1871 in literature
See also: 1870 in literature, other events of 1871, 1872 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New Books
- The Descent of Man - Charles Darwin
- Middlemarch - George Eliot
- Watch and Ward - Henry James
- A Leaf on Vrony's Grave - Johanna Spyri
- Erewhon - Samuel Butler
- Little Men - Louisa May Alcott
- The Adventures of Harry Richmond - George Meredith
- Fenton's Quest - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Eye Openers - Mark Twain
- Screamers - Mark Twain
- Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carrol
- La Fortune des Rougon - Emile Zola
- The Coming Race - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Births
- March 27 - Heinrich Mann, narrator, dramatist and essayist (+ 1950)
- June 17 - James Weldon Johnson (+ 1938)
- July 10 - Marcel Proust (+ 1922)
- August 27 - Theodore Dreiser (+ 1945)
- September 27 - Grazia Deledda, (Italian) writer - Nobel prize winner, (1926)
- November 1 - Stephen Crane (+ 1900)
Deaths