1901: Books and Literature

Nobel Prize for Literature: Sully Prudhomme (Who?) French poet and essayist.

Fiction Bestsellers
1. Winston Churchill, The Crisis (not the British politician Winston Churchill)
2. Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes
3. Bertha Runkle, The Helmet of Navarre
4. Gilbert Parker, The Right of Way
5. Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden
6. Elinor Glyn, The Visits of Elizabeth
7. Harold MacGrath, The Puppet Crown
8. Maurice Hewlett, Richard Yea-and-Nay
9. George Barr McCutcheon, Graustark
10. Irving Bacheller, D’ri and I

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant:
Frank Norris, The Octopus: A Story of California A fictional attack on the monopolistic stranglehold of American railroad tycoons over the business and life of the entire country.
E. A. Ross, Social Control. Ross was an American sociologist, eugenicist, political progressive, and supporter of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman I read a lot of Shaw, including this play, back when I was in college, but I guess that I would find the humor and the ideas a lot more pernicious and at the same time superficial nowadays. I prefer Shaw’s arch nemesis and friendly combatant, Chesterton, these days.
George A. Gordon, New Epoch for Faith
Rudyard Kipling, Kim I tried to read this picaresque story of a British/Irish orphan boy who travels across India with a Tibetan mentor or guru, and eventually becomes involved in espionage as a small part of The Great Game. I just couldn’t make myself finish.
Anton Chekov, Uncle Vanya and The Three Sisters

Nonfiction set in 1901:
American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, The Birth of the “It” Girl, and the Crime of the Century by Paula Ururburu. Recommended by Alyce at At Home With Books.

Fiction set in 1901:
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance. (MG Fiction)
Turner, Nancy. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901. (MG Fiction)
Death of Riley by Rhys Bowen. Recommended by Whimpulsive.

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