Common Works in Time
2016
The Great Derangement
Amitav Ghosh publishes The Great Derangement in 2016. Ghosh is a writer of nine novels and several essay collections2011
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 premiers in Ife, Nigeria. Soyinka wrote the play between 1973-1974 while he was a fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.1970
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 department1862
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
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
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
Milton publishes Paradise Lost through a bookseller who pays him five pounds for the manuscript.1606
King Lear
The King’s Men, Shakespeare’s acting company, performs King Lear before James I on December 26th, 1606.1400
