List of years in literature       (table)
… 1877 .  1878 .  1879 .  1880  . 1881  . 1882  . 1883 … 1884 1885 1886 -1887- 1888 1889 1890 … 1891 .  1892 .  1893 .  1894  . 1895  . 1896  . 1897 …      In poetry: 1884 1885 1886 -1887- 1888 1889 1890
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… 1884 . 1885 . 1886 - 1887 - 1888 . 1889 . 1890 … … 1850s . 1860s . 1870s -1880s- 1890s . 1900s . 1910s … … 18th century . 19th century . 20th century …
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The year 1887 in literature involved some significant new books.

Events

• Futabatei Shimei writes Drifting Clouds, the first modern novel in Japan.

New books

• Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Cut by the County
• Hall Caine - The Deemster
• Marie Corelli - Thelma
• Arthur Conan Doyle - A Study in Scarlet
• H. Rider Haggard
  • Allan Quatermain
  • Jess
  • She
• Thomas Hardy - The Woodlanders
• Joris-Karl Huysmans - Un dilemme, En Rade
• Paolo Mantegazza - Testa
• Futabatei Shimei - Drifting Clouds
• Jules Verne
  • North Against South
  • The Flight to France
• Emile Zola - La Terre

Non-fiction

• Hall Caine - Life of Samuel Coleridge Taylor

Births

• February 1 - Charles Nordhoff, author (+ 1947)
• February 3 - Georg Trakl, poet (+ 1914)
• February 11 - John van Melle, South African writer
• February 18 - Nikos Kazantzakis, poet (+ 1957)
• March 3 - Rupert Brooke, poet
• March 14 - Sylvia Beach, publisher
• June 2 - Orrick Johns, poet & playwright
• September 1 - Blaise Cendrars, writer (+ 1961)

Deaths

• February 10 - Mrs Henry Wood, novelist
• April 23 - John Ceiriog Hughes, poet
• May 4 - William Murdoch, poet
• August 20 - Jules Laforgue, French poet (b. 1860)
• October 12 - Dinah Craik, novelist and poet
• November 2 - Alfred Domett, poet
• November 19 - Emma Lazarus, American poet (b. 1859)
• December 5 - Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (b. 1804)
• date unknown
  • Frances Browne, poet and novelist
  • Emilia Tennyson, sister of Alfred Tennyson and fiancée of Arthur Hallam

Awards