A LITERARY TIMELINE

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A Literary Timeline
 
– started Apr. 14, 2013

I made one of these in my academic career, and found it amazingly edifying and revealing. How works relate to each other time-wise is something that rather gets lost in literary eduction. (For example, you think of Pound and Eliot as being both modernists, but you forget that Pound started his career well before Eliot. Even H.D. published before Eliot.) Thus the purpose, merely to give a visual of when things were published.

There is no attempt to be all inclusive. I am just including major works; or, at least, major works plus works that I find important. I am starting in the 20th century, but will at some point move backwards. (Poem titles occasionally appear below their collection title.)

This will be a continual work in progress. Definitely in its beginnings as of now, in April.

  • Within the years, entries are alphabetical by author.
  • The spacing between entry and line is according to author's name as well. (It makes it easier to follow one person down the line.)
  • I tend to mark works by publication dates, but that is not universal.
  • Colors indicate type of work.
    On the literary side:
    • verse works are darkblue
    • prose works are green
    • short prose is darkviolet
    • drama is orange
    • criticism/non-fiction (literature oriented) is black
    On the other side:
    • music works are crimson
    • plastic arts are forest green
    • film is slateblue
    • art/music/film relatedcriticism/non-fiction is black
    • non art-related texts and historic events are lightgrey
  • Finally, a Fair Warning: I am too prone to mistakes for this to be considered authoritative. You might want to check the date before you go using it.
  1300  
  1370-90 ---Langdon, William.
Piers Plowman (text written over long period)
  1380 ---Chaucer, Geoffrey.
Canterbury Tales (possibly begun in 1380s)
  1400  
  1478 ---Chaucer, Geoffrey.
Canterbury Tales (first print edition; believed begun in 1380s)
  1500  
  1587 -------------Marlowe, Christopher.
Tamburlaine, Part I
  1588 -------------Marlowe, Christopher.
Tamburlaine, Part II (1587-88)
  1589 -------------Marlowe, Christopher.
The Jew of Malta
  1590 --------------------Spenser, Edmund.
The Faerie Queene, Books 1-3
  1594 -------------Marlowe, Christopher.
Doctor Faustus (first performed)
  1595 --------------------Spenser, Edmund.
Amoretti and Epithalamion
  1596 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
Romeo and Juliet (composition, 1595-96)

--------------------Spenser, Edmund.
The Faerie Queene, Books 4-6
  1599 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
Henry V (composition)

-------------------Shakespeare, William.
Julius Caesar (composition)z
  1600  
  1601 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
Hamlet (composition, 1600-1601)
  1605 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
King Lear (composition)
  1606 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
MacBeth (composition)
  1611 -------------------Shakespeare, William.
The Tempest (composition)
  1624 ----Donne, John.
Devontions Upon Emergent Occasions
  1631 -------------Milton, John.
L'Allegro and Il Penseroso
  1633 ----Donne, John.
Songs and Sonnets
  1633 --------Herbert, George.
The Temple
  1655 ----------------------Vaughn, Henry
Silex Scintillans (2d ed, enlarged; 1st ed 1650)
  1667 -------------Milton, John.
Paradise Lost
  1671 -------------Milton, John.
Samson Agonistes
  1681 ----Dryden, John.
Absalom and Achitophel
  1700  
  1711 ----------------Pope, Alexander.
Essay on Criticism
  1712 ----------------Pope, Alexander.
The Rape of the Lock
Bach, Johann Sebastien--
Brandenburg Concertos (presented in entirety)
1721  
Bach, Johann Sebastien--
Well-Tempered Clavier (Part 1)
1722  
  1728 ----------------Pope, Alexander.
The Dunciad (1st version)
  1732 ----------------Pope, Alexander.
Essay on Man (1732-34)
Swedenborg, Emmanuel-------------------
Heaven and Hell
1758  
  1759 -------------------Sterne, Laurence.
Tristram Shandy (parts 1 & 2 of 9)
  1768 -------------------Sterne, Laurence.
A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
  1774 -------Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von.
Sorrows of Young Werther
Kant, Immanuel-----------
Critique of Pure Reason
1781  
Motzart, Wolfgang Amadeus-------------
Don Giovanni
1787  
Motzart, Wolfgang Amadeus-------------
Symphony #41, "Jupiter"
1788  
Motzart, Wolfgang Amadeus-------------
Cosi fan Tutti
1789  
Motzart, Wolfgang Amadeus-------------
The Magic Flute
1791  
  1793 --Blake, William.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
  1798 --Brown, Charles Brockdon.
Wieland

-----------------------Wordsworth, William (with Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
Lyrical Ballads (and 1800)
  1800  
Beethoven, Ludwig van--
Symphony #1 (premier)
1800  
Beethoven, Ludwig van--
Symphony #3, "Eroica" (premier)
1805  
  1807 -----------------------Wordsworth, William.
Poems
Beethoven, Ludwig van--
Symphony #6, "Pastoral" (premier)
1808 -------Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von.
Faust, Part 1
  1810 -----------------------Wordsworth, William.
A Guide to the Lakes
  1812 --Byron, George Gordon, Lord.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I-II
  1813 -Austen, Jane.
Pride and Prejudice
  1814 -Austen, Jane.
Mansfield Park
  1815 -Austen, Jane.
Emma
  1816 --Byron, George Gordon, Lord.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage III

---Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.
Kubla Khan (with Christabel)

-------------------Shelley, Percy Bysshe.
Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude: and Other Poems
  1817 --Byron, George Gordon, Lord.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage IV
Manfred

---Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.
Biographia Literaria
  1818 -----------Keats, John.
Endymion
  1819 --Byron, George Gordon, Lord.
Don Juan I-II (anonymously)
  1820 -----------Keats, John.
Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems

-------------------Shelley, Percy Bysshe.
Prometheus Unbound
  1821 -------------------Shelley, Percy Bysshe.
A Defence of Poetry (written; not published until 1840)
Beethoven, Ludwig van--
Symphony #9 "Choral" (premier)
1824  
  1831 --de Balzac, Honoré.
The Unknown Masterpiece (Le Chef-d'ouevre inconnu)
  1832 -------Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von.
Faust, Part 2 (posthumous)
  1833 --------------------Tennyson, Alfred Lord.
Poems (inc. "The Lotus Eaters," "The Lady of Shalott," "St. Simon Stylites")
  1834 --de Balzac, Honoré.
Seraphita
  1835 -------Gautier, Théophile.
Mademoiselle de Maupin
  1836 ----Dickens, Charles.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (serial, 1836-37)
  1839 ------------Lermontov, Mikhail.
The Demon

----------------Poe, Edgar Allan.
"The Fall of the House of Usher"
  1840 ----Browning, Robert.
Sordello
  1842 --------------------Tennyson, Alfred Lord.
Poems (inc. "Locksley Hall," "Tithonus," "Ulysses")
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
The Flying Dutchman (premier)
1843  
Marx, Karl-------------
The German Ideology
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Tannhäuser (premier)
1845 ----------------Poe, Edgar Allan.
"The Raven"
  1846 -------------Melville, Herman.
Typee
  1847 --Brontë, Charlotte.
Jane Eyre

--Brontë, Emily.
Wuthering Heights

-------------Melville, Herman.
Omoo
Marx, Karl-------------
Manifesto of the Communist Party
1848  
  1849 --------------------Tennyson, Alfred Lord.
In Memorium A.H.H.

----Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield (serial, 1849-50)
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Lohengrin (premier)
1850 --------Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
The Scarlet Letter

-----------------------Wordsworth, William.
The Prelude
  1851 --------Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
The House of Seven Gables

-------------Melville, Herman.
Moby-Dick
  1852 ----Dickens, Charles.
Bleak House (serial, 1852-53)
  1855 ----Browning, Robert.
Men and Women

----Dickens, Charles.
Little Dorrit (serial, 1855-57)

-------------Melville, Herman.
"Benito Cereno"

--------------------Tennyson, Alfred Lord.
Maud; A Monodrama (1855/56)

-----------------------Whitman, Walt.
Democratic Vistas

-----------------------Whitman, Walt.
Leaves of Grass
  1857 --Baudelaire, Charles.
The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal)

------Flaubert, Gustav.
Madame Bovary

-------------Melville, Herman.
The Confidence Man
Offenbach, Jacques---------------
Orpheus in the Underworld
1858  
Darwin, Charles----
On the Origin of Species
1859 ----Dickens, Charles.
A Tale of Two Cities (serial)
Manet, Claude-------------
"Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" (exhibited in the Salon des Refusés).
1863  
  1864 ----Browning, Robert.
Dramatis Personae
Salon of 1865
Manet, Claude-------------
"Olympia" (exhibited; painted 1863).
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Tristan and Isolde (premier)
1865 --------------Newman, John Henry, Cardinal.
Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865-66)
Marx, Karl-------------
Das Kapital (vol. I)
1866 ----Dostoyevsky, Fyodor.
Crime and Punishment (in serial)

-------------------Swinburne, Algernon Charles.
Poems and Ballads
  1867 -Arnold, Matthew.
New Poems ("Dover Beach")
  1868 ----Browning, Robert.
The Ring and the Book (1868-9)
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Das Rheingold (premier)
1869 -Arnold, Matthew.
Culture and Anarchy

--------------------Tolstoy, Leo.
War and Peace (first time complete)
Darwin, Charles----
The Descent of Man
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Die Walküre (premier)
1870  
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
The Birth of Tragedy
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Parsifal (premier)
1872 ------------------Rimbaud, Arthur.
A Season in Hell (Un Saison en enfer)
Pater, Walter----------------
Studies in the History of the Renaissance
1873  
  1874 ------Flaubert, Gustave.
The Temptation of St. Anthony

------------------Rimbaud, Arthur.
Illuminations
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Siegfried (premier)
Wagner, Richard-----------------------
Götterdämmerung (premier)
1876 -------------Mallarmé, Stephan.
L'aprè-midi d'un faune

-------------Melville, Herman
Clarel
Blavatsky, H.P.--
Isis Unveiled
1877  
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
Human, All too Human
1878 --------------------Tolstoy, Leo.
Anna Karenina (first complete; serialized 1873-77)
  1879 ----Dostoyevsky, Fyodor.
The Brothers Karamozov (serialized, Jan. 1879-Nov. 1880)
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
The Gay Science (and 1888)
1882  
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-5)
1883  
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
Beyond Good and Evil
1886  
Nietzsche, Friedrich--------------
On the Geneology of Morals
1887 -------------Mallermé, Stephan.
Poésies
Blavatsky, H.P.--
The Secret Doctrine
1888  
  1890 --------Hamsun, Knut.
Hunger

-----------------------Wilde, Oscar.
The Picture of Dorian Grey (in Lippencott's Monthly; book 1891)
  1891 -------------Melville, Herman.
"Billy Budd" (written; published 1924)

-----------------------Wilde, Oscar.
Intentions (revised edition of collected dialogues, inc. The Critic as Artist)
  1893 -----------------------Wilde, Oscar.
Salomé (Fr., performed 1896; English with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, 1894)
Beardsley, Aubrey--
illustrated Eng. edition of Salomé
1894  
Freud, Sigmung, and Josef Breuer------
Studies on Hysteria
Mahler, Gustav-------------
Symphony #2, "Resurrection"
1895 -----------------------Wilde, Oscar.
The Importance of Being Earnest (preformed; published 1989)
  1896 ---Checkov, Anton.
The Seagull
  1897 -------------Mallarmé, Stephan.
Divigations

-----------------------Wilde, Oscar.
De Profundis (written, published 1905 etc.)
Freud, Sigmund------
The Interpretation of Dreams (dated 1900)
Veblen, Thorstein--------------------
Theory of the Leisure Class
1899  
  1900  
  1900 -------------Mann, Thomas.
Buddenbrooks
Mahler, Gustav-------------
Symphony #3 premier of complete (composed 1893-96)
1902 -------------------Strindberg, August.
A Dream Play
Freud, Sigmund------
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
1904 ---Checkov, Anton.
The Cherry Orchard

----------James, Henry.
The Golden Bowl
Einstein, Albert-----
Special Theory of Relativity
Freud, Sigmund------
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
1905  
  1906 -------------------Shaw, George Bernard.
The Doctor's Dilemma
Picasso, Pablo----------------
"Demoiselles d'Avignon"
1907 ----------Joyce, James.
Chamber Music
Worringer, Wilhelm-----------------------
Abstraction and Empathy
1908 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
A Lume Spento
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso-------------
"Initial Manifesto of Futurism"
1909 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
Personae

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
Three Lives
Stravinsky, Igor-------------------
The Firebird
1910  
  1911 ----------------Pound, Ezra
Canzoni
  1912 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
Ripostes
Freud, Sigmund------
Totem and Taboo
Stravinsky, Igor-------------------
Rites of Spring
1913 -Apollinaire, Guillaume.
Alcools

------------Lawrence, D.H.
Sons and Lovers

-------------Mann, Thomas.
Death in Venice

----------------Proust, Marcel.
Swann's Way (vol I)
  1914 ----------Joyce, James.
Dubliners

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
Tender Buttons
  1915 ------------Lawrence, D.H.
The Rainbow

----------------Pound, Ezra.
Cathay
  1916 ----H.D.
Sea Garden

----------Joyce, James.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

----------------Pound, Ezra.
Lustra
  1917 -----Eliot, T.S.
Prufrock and Other Observations

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Al Que Quiere!

  1918 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
Pavannes and Divinations
  1919 -Anderson, Sherwood.
Winesburg, Ohio

----------------Proust, Marcel.
Within a Budding Grove (vol. II)
  1920 -----Eliot, T.S.
Poems ("Gerontion, "Sweeny Among the Nightingales")

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Sacred Wood ("Tradition and the Individual Talent," "Hamlet and His Problems")

------Fitzgerald, F. Scott.
This Side of Paradise

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Kora in Hell: Improvisations
  1921 ----------------Proust, Marcel.
Guermante's Way (vol. III)(1920/21)
  1922 ---Cummings, E.E.
The Enormous Room

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Waste Land

----------Joyce, James.
Ulysses

----------------Proust, Marcel.
Sodom and Gomorrah (vol. IV)

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
Geography and Plays

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
The Snow Man

----------------------Vallejo, César.
Trilce
  1923 ---Cummings, E.E.
Tulips and Chimneys (first book)

----------------Proust, Marcel.
The Captive (vol. V)

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
Harmonium

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Spring and All
Breton, André--
Surrealist Manifesto (first)
1924 --------------Neruda, Pablo.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
  1925 ---Cummings, E.E.
& (self-published)

---Cummings, E.E.
XLI Poems

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Hollow Men

------Fitzgerald, F. Scott.
The Great Gatsby

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
In Our Time

----------------Pound, Ezra.
A Draft of XVI Cantos

----------------Proust, Marcel.
The Fugative (vol. VI)

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
The Making of Americans (First complete edition)
  1926 ---Crane, Hart.
White Buildings

---Cummings, E.E.
Is 5

-----Eliot, T.S.
Sweeney Agonistes (first performed 1934)

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
The Sun Also Rises
  1927 -----Eliot, T.S.
"The Journey of the Magi"

----------------Proust, Marcel.
The Past Recaptured (vol. VII)
  1928 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
A Draft of the Cantos 17-27
  1929 ------Faulkner, William.
The Sound and the Fury

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
A Farewell to Arms
  1930 ---Crane, Hart.
The Bridge

-----Eliot, T.S.
Ash Wednesday

------Faulkner, William.
As I Lay Dying

----------------Pound, Ezra.
A Draft of XXX Cantos
  1931 ---Cummings, E.E.
Viva

------Faulkner, William.
Sanctuary

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
How to Write
  1932 ------Faulkner, William.
Light in August

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
Death in the Afternoon

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
Operas and Plays
  1933 --------------Neruda, Pablo.
Residence on Earth (vol. I)

-------------------Stein, Gertrude.
The Autobiography of Alice P. Toklas
  1934 -----Eliot, T.S.
After Strange Gods

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Rock

------Fitzgerald, F. Scott.
Tender is the Night
  1935 ---Cummings, E.E.
No Thanks

-----Eliot, T.S.
Murder in the Cathedral

--------------Neruda, Pablo.
Residence on Earth (vol. II)
  1936 --Barnes, Djuna.
Nightwood (U.S. publication 1937, with intro by T.S. Eliot)

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
Ideas of Order

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
Owl's Clover
Picasso, Pablo----------------
"Guernica"
1937 --------Hemmingway, Ernest.
To Have and Have Not

----------------Pound, Ezra.
The Fifth Decade of Cantos

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
The Man with the Blue Guitar
  1938 --Beckett, Samuel.
Murphy
  1939 -----Eliot, T.S.
Christianity & Culture

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Family Reunion

-----Eliot, T.S.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

----------Joyce, James.
Finnegans Wake

---------------O'Brien, Flann (Brian O'Nolan).
At Swim-Two-Birds
  1940 ---Cummings, E.E.
50 Poems

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
For Whom the Bell Tolls

----------------Pound, Ezra.
Cantos LXII-LXXI
  1941 --Borges, Jorge Luis.
The Garden of Forking Paths
  1942  
  1943  
  1944 --Borges, Jorge Luis.
Artifices

---Cummings, E.E.
1+1
  1945 --Beckett, Samuel.
Watt (published 1953)

--Burroughs, William S., and Jack Kerouac.
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (not published until 2008)

-----Eliot, T.S. Four Quartets
  1946 --Beckett, Samuel.
Mercier and Camier (published 1974)

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Paterson Book I
  1947  
  1948 ----------------Pound, Ezra.
The Pisan Cantos

----------------Pound, Ezra.
The Cantos of Ezra Pound

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Paterson Book II
  1949 --Borges, Jorge Luis.
The Aleph

-----Eliot, T.S.
The Confidential Clerk

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Paterson Book III

  1950 ---Cummings, E.E.
ΧΙΑΡΕ: Seventy-One Poems

----------------Pound, Ezra.
Seventy Cantos
  1951 --Beckett, Samuel.
Molloy

--Beckett, Samuel.
Molone Dies

-------------------Stevens, Wallace.
The Necessary Angel

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Paterson Book IV
  1952 --------Hemmingway, Ernest.
The Old Man and the Sea
  1953 --Beckett, Samuel.
The Unnamable

--Beckett, Samuel.
Waiting for Godot

--Berryman, John.
Homage for Mistress Bradstreet

--Burroughs, William S.
Junky

--Burroughs, William S.
Queer (not published until 1985)

---Cummings, E.E.
! -- six nonlectures
  1954 -------------------Stevens, Wallace.
Collected Poems
Lévi-Strauss, Claude------------
Triste Tropiques
1955 --mid 1950s: Burroughs, William S.
Interzone (publshed 1988)
  1956 -------Ginsberg, Alan.
Howl and Other Poems
  1957 --Beckett, Samuel.
Endgame
Lévi-Strauss, Claude------------
Structural Anthropology
1958 --Beckett, Samuel.
Krapp's Last Tape

---Cummings, E.E.
95 Poems

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Paterson Book V
  1959 --Burroughs, William S.
Naked Lunch
  1960 ----Duncan, Robert.
The Opening of the Field
  1961 --Beckett, Samuel.
Happy Days

--Burroughs, William S.
The Soft Machine

-------Ginsberg, Alan.
Kaddish and Other Poems

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
Lévi-Strauss, Claude------------
The Savage Mind
1962 --Burroughs, William S.
The Ticket That Exploded
  1963 --Burroughs, William S.
Dead Fingers Talk

---Cummings, E.E.
73 Poems

----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
V.

-----------------------Williams, William Carlos.
Patersoncomplete in one volume
  1964 --Burroughs, William S.
Nova Express

----Duncan, Robert.
Roots and Branches

--------Hemmingway, Ernest.
A Moveable Feast
  1965  
  1966 --Bunting, Basil.
Briggflats

----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
The Crying of Lot 49
  1967 --Berryman, John.
Berryman's Sonnets (a.k.a. Sonnets to Chris)

  1968 ----Duncan, Robert.
Bending the Bow
  1969  
  1970  
  1971 --Burroughs, William S.
The Wild Boys
  1973 -------Ginsberg, Alan.
The Fall of America: Poems of These States

----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
Gravity's Rainbow
  1977 --Beckett, Samuel.
Neither ("opera," Morton Feldman music)
  1978 ----Duncan, Robert.
Medieval Scenes, 1950 and 1959
  1981 --Burroughs, William S.
Cities of the Red Night
  1983 --Burroughs, William S.
The Place of Dead Roads
  1984 ----Duncan, Robert.
Groundwork: Before the War
  1987 --Burroughs, William S.
The Western Lands

---Carson, Ciaran. The Irish for No
    ----Duncan, Robert.
Groundwork II: In the Dark
  1988  
  1989  
  1990 ---Carson, Ciaran.
Belfast Confetti

----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
Vineland
  1997 ----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
Mason & Dixon
  2000  
  2001 ---Carson, Ciaran.
Shamrock Tea
  2006 ----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
Against the Day
  2008 ---Carson, Ciaran.
For All We Know
  2009 ----------------Pynchon, Thomas.
Inherent Vice