List of years in literature       (table)
… 1889 .  1890 .  1891 .  1892  . 1893  . 1894  . 1895 … 1896 1897 1898 -1899- 1900 1901 1902 … 1903 .  1904 .  1905 .  1906  . 1907  . 1908  . 1909 …      In poetry: 1896 1897 1898 -1899- 1900 1901 1902
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The year 1899 in literature involved some significant new books.

Events

• Edgar Rice Burroughs begins working in his father's business.
• Rainer Maria Rilke travels to Moscow to meet Leo Tolstoy.
• Arthur Machen's wife Amy dies after a long illness, an event that has a devastating effect on him.
• The Irish Literary Theatre is founded by William Butler Yeats, Augusta, Lady Gregory, George Moore and Edward Martyn

New books

• Machado de Assis - Dom Casmurro
• René Bazin - La terre qui meurt
• René Boylesve - Demoiselle Cloque
• Mary Elizabeth Braddon - His Darling Sin
• Rhoda Broughton - The Game and the Candle
• Charles Waddell Chesnutt - The Conjure Woman
• Mary Cholmondeley - Red Pottage
• Kate Chopin - The Awakening
• Ralph Connor - The Sky Pilot
• Margaret Deland - Old Chester Tales
• Géza Gárdonyi - Eclipse of the Crescent Moon
• Maxim Gorky - Foma Gordyeeff
• G. A. Henty - The Golden Canon
• Henry James - The Awkward Age
• Octave Mirbeau - The Torture Garden
• Arthur Morrison - To London Town
• Frank Norris
  • Blix
  • McTeague
• Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection
• Émile Zola - Fécondité

New drama

• Anton Chekov - Uncle Vanya
• Leon Kobrin - Minna or, The Ruined Family from Downtown

Poetry

• Stéphane Mallarmé - Poésies (posthumously published)

Non-fiction

• Edward Bernstein - Evolutionary Socialism.
• Percy Dearmer - The Parson's Handbook
• John Dewey - The School and Society
• Elbert Hubbard - A Message to Garcia

Births

• January 17 - Nevil Shute, novelist
• February 23 - Erich Kästner, children's author
• March 25 - Jacques Audiberti (d. 1965)
• April 22 - Vladimir Nabokov, novelist (d. 1977)
• May 8 - Friedrich Hayek, social scientist
• July 21
  • Ernest Hemingway, novelist (d. 1961)
  • Hart Crane, poet (d. 1932)
• August 9 - P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins author
• August 24 - Jorge Luis Borges (d. 1986)
• August 27 - C. S. Forester, adventure novelist (d. 1966)
• November 10 - Kate Seredy, children's author
• December 16 - Noel Coward, playwright (d. 1973)
• December 18 - Peter Wessel Zapffe, philosopher (d. 1990)

Deaths

• February 10 - Archibald Lampman, poet
• March 16 - Alexander Balloch Grosart, literary editor
• May 1 - Ludwig Büchner, philosopher
• May 16 - Francisque Sarcey, journalist and theatre critic
• June 7 - Augustin Daly, dramatist and theatre manager
• June 30 - E. D. E. N. Southworth, novelist
• July 18 - Horatio Alger, Jr.
• August 29 - Catharine Parr Traill, English-born author of "Canadiana"
• October 25 - Grant Allen, author
• November 13 - Arthur Giry, historian
• December 22 - Dwight L. Moody, preacher and publisher
• date unknown
  • Anna Swanwick, feminist writer

Awards