This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1909.
Events
January – T. E. Hulme's poems "Autumn" and "A City Sunset" are included in the Poets' Club anthology For Christmas MDCCCCVIII, as the first examples of Imagism. January 15 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's drama La donna è mobile opens at the Teatro Alfieri, Turin. February 1 – The first issue appears of La Nouvelle Revue Française, a literary magazine founded in Paris by André Gide, Jacques Copeau, Jean Schlumberger, Gaston Gallimard, and others. February 20 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto first appears in the French newspaper Le Figaro. March 2 – Katherine Mansfield, while pregnant by another man, marries the singing teacher George Bowden, whom she barely knows. She leaves him the same evening to resume lesbian relations with Ida Baker. April The opening night of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's drama Le Roi bombance (The Feasting King, written 1905) is heckled by the audience and the writer himself. The German periodical Die Tat is founded by Ernst Horneffer. April 24 – The Metropolitan Library (, Jīngshī Túshūguǎn) in Beijing, predecessor of the National Library of China, is founded by the Qing government. September 6 – Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot opens in New York City. September 23 – Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) begins serialization in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois. September 29 – Franz Kafka's short story "The Aeroplanes at Brescia (Die Aeroplane in Brescia)", based on a real event, is published in the Prague newspaper Bohemia, as the first description of airplanes in German literature. November – E. M. Forster's science fiction short story "The Machine Stops" is published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review. unknown date – Babelstornið (The Tower of Babel), by Rasmus Rasmussen, writing as Regin í Líð, becomes the first Faroese language novel to be published.
New books
Fiction
Florence Barclay – The Rosary
Maurice Barrès – Colette Baudoche
André Billy – La Derive
Algernon Blackwood
The Education of Uncle Paul
Jimbo: A Fantasy
René Boylesve – La Jeune Fille bien élevée (The Well-raised Girl) Hall Caine – The White Prophet Gilbert Cannan – Peter Homunculus Ion Luca Caragiale – Kir Ianulea Robert W. Chambers – The Danger Mark Herbert Croly – The Promise of American Life Em Kol Chai (Chava Shapiro) – Kovetz Tziurim (קבץ ציורים, A Collection of Sketches) Concha Espina – That Luzmela Girl Charles Hoy Fort – The Outcast Manufacturers Anatole France – Balthazar Jacques Futrelle – Elusive Isabel John Galsworthy – Fraternity Charles Garvice – A Fair Impostor Robert Hichens – Bella Donna Olha Kobylianska – V Nediliu Rano Zillia Kopala (She Gathered Herbs on Sunday Morning) Maurice Leblanc – The Hollow Needle Gaston Leroux – Le fauteuil hanté (The Haunted Chair) Jack London – Martin Eden John Masefield – Multitude and Solitude Silas Weir Mitchell – The Red City Baroness Orczy The Nest of the Sparrowhawk The Old Man in the Corner Randall Parrish – My Lady of the South Eden Phillpotts – The Haven Luigi Pirandello – I vecchi e i giovani (The Old and the Young, part 1) Władysław Reymont – Chłopi (The Peasants; publication completed) Stein Riverton – Jernvognen (The Iron Carriage) Olivia Shakespear – Uncle Hilary Gertrude Stein – Three Lives Gene Stratton-Porter – A Girl of the Limberlost Hermann Sudermann – The Song of Songs Mark Twain – Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (book publication) Edgar Wallace Captain Tatham of Tatham Island The Duke in the Suburbs Robert Walser – Jakob von Gunten Mary Augusta Ward – Daphne H. G. Wells Ann Veronica Tono-Bungay
Children and young people
L. Frank Baum
The Road to Oz
Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work (as Edith Van Dyne) Angela Brazil – The Nicest Girl in the School Lucy Maud Montgomery – Anne of Avonlea Beatrix Potter The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies The Tale of Ginger and Pickles P. G. Wodehouse – Mike
Drama
Paul Armont and Nicolas Nancey – Théodore et Cie
Sem Benelli – The Jester's Supper (La cena delle beffe) Clyde Fitch – The City John Galsworthy – Strife Harley Granville-Barker – The Madras House Cicely Hamilton – A Pageant of Great Women Agha Hashar Kashmiri – Khwab-e-Hasti (The Dream World of Existence) Oskar Kokoschka – Murderer, the Hope of Women (Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen) Else Lasker-Schüler – Die Wupper (published) André de Lorde – L'horrible expérience Ferenc Molnár – Liliom Quintero brothers – El patinillo George Bernard Shaw – The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet