List of years in literature       (table)
… 1881 .  1882 .  1883 .  1884  . 1885  . 1886  . 1887 … 1888 1889 1890 -1891- 1892 1893 1894 … 1895 .  1896 .  1897 .  1898  . 1899  . 1900  . 1901 …      In poetry: 1888 1889 1890 -1891- 1892 1893 1894
Related time period  or  subjects
… 1888 . 1889 . 1890 - 1891 - 1892 . 1893 . 1894 … … 1860s . 1870s . 1880s -1890s- 1900s . 1910s . 1920s … … 18th century . 19th century . 20th century …
Art . Archaeology . Architecture . Literature . Music . Science +...

The year 1891 in literature involved some significant new books.

Events

• Guy de Maupassant is officially diagnosed as insane.
• Tristan Bernard has his first work published in La Revue Blanche.
• Thomas Hardy writes The Son's Veto, which he regarded as his best short story.

New books

• Grant Allen - The Great Taboo
• J. M. Barrie - The Little Minister
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon - The World, the Flesh and the Devil
• Arthur Conan Doyle - The White Company
• George du Maurier - Peter Ibbetson
• George Gissing - New Grub Street
• Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Joris-Karl Huysmans - La Bas
• Jerome K. Jerome - Diary of a Pilgrimage
• Herman Melville - Timoleon
• Georges Ohnet - Dernier Amour
• Howard Pyle - Men of Iron
• Jules Verne - Mistress Branican
• Margaret L. Woods - Esther Vanhomrigh
• Charlotte Mary Yonge
  • Two Penniless Princesses
  • Unknown to History
• Émile Zola - L'Argent

New drama

• Oscar Wilde - Salome
• Frank Wedekind - Spring Awakening (Frühlings Erwachen)

Poetry

• William Morris - Poems by the Way

Non-fiction

• Black's Law Dictionary, 1st edition
• Errico Malatesta - L'anarchia

Births

• January 7 - Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist (d. 1960)
• February 10 – Elliot Paul, American writer (d. 1958)
• August 1 - Edward Streeter, American humorist (d. 1976)
• October 6 - John Metcalfe, UK writer (d. 1965)
• December 26 - Henry Miller, American writer (d. 1980)
• December 31 - Giovanni Pascoli, Italian poet (d. 1912)

Deaths

• August 12 - James Russell Lowell, poet
• September 15 - Ivan Goncharov, Russian writer
• September 28 - Herman Melville, author
• October 15 - Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, writer
• November 10 - Arthur Rimbaud, poet

Awards