Hans Christian Andersen’s first novel The Improvisatore was published in 1835.
Later the same year, Andersen published Tales Told for Children, which included well-known tales as well as an original story, “Little Ida’s Flowers.”
Jonathan Swift first used the phrase “belles lettres” in Tatler 230 (1710): “The Traders in History and Politics, and the Belles Lettres.” In French the term means “beautiful letters, fine writing.” Swift added the pejorative connotation of light or trivial literature.
Yes. Roman emperor Caligula banned Homer’s works during his reign (37-41 A.D.) because they were said to promote unhealthy ideas about Greek freedom.
In a letter written in December 1817 to his brothers George and Thomas, poet John Keats first referred to “negative capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Keats considered this quality essential to a “Man of Achievement especially in literature.”
Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) comprised of twenty-three stories.
Sam Shepard’s first play was The Tooth of Crime (1973). His later plays include Buried Child (1979) and True West (1980).
No, they used male pseudonyms: Charlotte was Currer Bell; Emily was Ellis Bell; and Anne was Acton Bell.