A Literary Melange on Offer!

1929 | A Potpourri of Sorts in Literature

The year 1929 has been such a remarkable year in literature for a variety of reasons, and some, which are pretty close to our hearts too!

1929 was the year when immortal comic hero Tintin appeared for the very first time in the comic book titled, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, in the pages of the youth supplement to a famed Belgian newspaper. 

There has been no stopping this quiffy-haired teenager ever since!

[Interestingly, Tintin shares his year of birth with exiled Czech-born French writer Milan Kundera, American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, the German philosopher Habermas, the English playwright John Osborne, the German-born Dutch-Jewish diarist, Anne Frank, and former President of the US and writer, Jimmy Carter. Quite a variety, you may wonder!]

1929 was also a year that saw a lot of books and art work getting banned, proscribed or prohibited. Voltaire's Candide (1759) was the first book to become victim to the US law enforcements! The book was found ‘obscene’ by the United States Customs Service.

In England, yet another book was held obscene for its portrayal of the city’s wild, bohemian life! It was Norah C James’s maiden novel titled, Sleeveless Errand, published just that year, in 1929. Finally, it was published in Paris.

The year 1929 also saw the confiscation of 13 nude paintings done by D. H. Lawrence, from off a London gallery - on charges of obscenity and indecency - by Scotland Yard.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was also banned in the Soviet Union this very year, for the author Arthur’s ardent interest in the occult!

It was on this very same year that, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir became a couple!

On the ‘literary criticism’ front, I A Richards gave us all his Practical Criticism in which he gives illustrations from work by his students who had analysed unidentified poems on their own!

American author William Faulkner’s novel titled, The Sound and the Fury was also published this year!

An essay by Virginia Woolf titled, “A Room of One’s Own” considered to be a defining essay in the feminist literary credo, was published this year.

An intriguing short story by Dorothy Parker, titled, ‘‘Big Blonde’’ and

Rebecca West’s amazing novel titled, Harriet Hume were also published this year.

Ernest Hemingway’s famed war novel titled, A Farewell to Arms was also published this year.

Erich Maria Remarque’s war novel titled, All Quiet on the Western Front was also published this year.

The popular Expressionist play that attacked the atrocities of the imperial wars, written by Sean O’Casey titled, The Silver Tassie was published this year.

Philippe Soupault’s intriguing surrealist novel titled, Last Nights of Paris was also published this year in 1929.

Finally, on the awards front, yes! Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature, this year.

PS: This list is not exhaustive! The list goes on and on.! These are just views from this pavapetta blogger's perspective! athey! ;-)