1888 in literature

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The year 1888 in literature involved some significant new books.

Events

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 (died 1981)
• July 23 - Raymond Chandler, novelist, screenwriter (died 1959)
• September 26 - T. S. Eliot, poet, playwright (died 1965)
• October 14 - Katherine Mansfield short story writer (died 1923)
• October 16 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright (died 1953)
• Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (died 1935)

Deaths

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

Awards

• Newdigate prize - Arthur Waugh