Literature: The Artistic Expression of the Human Experience

Q: When did people start writing literature?

People began writing literature in circa 2600 BCE in Mesopotamia.

Q: What is the oldest work of literature in the world?

The Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia is the oldest work of literature in the world, dated to circa 2100 BCE.

Q: When did Homer write Iliad and Odyssey?

Homer wrote Iliad and Odyssey in the 8th century BCE.

Joshua J. Mark

Definition

Literature (from the Latin Littera meaning "letters" and referring to an acquaintance with the written word) is the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion, philosophy, or the study of such written work which may appear in poetry or in prose. Literature is the artistic expression of the human experience and the works labeled as such, although they bear the stamp of the culture that produced them, are remarkably similar in the tales they tell.

More about: Literature

Timeline

c. 2600 BCE
Beginning of literature in Sumerian.
c. 2300 BCE
Life of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, and world's first author known by name.
c. 2100 BCE - c. 1400 BCE
The tales of Gilgamesh written which inform the Epic of Gilgamesh.
c. 1900 BCE - c. 1600 BCE
Composition of The Descent of Inanna.
c. 1640 BCE - c. 1700 BCE
Written form of the Atrahasis myth of the Great Flood.
1345 BCE
The world's first manual on training horses is written by the Mitanni horse trainer Kikkuli (found in Hattusa).
c. 1120 BCE
Extant copy of the Sumerian Enuma Elish (creation story) is made from much older text.
c. 800 BCE - c. 700 BCE
Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
c. 700 BCE
Greek poet Hesiod writes his Theogony and Works and Days.
c. 647 BCE - c. 629 BCE
Extensive collection of clay tablets acquired known as the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.
c. 500 BCE
The Indian epic the Ramayana is composed by the sage Valmiki.
c. 400 BCE - c. 200 CE
The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Mahabharata, is written at some point between 400 BCE and 200 CE.
213 BCE
The Burning of the Books and the Burying of Philosophers Period in China.
c. 205 BCE - 184 BCE
Plautus writes his Roman comedy plays.
c. 200 BCE
Plautus' comedy play Stichus is first performed.
c. 191 BCE
Plautus' comedy play Pseudolus is first performed.
c. 100 BCE
Buddhist sutras began to be written down in Pali.
59 BCE - 17 CE
Life of Livy.
43 BCE - 17 CE
Life of the Roman writer Ovid, author of Metamorphoses.
c. 30 BCE - c. 19 BCE
Roman poet Virgil writes his Aeneid.
23 CE - Aug 79 CE
Life of Pliny the Elder.
c. 69 CE - c. 130 CE
Life of Roman biographer Suetonius who wrote 'The Twelve Caesars'.
148 CE
An Shigao is the first Buddhist translator mentioned in Chinese sources who established a translation centre in the Chinese imperial capital, Luoyang.
23 Apr 1564 CE
Birthdate of William Shakespeare, regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, at Stratford-upon-Avon, England, the son of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.
20 May 1609 CE
Shakespeare's sonnets are first published by the publisher Thomas Thorpe who recorded the event in the Stationers' Register. The collection of 154 sonnets was dedicated to one Mr. W.H. by Thorpe and may have been published without Shakespeare's consent.
27 Apr 1667 CE
English poet John Milton sells the copyright to his masterpiece, *Paradise Lost*, to printer Samuel Simmons for an upfront payment of 5 pounds with a promised payment of 20 pounds (the rest was never paid). Blind at the time, and impoverished, Milton desperately needed the money.
24 Sep 1786 CE
Poet and enslaved African American Jupiter Hammon delivers his famous speech, "An Address to the Negroes of New York State" to the African Society in New York City, subtly and cleverly advocating emancipation while seeming to tell slaves to obey their masters. Today, Hammon is known as the Father of African American literature.
4 Aug 1821 CE
*The Saturday Evening Post* is first published, becoming one of the most popular and widely read American magazines, and publishing the works of authors as varied as Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut. It became especially well-known for its illustrations by Norman Rockwell.
9 Aug 1854 CE
*Walden; or, Life in the Woods* by American author Henry David Thoreau is published, recounting his time spent alone in a cabin he claimed to have built on Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. Although it was largely ignored upon publication, it has since become an American classic.
9 Jun 1860 CE
The first "dime store" novel is published – *Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter* by Ann S. Stephens – by Irwin P. Beadle & Co., New York City, becoming a best seller and launching the "dime store novel" cultural phenomenon.
1 Oct 1861 CE
*Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management* by Isabella Beeton is published after parts of it had been serialized, creating an audience for the work. The book became a best-seller on how to manage one's home, shop, and cook for one's husband and remains in print today.
1 Dec 1887 CE
The iconic character Sherlock Holmes first appears in print in *A Study in Scarlet* written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published in *Beeton's Christmas Annual*. Advertisements mentioning the work came out 21 November 1887, which is sometimes mistakenly cited as its publication date.
21 Jul 1899 CE
Birthday of American author and Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway, among the most popular and influential writers of his generation, best known for novels such as *The Sun Also Rises*, *For Whom the Bell Tolls*, and *The Old Man and the Sea.*.
24 Jul 1901 CE
American author O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, where he was serving time for embezzlement, moving to New York City and becoming one of America's most popular writers of short fiction, probably best known for *The Gift of the Magi.*.
27 Feb 1902 CE
John Steinbeck, American author, is born in Salinas, California. Steinbeck is best known for his novel *The Grapes of Wrath* and the novella *Of Mice and Men*. Along with Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck is regarded highly as a skilled and influential author, among the greatest of the 20th century. He died on 20 December 1968.