November 22 in Literary History: C. S. Lewis Dies

The most significant events in the history of books on the 22nd of November

1819: George Eliot is born. She was born Mary Ann Evans (sometimes known as Marian) and adopted the name George Eliot in 1856, when she launched her career in fiction. Eliot was the author of seven full-length novels, including Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, and was also the first person to refer to modern tennis and to ‘pop’ music.

1869: André Gide is born. This French author, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, once observed: ‘With each book you write you should lose the admirers you gained with the previous one.’

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November 11 in Literary History: The Two Towers is Published

The most significant events in the history of books on the 11th of November

1821: Fyodor Dostoevsky is born. In 1849, he was sentenced to death by firing squad. At the very last minute the sentence was commuted to four years’ hard labour. At the time he was still an aspiring novelist, having written several minor works such as a novella titled The Double (1846). He would go on to write such classic novels as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

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