The History

Common Works in Time

2016

The Great Derangement

The Great Derangement

Amitav Ghosh publishes The Great Derangement in 2016. Ghosh is a writer of nine novels and several essay collections

2011

We the Animals

We the Animals

Justin Torres publishes his debut novel, We the Animals.

1975

Death and the King’s Horseman

Death and the King’s Horseman

Death and The King’s Horseman premiers in Ife, Nigeria. Soyinka wrote the play between 1973-1974 while he was a fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.

1970

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison publishes The Bluest Eye, her debut novel, while working as an editor at Random House. She was the first black woman to be a senior editor in the fiction department

1862

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson

“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –,” is published in the Springfield Republican as “The Sleeping.” Most of Emily Dickinson’s poetry is not published in her lifetime. The first edition of her poems comes out in 1890.

1815

Emma

Emma

Jane Austen publishes two thousand copies of Emma, at her own expense. Austen retained the rights to her work and paid a commission to her publisher.

1794

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

In 1789, William Blake hand prints Songs of Innocence through illuminated printing, a technique he invented to print word and image simultaneously. In 1794, Blake adds Songs of Experience and reprints the two collections as a set.

1667

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Milton publishes Paradise Lost through a bookseller who pays him five pounds for the manuscript.

1606

King Lear

King Lear

The King’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company, performs King Lear before James I on December 26th, 1606.

1400

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer dies and leaves unfinished The Canterbury Tales, which he began in 1387.