1910 in literature

The year 1910 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• April - Halley's comet reappears (after 76 years), and Mark Twain dies on April 21, 1910, the day following the comet's perihelion. In his biography, Twain had written, "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
• Boris Pasternak leaves the Moscow Conservatory.
• Damon Runyon begins working as a journalist in New York City.

New books

• Jane Addams - Twenty Years at Hull House
• L. Frank Baum - The Emerald City of Oz
  • - Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society (as "Edith Van Dyne")
• Arnold Bennett - Clayhanger (first volume of trilogy)
• Oskar Braaten - Kring fabrikken
• Rhoda Broughton - The Devil and the Deep Sea
• John Buchan - Prester John
• Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin - The Village
• Gilbert Cannan - Devious Ways
• Colette - La Vagabonde
• William T. Cox - Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods
• Walter de la Mare - The Return
• E. M. Forster - Howards End
• Zane Grey - Heritage of the Desert
• Hermann Hesse - Gertrud
• Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera
• Hermann Löns - Der Wehrwolf
• Martin Andersen Nexø - Pelle the Conqueror (final volume)
• Baroness Orczy - Lady Molly of Scotland Yard
  • Petticoat Government
• Aleksey Remizov - The Indefatigable Cymbal
• Rainer Maria Rilke - The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
• Mary Augusta Ward - Canadian Born
• H.G. Wells - The History of Mr. Polly
• Lucy Maud Montgomery - Kilmeny of the Orchard

New drama

• Maurice Maeterlinck - Mary Magdalene
• Edmond Rostand - Chantecler
• George Bernard Shaw - Misalliance
• J.M. Synge - Deirdre of the Sorrows

Poetry

• Paul Claudel — Cinq Grandes Odes

Non-fiction

• Norman Angell — The Great Illusion (revision of 'Europe's Optical Illusion' pub. 1909)
• Hall Caine — King Edward: A Prince and a Great Man
• G. K. Chesterton — What's Wrong With The World
• Wallace D. Wattles — The Science of Getting Rich
• Andrew Dickson White — Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason
• Gerhard Ritter — Ein historisches Urbild zu Goethes Faust (Agrippa von Nettesheym)

Births

• February 6 - Irmgard Keun, author (died 1982)
• June 23 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (died 1987)
• July 14 - Vincent Brome, biographer and novelist (died 2004)
• October 15 - Haddis Alemayehu, Ethiopian politician and novelist (died 2003)
• November 17 - Rachel de Queiroz, Brazilian author (died 2003)
• December 19 - Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright and poet (died 1986)
• December 19 - José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer and poet (died 1976)
• December 24 - Jean-Paul Crespelle, French writer (died 1994)
• December 24 - Fritz Leiber, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (died 1992)

Deaths

• January 29 - Edouard Rod, novelist (born 1857)
• April 21 - Mark Twain, writer (born 1835)
• May 22 - Jules Renard, novelist (born 1864)
• July 2 - Frederick James Furnivall, philologist and editor (born 1825)
• August 26 - William James, philosopher (born 1842)
• October 17
  • William Vaughn Moody, dramatist and poet (born 1869)
  • Julia Ward Howe, poet (born 1819)
• November 15 - Wilhelm Raabe, novelist (born 1831)
• November 20 - Leo Tolstoy, novelist (born 1828)
• date unknown
  • Vittoria Aganoor, poet (born 1855)
  • Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, New Testament commentator (born 1832)
  • Emil Friedrich Kautzsch, Bible critic (born 1841)
  • Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, daughter of George du Maurier and mother of the "Lost Boys" (born 1866)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse
• Newdigate prize: Charles Bewley