopaedia Britannica Publishers, Inc. Staff|title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA1112|year=1995|publisher=Merriam-Webster|isbn=978-0-87779-042-6|pages=1112}}</ref>
*[[June 6]] – [[Daniel Pierce Thompson]], American novelist and lawyer (born [[1795 in literature|1795]])
*[[June 15]] – [[Robert Vaughan (minister)|Robert Vaughan]], English historian and religious writer (born [[1795 in literature|1795]])
*[[June 18]] – [[Charles Harpur]], Australian poet (tuberculosis, born [[1813 in literature|1813]])
*[[July 6]] – [[Samuel Lover]], Irish writer and composer (born [[1797 in literature|1797]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew James Symington|title=Samuel Lover: A Biographical Sketch with Selections from His Writings and Correspondence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254|year=1880|publisher=Harper & brothers|pages=254}}</ref>
*[[July 30]] – [[Mihály Tompa]], Hungarian lyric poet (born [[1819 in literature|1819]])
*[[August 24]] – [[Constantin Negruzzi]] (Costache Negruzzi), Romanian poet, novelist and playwright (born [[1808 in literature|1808]])
*[[August 25]] – [[Jacob van Lennep]], Dutch poet and novelist (born [[1802 in literature|1802]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Spencer Baynes|title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19tEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA447|year=1891|publisher=M. Sommerville|pages=447}}</ref>
*[[September 24]] – [[Henry Hart Milman]], English historian (born [[1791 in literature|1791]])<ref>{{cite book|author=George Edward Cokayne|title=Complete baronetage: Volume V|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LNrdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA335|date=1 January 1900|publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company|pages=335}}</ref>
*[[November 30]] – [[August Blanche]], Swedish journalist, novelist and statesman (heart attack; born [[1811 in literature|1811]])

==Awards==
*[[Newdigate Prize]] – [[John Alexander Stewart (philosopher)|John Alexander Stewart]]<ref>{{cite book|author=University of Oxford|title=Oxford University Calendar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBVRAAAAYAAJ|year=1900|publisher=J.H. Parker, and H. Slatter|page=59}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}