This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1927.
Events
January – The Books Kinokuniya (紀伊國屋書店) bookstore business is established in Tokyo. February 4 – Gertrude Stein is honored by the Académie des femmes, an informal gathering for woman writers, founded by the expatriate American Natalie Clifford Barney starts at her Paris salon. Others honored include Colette, Anna Wickham, Rachilde, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and posthumously, Renée Vivien. February 24 – The new John Golden Theatre (Theatre Masque) opens in New York City at 252 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in midtown Manhattan. May 5 – Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse is published by Hogarth Press in London. A second impression follows in June. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism, June 29 – T. S. Eliot, hitherto Unitarian, is baptised into the Church of England at Finstock. In November he takes British citizenship. July 5 – James Joyce's collection Pomes Penyeach is published by Shakespeare and Company in Paris. July 9 – P. G. Wodehouse's short story "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey", published in the U.S. magazine Liberty, introduces Lord Emsworth's prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. The first UK appearance follows in the August issue of The Strand Magazine). August – T. S. Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi appears in Faber and Gwyer's Ariel poems series in London, illustrated by E. McKnight Kauffer. September – Eric Blair (George Orwell) decides while on leave from the Imperial Police in Burma to remain in the U.K. He moves to London to become a writer. October – Victor Gollancz founds the London publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd. December – Agatha Christie's fictional amateur detective Miss Marple makes a first appearance in "The Tuesday Night Club", published in The Royal Magazine. This becomes the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). unknown dates A translation of Franz Roh's work of art criticism Nach Expressionismus – Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei (After Expressionism – Magical Realism: Problems of the newest European painting, 1925) into Spanish by Revista de Occidente leads to the concept of magic realism becoming popular in Latin American literature.Irene Guenther, "Magic Realism in the Weimar Republic" in MR: Theory, History, Community. The Strand Bookstore is founded in Manhattan by Benjamin Bass.
New books
Fiction Djamaluddin Adinegoro – Darah Muda (Young Blood) Ion Agârbiceanu – Legea minții Anthony Armstrong – Jimmie Rezaire Anthony Berkeley – Cicely Disappears Arthur Bernède – Belphégor Tjoe Hong Bok – Setangan Berloemoer Darah (A Glove Covered in Blood) Elizabeth Bowen – The Hotel James Boyd – Marching On Lynn Brock – The Kink Edgar Rice Burroughs – The Outlaw of Torn James Branch Cabell – Something About Eve Willa Cather – Death Comes for the Archbishop Blaise Cendrars – La Confession de Dan Yack Agatha Christie – The Big Four J. J. Connington Murder in the Maze Tragedy at Ravensthorpe Jaime de Angulo – The Lariat Mazo de la Roche – Jalna Warwick Deeping – Kitty Ding Ling – Miss Sophia's Diary Arthur Conan Doyle – The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes William Faulkner – Mosquitoes David Garnett – Go She Must! Anthony Gilbert – The Tragedy at Freyne George Goodchild – The Monster of Grammont Maxim Gorky – The Life of Klim Samgin («Жизнь Клима Самгина», Zhizn' Klima Samgina, first volume, translated as Bystander) Julien Green – The Closed Garden H. Rider Haggard – Allan and the Ice-gods Frances Noyes Hart – The Bellamy Trial Ernest Hemingway – Men Without Women Hermann Hesse – Steppenwolf James Weldon Johnson – God's Trombones Franz Kafka – Amerika Margaret Kennedy – Red Sky at Morning Joseph Kessel – Nights of Princes Ronald Knox – The Three Taps Kwee Tek Hoay – Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang Ze'ev Jabotinsky – Samson D. H. Lawrence – John Thomas and Lady Jane Halldór Laxness – Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great Weaver from Kashmir) Rosamond Lehmann – Dusty Answer Sinclair Lewis – Elmer Gantry Marie Belloc Lowndes – The Story of Ivy Philip MacDonald – Patrol Compton Mackenzie Rogues and Vagabonds Vestal Fire A. E. W. Mason – No Other Tiger François Mauriac – Thérèse Desqueyroux Vilhelm Moberg – Raskens Paul Morand – The Living Buddha Mourning Dove – Cogewea, the Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range Yury Olesha – Envy («Зависть», Zavist''') Edith Olivier – The Love ChildE. Phillips Oppenheim – Miss Brown of X.Y.O.Baroness Orczy – Sir Percy Hits BackT. F. Powys – Mr. Weston's Good WineJ. B. Priestley – BenightedMarcel Proust (died 1922) – Le Temps retrouvé (Time Regained or The Past Recaptured; final instalment of In Search of Lost Time) Waverley Lewis Root – King of the JewsJoseph Roth – Flight without EndRafael Sabatini – The Nuptials of CorbalDorothy L. Sayers – Unnatural DeathUpton Sinclair – Oil!Cecil Street The Ellerby Case Mademoiselle From ArmentieresAleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy – The Garin Death Ray («Гиперболоид инженера Гарина») B. Traven – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Der Schatz der Sierra Madre)Sigrid UndsetThe Snake PitThe Son AvengerKonstantin Vaginov – Goat SongS. S. Van Dine – The Canary Murder CaseEdgar Wallace The ForgerThe Squeaker Terror KeepThe Traitor's GateThornton Wilder – The Bridge of San Luis ReyHenry Williamson – Tarka the OtterP. G. WodehouseMeet Mr MullinerThe Small BachelorVirginia Woolf – To the LighthouseEiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治) – Naruto Hitcho (鳴門秘帖, A Secret Record of Naruto; serialization concludes) Francis Brett Young – Portrait of ClareArnold Zweig – The Case of Sergeant Grischa (Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa)Children and young people Walter R. Brooks – To and Again (reissued 1949 as Freddy Goes to Florida, first of the Freddy the Pig series) Franklin W. Dixon – The Tower TreasureWill James – Smoky the CowhorseMay Justus – Peter Pocket: A Little Boy of the Cumberland MountainsJohn Masefield – The Midnight FolkA. A. Milne – Now We Are Six (verse) Edward Wyke Smith – The Marvellous Land of Snergs (proto-Hobbits) Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Gnome King of Oz (21st in the Oz series overall and the seventh written by her) Constancio C. VigilBotón TolónCuentos para niñosLa hormiguita viajeraLos escarabajos y la moneda de oroDrama Isaac Babel – Sunset Philip Barry – Paris Bound Noel Pemberton Billing – High Treason Bertolt Brecht – In The Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte in its final version) Mikhail Bulgakov – Flight («Бег», Beg, written) Noël Coward Home Chat The Marquise Hamilton Deane – Dracula (1927 revision of a 1924 stage adaptation) James Bernard Fagan – The Greater Love Federico García Lorca Mariana Pineda The Curse of the Butterfly (El Maleficio de la Mariposa) (first production, in Teatro Eslava, Madrid) Joseph Goebbels – Der Wanderer (only performances; written 1923) Walter Hackett – The Wicked Earl Oscar Hammerstein II (book & lyrics) – Show Boat (musical play adaptation) DuBose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward – Porgy Vsevolod Ivanov – Armoured Train 14-69 («Бронепоезд 14-69», Bronepoezd 14-69) Georgia Douglas Johnson – Plumes George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber – The Royal Family John Howard Lawson – Loud Speaker Alexander Lernet-Holenia – Szene als Einleitung zu einer Totenfeier für Rainer Maria Rilke Frederick Lonsdale – The High Road W. Somerset Maugham – The Letter Harrison Owen – The Happy Husband Ernst Toller – Hoppla, We're Alive! (Hoppla, wir leben!) Ben Travers – Thark Jim Tully – Twenty Below John Van Druten Chance Acquaintance Diversion Bayard Veiller – The Trial of Mary Dugan Roger Vitrac – Les Mystères de l'amour (The Mysteries of Love) Frank Vosper – The Combined Maze Edgar Wallace Double Dan The Terror Emlyn Williams – Full Moon Carl Zuckmayer – Schinderhannes
Poetry
Robert Desnos – La Liberté ou l'amour! (Liberty or Love!) Muhammad Iqbal – Zabur-i Ajam (Persian Psalms)James Joyce – Pomes PenyeachDon Marquis – archy and mehitabelNon-fiction Nan Britton – The President's DaughterAlexandra David-Néel – Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa (translated as My Journey to Lhasa) John Dewey – Philosophy and CivilizationJ. W. Dunne – An Experiment with TimeWalter Evans-Wentz (translator) – The Tibetan Book of the Dead (translation of Bardo Thodol) E. M. Forster – Aspects of the NovelSigmund Freud – The Future of an Illusion (Die Zukunft einer Illusion)Charles Homer Haskins - The Renaissance of the Twelfth CenturyMartin Heidegger – Being and Time (Sein und Zeit)Christopher Hussey – The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of ViewErnst Kantorowicz – Frederick the Second (Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite)Ronald Knox - The Belief of CatholicsJohn Livingston Lowes – The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the ImaginationBertrand Russell – An Outline of PhilosophyHelen Waddell – The Wandering ScholarsBirths January 8 – Charles Tomlinson, English poet (died 2015) January 16 – Oldřich Daněk, Czech dramatist (died 2000) January 24 Lasse Pöysti, Finnish writer, playwright and actor (died 2019) Marvin Kaplan, American actor, screenwriter and playwright (died 2016) January 25 – John Calder, Canadian-born Scottish publisher (died 2018) January 28 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (died 2015) February 1 – Galway Kinnell, American poet (died 2014) February 6 – William Gardner Smith, expatriate American novelist and journalist (died 1974) February 16 – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi novelist (died 1971) February 21 – Erma Bombeck, American humorist (died 1996) March 6 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist (died 2014) March 15 – Hanns Joachim Friedrichs, German journalist (died 1995) March 18 – George Plimpton, American writer and actor (died 2003) March 24 – Martin Walser, German author (died 2023) March 22 – Vera Henriksen, née Roscher Lund, Norwegian historical novelist (died 2016) April 2 – Kenneth Tynan, English theatre critic (died 1980) April 24 – Trudi Birger, German Holocaust survivor and writer (died 2002) April 25 – Albert Uderzo, French author and illustrator (died 2020) May 1 – Tamar Bornstein-Lazar, Israeli children's writer (died 2020) May 7 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, British-American novelist and screenwriter (died 2013) May 10 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author May 19 – Yusuf Idris, Egyptian writer (died 1991) May 25 – Robert Ludlum, American novelist (died 2001) May 27 – Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, Indian Malayali novelist (died 1997) May 28 – William A. Hilliard, American journalist (died 2017) June 6 – Alan Seymour, Australian playwright (died 2015) June 1 – Moyra Caldecott, English writer of historical fiction (died 2015) June 13 – Paul Ableman, English writer of erotic fiction and playwright (died 2006) June 20 – Simin Behbahani, Persian poet (died 2014) June 23 – Jacobo Langsner, Romanian-born Uruguayan screenwriter and playwright (died 2020) June 24 – Frederick Vreeland, American diplomat and writer June 27 – Dominic Jeeva (டொமினிக் ஜீவா), Ceylonese Tamil fiction writer and essayist (died 2021) June 30 – James Goldman, American screenwriter and playwright (died 1998) July 4 – Neil Simon, American playwright (died 2018) July 15 – Ann Jellicoe, British playwright, stage director and actress (died 2017) July 16 – Shirley Hughes, English writer and illustrator of children's books (died 2022) July 22 – Katharine Topkins, American novelist July 27 – John Seigenthaler, American journalist, writer and political figure (died 2014) July 28 John Ashbery, American poet (d. 2017) Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italian screenwriter, film director and novelist (died 1986) July 31 – Peter Nichols, English playwright (died 2019) August 9 – Robert Shaw, English-born actor, novelist and playwright (died 1978) August 15 – Patrick Galvin, Irish poet and dramatist (died 2011) August 17 – Stefan Geosits, Burgenland Croatian writer and translator (died 2022) August 23 – Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator (died 2017) August 24 – David Ireland, Australian novelist (died 2022)