This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1888.
Events
February 9 – During Joseph Conrad's career at sea as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, he departs from Bangkok for Sydney in his first command as master, on the British barque Otago. This provides a basis for his novella The Shadow Line (1916). March 6 – On the day of Amos Bronson Alcott's funeral at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts), his daughter, novelist Louisa May Alcott, already in poor health, suffers a fatal stroke. March 16 – Foundation stone for a new National Library of Greece building is laid in Athens. May 26 – In London, Punch magazine begins serialisation of George and Weedon Grossmith's humorous The Diary of a Nobody, the first entry being for "April 3". June 3 – Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published under the pen name "Phin" as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner. July – Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes detective novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887), is first published separately as a book, by Ward Lock & Co in London with illustrations by the author's father, Charles Altamont Doyle. October The English publisher Henry Vizetelly is prosecuted in London by the National Vigilance Association and fined for obscene libel for his English translation of Zola's . "Papus" founds the esoteric magazine L'Initiation in France. The first book to feature Jack the Ripper in fiction is published while the Whitechapel murders attributed to Jack the Ripper are still taking place in London, the short Gothic novel The Curse Upon Mitre Square by John Francis Brewer, which features the murder of Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square on September 30 as a key plot element. unknown dates Sholem Aleichem edits the first issue of the anthology Di Yidishe Folksbibliotek in Kiev, giving important exposure to young writers in Yiddish, including I. L. Peretz's long ballad "Monish". The Finnish epic Kalevala is published for the first time in English, in a translation by American linguist John Martin Crawford. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert ("Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer", published 1889), Der Antichrist (1895) and his autobiography, Ecce homo: Wie man wird, was man ist (posthumous, 1908), his last works before his total mental collapse. probable – The sexual memoir My Secret Life by "Walter", perhaps Henry Spencer Ashbee, begins publication, being printed in Amsterdam for clandestine sale in Britain.
New books
Fiction
Grant Allen
The Devil's Die
The White Man's Foot
Edward Bellamy – Looking Backward: 2000–1887
Rolf Boldrewood – Robbery Under Arms (book publication) Mary Elizabeth Braddon – The Fatal Three Richard Francis Burton (translator) – The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (publication completed) Félicien Champsaur – L'Amant des danseuses Archibald Clavering Gunter – Mr. Potter of Texas Louis Couperus – Eline Vere James De Mille – A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder Antonio Fogazzaro – The Mystery of the Poet Theodor Fontane – Irrungen, Wirrungen (On Tangled Paths) H. Rider Haggard – Maiwa's Revenge Thomas Hardy – Wessex Tales Gerhart Hauptmann – Bahnwärter Thiel (Railway signalman Thiel, novella) Henry James The Aspern Papers Princess Casamassima Rudyard Kipling The Man Who Would Be King Plain Tales from the Hills Amy Levy – Reuben Sachs Jean Lombard – L'Agonie Herman Melville – John Marr and Other Sailors Octave Mirbeau – L'Abbé Jules George Moore – Spring Days – A Prelude to Don Juan Shardha Ram Phillauri – Bhagyawati Raul Pompéia – O Ateneu José Maria de Eça de Queiroz – Os Maias Arthur Quiller-Couch – Troy Town Henryk Sienkiewicz – Fire in the Steppe (Pan Wołodyjowski) Theodor Storm – The Rider on the White Horse (Der Schimmelreiter) Ivan Vazov – Under the Yoke (Под игото, Pod Igoto) Lew Wallace – The Boyhood of Christ Mrs Humphrey Ward – Robert Elsmere Oscar Wilde – The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Children and young people
Frank Cowper – Caedwalla - The Saxons in the Isle of Wight
G. A. Henty
Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden
In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy
George MacDonald – The Elect Lady
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Black Arrow (book publication) Jules Verne Family Without a Name (Famille-sans-nom) Two Years' Vacation (Deux Ans de vacances) Oscar Wilde – The Happy Prince and Other Tales