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The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pieces. Not all writings constitute literature. Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data (e.g., a check register) are not considered literature, and this article relates only to the evolution of the works defined above.

Early literature is derived from stories told in hunter-gatherer bands through oral tradition, including myth and folklore. Storytelling emerged as the human mind evolved to apply causal reasoning and structure events into a narrative and language, allowing early humans to share information with one another. Early storytelling provided opportunity to learn about dangers and social norms while also entertaining listeners. Myth can be expanded to include all use of patterns and stories to make sense of the world, and it may be psychologically intrinsic to humans. Epic poetry is recognized as the pinnacle of ancient literature. These works are long narrative poems that recount the feats of mythic heroes, often said to take place in the nation's early history.

The history of writing began independently in different parts of the world, including in Mesopotamia about 3200 BC, in Ancient China about 1250 BC, and in Mesoamerica about 650 BC. Literature was not initially incorporated in writing, as it was primarily used for simpler purposes, such as accounting. Some of the earliest surviving works of literature include The Maxims of Ptahhotep and the Story of Wenamun from Ancient Egypt, Instructions of Shuruppak and Poor Man of Nippur from Mesopotamia, and Classic of Poetry from Ancient China.

A stone tablet containing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Sumerian literature is the oldest known literature, written in Sumer. Types of literature were not clearly defined, and all Sumerian literature incorporated poetic aspects. Sumerian poems demonstrate basic elements of poetry, including lines, imagery, and metaphor. Humans, gods, talking animals, and inanimate objects were all incorporated as characters. Suspense and humor were both incorporated into Sumerian stories. These stories were primarily shared orally, though they were also recorded by scribes. Some works were associated with specific musical instruments or contexts and may have been performed in specific settings. Sumerian literature did not use titles, instead being referred to by the work's first line.

Akkadian literature developed in subsequent Mesopotamian societies, such as Babylonia and Assyria, from the third to first millennia BC. During this time, it spread to other areas, including Egypt, Ugarit, and Hattusa. The Akkadian language was influenced by the Sumerian language, and many elements of Sumerian literature were adopted in Akkadian literature. Many works of Akkadian literature were commissioned by kings that had scribes and scholars in their service. Some of these works served to celebrate the king or the divine, while others recorded information for religious practices or medicine. Poetry, proverbs, folktales, love lyrics, and accounts of disputes were all incorporated into Akkadian literature.

Literature of the Old Kingdom of Egypt developed directly from practical use during the Fifth Dynasty. Lists of offerings to the gods were rewritten as prayers, and statistical information about state officials was expanded into autobiographies. These autobiographies were written to exemplify the virtues of their subjects and often incorporated a free flow style that blended prose and poetry. Kings were not written about beyond clerical recordings, but poetry was performed during the funerals of kings as part of a religious ritual. The Instructions, a form of wisdom literature that was popular during most of Ancient Egyptian history, taught maxims of Ancient Egyptian philosophy that combined pragmatic thought and religious speculation.

These literary traditions continued to develop in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt as autobiographies became more intricate. The role of the king in literature expanded during this period; royal testaments were written from the perspective of the king to his successor, and celebrations of the king and advocacy of strong leadership were included in autobiographies and Instructions. Fiction and analysis of good and evil also developed during this period. During the New Kingdom of Egypt, the popularity of wisdom literature and educational works persisted, though the use of teachings and stories was prioritized over the use of discourses. Entertainment literature was popular among the nobility during this period, incorporating aspects of narrative myth and folklore, religious hymns, love songs, and praise for the king and the city.

Chinese mythology played a notable role in the earliest Chinese literature, though it was less prominent compared to mythological literature in other civilizations. By the time of the Zhou dynasty, Chinese culture emphasized the community over the individual, discouraging mythological stories of great personages and characterization of the divine. Mythological literature was more common in the southern Chu nation. The Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi are philosophical compilations that serve as the foundation of Taoism. Confucius was a defining figure in ancient Chinese philosophy and politics. He collected the Six Classics as founding texts of Confucianism, and they became the central texts by which other works were compared in Chinese literary scholarship. Confucianism dominated literary tastes in Ancient China starting in the Warring States period. The sayings of Confucius were later compiled into the by his students.

Anthologies were common in Ancient China, and anthologizing was used as a means of literary criticism to determine literary classics. The Classic of Poetry, one of the Six Classics, is the oldest existing anthology of Chinese poetry. It comprises 305 works by anonymous authors dating from the 12th to 7th centuries BC. Prior to the collection of these works, poetic tradition in Ancient China was primarily oral. The anthology is a volume of poems from the Warring States period written in Chu and attributed to Qu Yuan. These poems were written as rhapsodies that were meant to be recited with a specific tone rather than sung. The Music Bureau was developed during the Zhou dynasty, establishing a governmental role for the collection of musical works and folk songs that would persist throughout Chinese history.

Historical documents developed into an early form of literature during the Warring States period, as documentation was combined with narrative and sometimes with legendary accounts of history. Two of the Six Classics, the Book of Documents and the Spring and Autumn Annals, are historical documents. The latter inspired works of historical commentary that became a genre in their own right, including the , the Gongyang Zhuan, and the Guliang Zhuan. The Zuo Zhuan is considered to be the first large scale narrative work in Chinese literature. The Art of War by Sun Tzu was an influential book on military strategy that is still referenced in the modern era.

Poetry written in the brief period of the Qin dynasty has been entirely lost. Poetry in the Han dynasty diverged as several branches developed, including short length, paralleled exposition, rhymed exposition, and ancient style, and idealism also became popular during the Han dynasty. The Nineteen Old Poems were written at this time, though how they came about is the subject of debate. Poetry during this period abandoned tetrasyllabic verse in favor of pentasyllabic verse. The ballads of Chu spread through China and became widely popular, often focusing on concepts of inevitable destiny and fate.

Political and argumentative literature by government officials dominated Chinese prose during this period, though even these works often engaged in lyricism and metaphor. Jia Yi was an essayist known for his emotional political treatises such as The Faults of Qin. Chao Cuo was an essayist known for treatises that were meticulous rather than emotional. Confucianism continued to dictate philosophical works, though a movement of works criticizing contemporary application of Confucianism began with Wang Chong in his . Prose literature meant for entertainment also developed during this period. Historical literature was revolutionized by the Records of the Grand Historian, the first general history of ancient times and the largest work of literature to that point in time.

Centralism declined during the Six Dynasties period, and Confucianism lost influence as a predominating ideology. This caused the rise of many local traditions of philosophical literature, including that of Taoist and Buddhist ideas. Prose fiction during the Wei and Jin dynasties consisted mainly of supernatural folklore, including those presented as historical. This tradition of supernatural fiction continued during the Northern and Southern dynasties with the Records of Light and Shade attributed to Liu Yiqing. Another genre of prose was collections of short biographical or anecdotal impressions, of which only A New Account of the Tales of the World survives.

Jian'an poetry developed from the literary tradition of Eastern Han, incorporating idiosyncrasies and strong demonstrations of emotion to express individualism. This movement was led by then-ruler of China Cao Cao. The poetry of Cao Cao consisted of ensemble songs published through the Music Bureau and performed with music. The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were influential poets in the Wei dynasty mid-3rd century, addressing political and philosophical concerns directly in their poetry. Chinese poetry developed significantly during the Jin dynasty, incorporating parallelism, prosody, and emotional expression through scenery. Zhang Hua, Lu Ji, and Pan Yue are recognized as the great poets that developed early Western Jin poetry. Zuo Si and Liu Kun were poets in later Western Jin. In Eastern Jin, philosophical poetry went through a period of abstraction that removed much of its literary elements. Guo Pu and Tao Yuanming were notable poets in Eastern Jin.

The popularity of literary poetry and aestheticism grew during the Southern dynasties, and literature as art began to be recognized as distinct from political and philosophical literature. This resulted in the growth of literary criticism, with The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons and Ranking of Poetry being written at this time. The Sixteen Kingdoms of the Northern dynasties saw little cultural growth due to their instability, and Northern literature of this time was typically influenced by the Southern dynasties. Shanshui poetry also became prominent in Six Dynasties poetry.

Ancient literature of the Levant was written in the Northwest Semitic languages, a language group that contains the Aramaic language, as well as the Canaanite languages such as Phoenician and Hebrew. A corpus of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions (or "Northwest Semitic inscriptions") are the primary extra-Biblical source for the writings of the ancient Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arameans. These inscriptions occur on stone slabs, pottery ostraca, ornaments, and range from simple names to full texts.

The books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium, with the oldest texts originating from about the eleventh or tenth centuries BCE. They are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. The Old Testament was compiled and edited by various authors over a period of centuries, with many scholars concluding that the Hebrew canon was solidified by about the 3rd century BC. The New Testament was an additional collection of books that supplemented the Hebrew Bible, consisting of the gospels that described Jesus and the epistles written by notable figures of early Christianity.

A scene from the Odyssey portrayed in an Ancient Roman mosaic

Early Greek literature was composed in dactylic hexameter. Homer is credited with the codification of epic poetry in Ancient Greece with the and the Hesiod is credited with developing a literary tradition of poetry derived from catalogues and genealogies, such as the Megala Erga and the . Notable writers of religious literature also held similar prominence at the time, but these works have since been lost. Notable among later Greek poets was Sappho, who contributed to the development of lyric poetry and was widely popular in antiquity.

Ancient Greek plays originate from the chorus plays of Athens in the 6th century BC as a tradition to honor Dionysus, the god of theater and wine. Greek plays came to be associated with "elaborate costumes, complex choreography, scenic architecture, and the mask". They were often structured as a tetralogy in which three tragedies were followed by a satyr play. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were known for their tragedies, while Aristophanes and Menander were known for their comedies. Sophocles is most well known for his play Oedipus Rex, which established an early example of literary irony.

Ancient Greek philosophy was developed as the foundation of Western philosophy. Thales of Miletus was the first person in recorded history to engage in Western philosophy. The Ancient Greek philosophical literature was advanced by Plato, who incorporated philosophical debates into dialogues with Socratic questioning. Aristotle, Plato's student, wrote dozens of works on many scientific disciplines. Aristotle also developed early literary criticism and literary theory in his

In the Roman Republic, literature took the form of tragedy, comedy, epic, and historical. Livius Andronicus is recognized as the originator of literature in the Latin language, and due to Rome's influence, the development of Latin literature often extended beyond the traditional boundaries of Rome. Plautus was an influential playwright known for his comedies that emphasized humor and popular culture. The late republic saw the rise of Augustan literature and Classical Latin, which was primarily prose and included the works of Cicero and Sallust. Upon the formation of the Roman Empire, political commentary declined and prose went out of favor to be replaced by poetry. Poets such as Virgil, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid are recognized as bringing about the Golden Age of Latin literature. Virgil's epic poem the closely followed the formula established by Homer.

Prominent Latin authors that lived during the early empire included Pliny the Elder, Seneca the Younger, and Emperor Marcus Aurelius. As the Roman Empire grew, Latin literature increasingly came from Spain and Northern Africa. Historical works of the early empire included the epic by Lucan, which followed Caesar's civil war, and the Annals of Tacitus, which recorded the events of the first century. The Golden Ass by Apuleius was written in the later Empire and is possibly the world's oldest novel. The adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire became apparent in Latin literature, most notably in the confessional writing of Augustine of Hippo, such as the Confessions.

Knowledge traditions in India handed down philosophical gleanings and theological concepts through the two traditions of Shruti and Smriti, meaning that which is learnt and that which is experienced, which included the Vedas. It is generally believed that the Puranas are the earliest philosophical writings in Indian history, although linguistic works on Sanskrit existed earlier than 1000 BC. Puranic works such as the Indian epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata, have influenced countless other works, including Balinese Kecak and other performances such as shadow puppetry ( wayang), and many European works. Pali literature has an important position in the rise of Buddhism. Classical Sanskrit literature flowers in the Maurya and Gupta periods, roughly spanning the 2nd century BC to the 8th century AD. Classical Tamil literature also emerged in the early historic period dating from 300 BC to 300 AD, and is the earliest secular literature of India, mainly dealing with themes such as love and war. The Gupta period in India sees the flowering of Sanskrit drama, classical Sanskrit poetry and the compilation of the Puranas.

After the fall of Rome (in roughly 476), many of the literary approaches and styles invented by the Greeks and Romans fell out of favor in Europe. In the millennium or so that intervened between Rome's fall and the Florentine Renaissance, medieval literature focused more and more on faith and faith-related matters, in part because the works written by the Greeks had not been preserved in Europe, and therefore there were few models of classical literature to learn from and move beyond. Although much had been lost to the ravages of time (and to catastrophe, as in the burning of the Library of Alexandria), many Greek works remained extant: they were preserved and copied carefully by Muslim scribes. What little there was became changed and distorted, with new forms beginning to develop from the distortions. Some of these distorted beginnings of new styles can be seen in the literature generally described as Matter of Rome, Matter of France and Matter of Britain.

Around 400 AD, the Prudenti Psychomachia began the tradition of allegorical tales. Poetry flourished, however, in the hands of the troubadours, whose courtly romances and chanson de geste amused and entertained the upper classes who were their patrons. The First Crusade in 1095 also affected literature. For instance the image of the knight would take on a different significance. The Islamic emphasis on scientific investigation and the preservation of the Greek philosophical writings would also affect European literature.

Hagiographies, or "lives of the saints", were frequent among early medieval European texts. The writings of Bede-Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum-and others continue the faith-based historical tradition begun by Eusebius in the early 4th century. Between Augustine and The Bible, religious authors had numerous aspects of Christianity that needed further explication and interpretation. Thomas Aquinas, more than any other single person, was able to turn theology into a kind of science, in part because he was heavily influenced by Aristotle, whose works were returning to Europe in the 13th century. Playwriting essentially ceased, except for the mystery plays and the passion plays that focused heavily on conveying Christian belief to the common people.

Latin continued to be used as a literary language in medieval Europe. Though it was also spoken, it was primarily learned and expressed through literature, and scientific literature was typically written in Latin. Christianity became increasingly prominent in medieval European literature, also written in Latin. Religious literature in other languages proliferated during the 13th century as those who were not educated in Latin sought religious literature that they could understand. Women in particular were not permitted to learn Latin, and an extensive body of religious literature in many languages was written by women at this time.

Early Medieval literature in England was written in Old English, which is not mutually intelligible with modern English. Works of this time include the epic poem and Arthurian fantasy based on the legendary character of King Arthur. Literature in the modern English language began with Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, known for The Canterbury Tales.

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio was published in 1351, and it influenced European literature over the following centuries. Its framing device of ten individuals each telling ten stories introduced the term and inspired later works, including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights), which was a compilation of many earlier folk tales told by the Persian Queen Scheherazade. The epic took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Many imitations were written, especially in France.

Ferdowsi's , the national epic of Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history and the longest epic poem ever written. From Persian culture the book which would, eventually, become the most famous in the west is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The Rubáiyát is a collection of poems by the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám (1048-1122). "Rubaiyat" means "quatrains": verses of four lines. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story.

Examples of early Persian proto- science fiction include Al-Farabi's Opinions of the residents of a splendid city about a utopian society, and elements such as the flying carpet.

Medieval Jewish fiction often drew on ancient Jewish legends, and was written in a variety of languages including Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. Liturgical Jewish poetry in Hebrew flourished in Palestine in the seventh and eighth centuries with the writings of Yose ben Yose, Yanai, and Eleazar Kalir Later Jewish poets in Spain, Provençal, and Italy wrote both religious and secular poems in Hebrew; particularly prominent poets were the Spanish Jewish poets Solomon ibn Gabirol and Yehuda Halevi. In addition to poetry and fiction, medieval Jewish literature also includes philosophical literature, mystical (Kabbalistic) literature, ethical (musar) literature, legal (halakhic) literature, and commentaries on the Bible.

Sanskrit declines in the early 2nd millennium, late works such as the Kathasaritsagara dating to the 11th century, to the benefit of literature composed in Middle Indic vernaculars such as Old Bengali, Old Hindi.

Li Po Chanting a Poem, by Liang K'ai (13th century)

Lu Sidao, Xue Daoheng, and Yang Su were notable poets of the early Sui dynasty, with Yang moving away from the dominant traditions of Southern poetry. In the Sui and early Tang dynasties, literature was supported by the various emperors, who commissioned many works and wrote some of their own. Poetry in this period followed the Palace Style until it diverged with the work of the Four Paragons. Wang Changling and Li Bai are recognized among the great poets of High Tang. Landscape poetry and frontier poetry were both influential during the Tang dynasty. Tang poetry also included cí, a type of lyric poetry. Chinese poetry increased focus on politics, human suffering, and realism in the mid-Tang dynasty, such as in the works of Du Fu. Chinese poetry diverged into two schools in the early-9th century; poets such as Meng Jiao and Han Yu wrote about the unusual, while poets such as Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen emphasized simplicity. The final years of the Tang dynasty saw the rise of lyric poetry and erotic poetry. Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun were influential poets during this period.

Fictional narrative became prominent in the Tang dynasty, written with looser restrictions on form and length. Fiction in the mid-Tang period focused primarily on social commentary and romantic love, and notable authors during this time included Shen Jiji and Yuan Zhen. Collections of stories became more common in the Late Tang period, particularly those of chivalrous tales by authors such as Pei Xing. Popular literature of the time included transformation text, vernacular story, sutra, song, and rhapsody. The style of prose was not initially developed during the Tang dynasty. Parallel prose remained popular in the early Tang dynasty, though writers such as Li Bai moved away from strict form that was common at the time. Han Yu promoted the use of classical prose in the style of ancient Confucisionist works. Printing began in Tang dynasty China. A copy of the Diamond Sutra, a key Buddhist text, found sealed in a cave in China in the early 20th century, is the oldest known dated printed book, with a printed date of 868. The method used was block printing.

Printing first became widespread in the Northern Song. Northern Song lyric poetry was developed by Yan Shu, Liu Yong, and Zhang Xian, and it became a popular pastime among the lower class. Ouyang Xiu developed the popular style of lyric poetry while Yan Jidao developed the refined style. Lyric poetry contrasted with the more formal shi poetry that followed canonical literary forms and was used by scholars. Political pressures heavily influenced the poetry of scholars in the Northern Song, as proficiency in older styles was a requirement for scholars to enter into civil service. Politics and Confucianism in particular increasingly influenced poetry in Northern Song. Poets such as Mei Yaochen and Su Shunquin developed the style of poetry used in the Middle Northern Song. Ouyang Xiu was a prominent literary scholar in Northern Song that refined the mainstream literary style of the time, and Su Shi is said to have perfected it.

Chen Yuyi defined the style of Early Southern Song poetry. Lu You was a poet in the Middle Southern Song that wrote extensively about political life in civil service and frustration with the dynasty's weakened position in the Jin-Song Wars, while Xin Qiji was a Middle Southern Song poet that wrote on similar topics from a military perspective. Poetic style did not advance significantly in the Late Southern Song, though Yan Yu's Canglang Shihua was influential in poetic theory. Classical poetry in the Early Jin emphasized emotion, while elegance was emphasized later in the Jin dynasty.

Popular fiction was typically performed in the Song dynasty, made up primarily of small talk fiction and historical tales. Classical prose fiction in the Song dynasty often sacrificed linguistic quality and imagination for plain language and moral teaching. variety plays developed during the Song dynasty as a predecessor to drama. The scientist, statesman, and general Shen Kuo (1031-1095 AD) was the author of the Dream Pool Essays (1088), a large book of scientific literature that included the oldest description of the magnetized compass. During the Song dynasty, there was also the enormous historical work of the Zizhi Tongjian, compiled into 294 volumes of 3 million written Chinese characters by the year 1084 AD. The Jin dynasty saw advances in popular literature, including Romance of the Western Chamber.

Drama was significantly developed as a literary form in the Yuan dynasty and made up much of the era's fictional works. Variety plays were influential in the Early Yuan period, with Khanbaliq, present-day Beijing, as the cultural center of variety plays. As the 14th century began, variety play writers moved to Hangzhou, though variety plays declined and they did not achieve the same prominence. The nanxi was developed as a genre of play at the same time, reflecting the unique political life of the Yuan dynasty in which civil service, infidelity, and inter-clan politics all played a major role. Tale of the Pipa by Gao Ming was an influential nanxi drama. Qu was a common type of poetry in the Yuan dynasty that was used both as a standalone work and part of the structure of a play.

Two of the earliest Chinese novels, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, first appeared in the Yuan dynasty. Poetry in the Yuan dynasty remained the primary form of expression for classical writers, though the Song tradition of intellectual poetry was replaced by poetry that expressed strong emotion. Northern Yuan poetry was influenced by the works of Yuan Haowen while Southern Yuan poetry was influenced by Yan Yu.

Japanese literature first diverged from Chinese literature around the eighth century. were eighth century records that were typically written in Chinese and documented both historical and mythological stories. Folk ballads were also common, including those recorded in the fudoki and musical ballads. These ballads were written to be chanted and often had a syllabic structure, with the being highly regarded in particular. The writing of waka poetry became increasingly important in the Heian period as it became a necessary skill for the aristocracy in both social and courtship settings.

The is the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, written in Japanese with Chinese characters through and compiling waka poetry from the fifth to eighth centuries. The Kokin Wakashū was a collection of ninth century waka poetry compiled by imperial command. While the Man'yōshū was varied in the classes and professions of its writers, the poems of the Kokin Wakashū were limited to those of aristocratic poets. The Tales of Ise is a collection of loosely connected poems and narratives based on the life of Ariwara no Narihira.

Utsubo Monogatari and Ochikubo Monogatari were early prose works from the 10th century that realistically portrayed the lives of the aristocracy, and the former is sometimes considered to be the first full-length novel. At the same time, women of the aristocracy began keeping diaries that followed aristocratic life. The Tale of Genji was the next major prose work in Japan, written in the 11th century. Its use of realism and romantic idealization inspired later works of Heian period prose fiction, including historical works such as Eiga Monogatari and ; romantic novels such as The Tale of Sagoromo, Yoru no Nezame, Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari, and Torikaebaya Monogatari; and short story collections such as Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari. While these stories typically portrayed the aristocracy, Konjaku Monogatarishū was written in the 12th century, compiling roughly one thousand stories from different walks of life in Japan, China, and India. Japanese literature expanded beyond the aristocracy in the 13th century and became increasingly accessible to lower classes, often through the narration of religious texts such as The Tale of the Heike by blind priests. In the 14th and 15th centuries, poetry such as and drama such as and was written by professional writers under the patronage of the court, temples, or local lords.

The literary tradition of Java and the Kawi language is most well known for poetry. These were narrative poems based on the traditions of Sanskrit poetry, and they often incorporated religious elements. The oldest surviving kakawin is Kakawin Ramayana from the 9th century, a Javanese localization of the Sanskrit Bhaṭṭikāvya.

Mesoamerican literature was typically recorded on codices, though most surviving codices of pre-Columbian literature were written in the Latin alphabet to preserve oral tradition after colonization. Nahuatl literature was divided into cuícatl, which included song and poetry, and tlahtolli, which included prose works of history and discourses. The teocuícatl were divine hymns that were sung to praise the gods, while other Nahuatl poetry was sung in celebration of life and friendship, to honor warriors, or to pose philosophical questions. King Nezahualcoyotl of Tetzcoco was a notable poet and songwriter.

Literature in the Mayan languages was closely related to oral tradition in which writing guided memorized passages that were often performed. It was highly symbolic and incorporated heavy use of wordplay. Metaphor and imagery involving the natural world was also common. Mayan literature was often religious in nature, including information on religious practices, divination, and the gods. Much of this literature was later condemned as heretical and destroyed by Christian priests. The Dresden Codex, the Paris Codex, and the Madrid Codex are the only surviving pre-Columbian Mayan codices. Notable surviving Mayan texts include the Popol Vuh, the Chilam Balam, and the Annals of the Cakchiquels that describe the religious beliefs of Mesoamerican cultures.

The Renaissance encompassed much of European culture during the early modern period. This period saw a renewed interested in the classical works of Ancient Greece and Rome and a proliferation of artistic and scientific achievement. Literature, as with most forms of art in the early modern period, was financed through patronage by nobles. Fiction writing was not considered a profession in its own right and was typically undertaken by those who already possessed independent wealth. The invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century revolutionized European literature. The production of printed books allowed for more uniformity in literary works and the spread of literacy. Religious literature in particular was affected by the printing press, as churches funded and involved themselves in the printing process. Literary criticism also developed as literary works became more accessible.

The form of writing now commonplace across the world-the novel-originated from the early modern period and grew in popularity in the next century. Before the modern novel became established as a form there first had to be a transitional stage when "novelty" began to appear in the style of the epic poem. Petrarch popularized the sonnet as a poetic form; Giovanni Boccaccio's made romance acceptable in prose as well as poetry; François Rabelais rejuvenates satire with Gargantua and Pantagruel; Michel de Montaigne single-handedly invented the essay and used it to catalog his life and ideas. Perhaps the most controversial and important work of the time period was a treatise printed in Nuremberg, entitled De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium: in it, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus removed the Earth from its privileged position in the universe, which had far-reaching effects, not only in science, but in literature and its approach to humanity, hierarchy, and truth.

Plays for entertainment (as opposed to religious enlightenment) returned to Europe's stages in the early modern period. William Shakespeare is the most notable of the early modern playwrights, but numerous others made important contributions, including Molière, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson. From the 16th to the 18th century Commedia dell'arte performers improvised in the streets of Italy and France. Some Commedia dell'arte plays were written down. Both the written plays and the improvisation were influential upon literature of the time, particularly upon the work of Molière. Shakespeare drew upon the arts of jesters and strolling players in creating new style comedies. All the parts, even the female ones, were played by men (en travesti) but that would change, first in France and then in England too, by the end of the 17th century.

As England grew to become a world power, focus on England itself appeared in English literature. This tradition began with The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, written through the 1590s in honor of Queen Elizabeth I. Metaphysical poetry developed in the 17th century, led by John Donne, most well known for his love poems. The Augustan literature movement developed in the 18th century, led by Samuel Johnson, seeking to imitate the classical tastes of Ancient Greece and Rome. Augustan critics condemned metaphysical poetry for its frivolity and subversion. John Milton wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost to create an English Christian epic that rivaled those of Homer and Virgil. During the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, the arts were restricted along Puritan ideals. This censorship contributed to the fall of the Commonwealth of England and the restoration of the British monarchy. Under the restored monarchy, the arts were freer than they had been previously, and King Charles II became a patron of the theater.

William Shakespeare was a famed playwright in the late-16th and early-17th centuries, and he is generally recognized as the greatest author in the English language. He is known for his comedies, his dramas, and his histories, as well as his use of blank verse, sonnet, and soliloquy. Shakespeare's historical plays ignored historical accuracy and often contemplated royal succession, reflecting the concerns of his day regarding the succession of Elizabeth I. Early English novels include The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and by Aphra Behn, both published in the 1680s. Bunyan introduced into English literature ideas of individualism and the quest of personal fulfillment. Behn used her writing as social criticism to question the Atlantic slave trade. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is considered to be the first modern English novel, written as a celebration of the social mobility introduced by capitalism. The book was written in a realistic style, and the original edition was marketed as a true autobiography without any mention of Defoe as an author. Jonathan Swift introduced the fantasy novel to English literature, most notably through Gulliver's Travels, which was similarly marketed as a true story.

Gargantua and Pantagruel was written by François Rabelais in five parts throughout the mid-16th century. It was an early influence of the novel, using an informal style and subversive humor.

The 17th century in France is known as the Grand Siècle (Great Century). The most famous French authors, beside playwrights, include Jean de La Fontaine and Charles Perrault known primarily for their fables.

The Italian Renaissance was the starting point of what would become the European Renaissance over the following centuries.

The earliest work considered an opera in the sense the work is usually understood dates from around 1597. It is , (now lost) written by Jacopo Peri for an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the " Camerata".

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes was published in the early-17th century and is recognized as an early novel. It was a picaresque novel that parodied chivalric romance. The 16th and 17th centuries are recognized as the Spanish Golden Age.

Printing became prominent in China during the Ming dynasty in the beginning of the 16th century. By this time, urban areas were highly literate, assisted by the availability of paper in China. Written works were divided into four categories, including classics, histories, philosophy, and belles-lettres. Among the lower class, aria and folk songs were common, often performed by entertainers. Literature was suppressed by the Ming dynasty's founding Hongwu Emperor, and writers that did not comply with his rule were executed, beginning a decline in Chinese literature in the 14th and 15th centuries. Jiandeng Xinhua by Qu You was a collection of supernatural and chuanqi stories, and it was one of the few works that maintained influence despite the suppression of literature. Variety plays were the most common type of drama in the Early Ming period, and Prince Zhu Youdun was the most influential playwright of the time. A literary revival took place in the Middle Ming period. The revival of poetry was led by literary groups such as the Four Talents of Suzhou and the Earlier Seven Masters and continued by groups such as the Tang-Song School and the Latter Seven Masters. Xu Wei became an influential poet and prose writer after his death for his use of authenticity and his rejection of the preceding literary schools. Early Chinese novels were developed in the Middle Ming period, including works such as Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West.

In the Late Ming period, literature increasingly focused on the role of individuals within a society, beginning with the works of Li Zhi. Chinese philosophy developed humanist elements that challenged subservience to community and imperial hierarchy. The Gong'an School, led by the Three Yuan Brothers, produced literature of "natural sensibility" that favored delight and simplicity over reason and ambition. The Jingling School, led by Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun, was a response to the Gong'an School that accepted the concept of "natural sensibility" but rejected the carefree style of Gong'an poetry. Novels became more common in the Late Ming period as book publishers emerged. Jin Ping Mei is recognized as a great novel of the Late Ming period and the first novel to follow day-to-day life of commoners. stories were also common in this period, such as those collected by Feng Menglong in the Three Words and by Ling Mengchu in Slapping the Table in Amazement. Dramas became more common in the Late Ming period as it became fashionable for the aristocracy to entertain guests with private theater troupes. Tang Xianzu was an influential playwright of this period, and the Wujiang School led by Shen Jing was responsible for expanding upon drama as an artform with emphasis on its musical elements.

Wood block printing became popular in the 17th century, and over a thousand books were sold annually by 1670. By the 17th century, increasing social divisions separated drama, with watching noh and watching . Writers typically dedicated themselves to the government, to a specific clan, to the commons, or to a reclusive lifestyle. Ishikawa Jōzan was an influential 17th century poet.

Korean literature diverged from Chinese literature in the Joseon dynasty. The , the , and the gasa are forms of lyric composition that were popular in the Joseon dynasty. Yongbieocheonga was a major collection of poems produced in the 1440s. Korean vernacular fiction was developed by Heo Gyun at the beginning of the 17th century with Hong Gildong jeon. The structure of Hong Gildong jeon was used to develop heroic fiction. The Cloud Dream of the Nine was written by Kim Man-jung to reflect historical and philosophical changes of the time using dream structure. fiction was developed in the early 18th century.

The 18th century was Age of Enlightenment and its most important authors are Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and Adam Smith. The second half of the century sees the beginnings of Romanticism with Goethe. In the later 19th century, Romanticism is countered by Realism and Naturalism. The late 19th century, known as the Belle Époque, with its Fin de siècle retrospectively appeared as a "golden age" of European culture, cut short by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Modernist literature was written from roughly 1900 to 1940.

In Britain, the 19th century was dominated by the Victorian era, characterized by Romanticism, with Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth, Lord Byron or Samuel Taylor Coleridge and genres such as the gothic novel. Charles Dickens, perhaps the most famous novelist in the history of English literature, was active during this time and contributed to the novel's emergence as the leading literary genre of Victorian England.

In Romania, the first novels were plublished in the 19th century by Dimitrie Bolintineanu and Nicolae Filimon. During the same century, one of the most-known Romanian poets was Mihai Eminescu.

In Denmark, the early 19th century Golden Age produced prolific literary authors such as Søren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen.

In Germany, the Sturm und Drang period of the late 18th century merges into a Classicist and Romantic period, epitomized by the long era of Goethe's activity, covering the first third of the century. The conservative Biedermeier style conflicts with the radical in the turbulent period separating the end of the Napoleonic wars from the Revolutions of 1848.

Literature of the American Revolution included A Summary View of the Rights of British America by Thomas Jefferson and Common Sense by Thomas Paine. The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown was the first American novel, written in a realistic style with a clear moral message. Judith Sargent Murray is credited with establishing American feminism through her essays and poetry. The United States quickly achieved widespread literacy in the early-19th century, and many authors made fiction-writing their primary source of income. Washington Irving set precedent for comic literature and short stories, and he established the Knickerbocker School that wrote affectionately of New York. James Fenimore Cooper similarly set the precedent for American sea stories, novels of manners, political satire, dynastic novels, and frontier stories. Edgar Allan Poe was highly influential in fiction writing, poetry, and essays, and he is particularly credited for his contributions to Gothic fiction and mystery fiction as genres. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote moralistic stories such as The Scarlet Letter inspired by colonial-era Puritan literature. Herman Melville explored human contradiction in sea stories such as , though his work did not become influential until the 1920s. William Cullen Bryant was credited as the "founding father of American poetry", Walt Whitman is celebrated as defining the essence of America in his day with his poetry collection Leaves of Grass. Emily Dickinson was refused to publish her poetry during her lifetime, but her works of this period were later acclaimed.

Transcendentalism evolved as a philosophical school in the early-19th century, and authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson contributed to transcendentalist literature. Many works were written on the topic of slavery in the early United States, including Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Freed slaves such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs also wrote autobiographies that promoted the cause of abolitionism. Native American literature in the early-19th century was in conflict between retaining traditional elements and incorporating elements of contemporary American literature. Realism and naturalism became popular in the United States in the late-19th century. Mark Twain saw wide acclaim for his novels, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Regionalism developed in which different literary traditions evolved in the West, the Midwest, the South, and New England. African American and Native American literature also evolved as distinct literary traditions.

A movement of backlash against small-town and middle-class values emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, including authors such as Theodore Dreiser, H. L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, and Sherwood Anderson. Civil rights literature of the early-20th century was written by authors such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and James Weldon Johnson. American poetry expanded significantly during the 20th century, introducing or incorporating modernist poetry traditions such as Imagism, Vorticism, and Objectivism. Poets such as Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, and Robinson Jeffers were influential in developing poetic form. Authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner analyzed their own places in American society through modernist novels, while authors such as Thomas Wolfe and John Steinbeck sought to find a future identity for the United States. Counter-movements emerged in response to modernism, including traditionalism in the South and populism in Chicago literature. The early-20th century also saw the emergence of American drama distinct from that of Europe. Popular genre fiction at the time included westerns and detective fiction.

Early Canadian novels adapted the literary trends of Europe. The History of Emily Montague was the first Canadian novel, published in 1769. The aftermath of the Seven Years' War was a significant influence on Canadian literature in the 18th and 19th centuries as French Canada was transferred to the British. Popular novels, such as those of Julia Catherine Beckwith, came about in the early-19th century with an emphasis on day-to-day experiences rather than grand narrative. Nature featured prominently in Canadian literature by the mid-19th century. Edward Hartley Dewart was a prominent figure in early Canadian poetry, having published the first Canadian poetry anthology in 1864. He identified the formation of a Canadian literary body as a part of a conflict between colonial origins and a distinct Canadian identity. Octave Crémazie led the French Canadian literature movement in the 1860s. Notable Canadian poets of this period included Charles Sangster, Alexander McLachlan, Charles Heavysege, and the Confederation Poets. Victorian poetry remained prominent in Canada through the early-20th century, though international modernist movements such as Imagism gained influence after World War I. Poets such as Arthur Stringer and Frank Oliver Call lead a free verse movement in the 1910s and 1920s.

Latin American literature diverged from European literature and began as its own literary tradition at the start of the 19th century. The primary change was in the subject matter and theme of the literature, while the form remained relatively European. It began with an individualist trend associated with the Latin American independence movements that were developing at the time. Within this movement developed the individual literature of each Latin American country as they formed their own national identities. Andrés Bello is recognized as a founder of modern literature in Hispanic America, and he is credited for popularizing Romanticism in the region. The balance of national and continental literary identities was a major issue in early Latin American literature, particularly within the Spanish language.

The Qing dynasty saw the return of prose literature as a vehicle primarily for Confucian teaching, and individualist literature declined. The Three Masters of Jiangdong were the most prominent poets during the transition from Ming to Qing. Wang Shizhen led poetry trends in the Early Qing period through the expression of sentimentality through imagery and prosody rather than vocabulary, particularly with his Autumn Willows: Four Poems. Song lyrics also reemerged as a popular poetic form as literary critics viewed the individual aria as unrefined. Heroic fiction was adapted to popular novels in the Early Qing period. Supernatural fiction also became popular, including Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling.

In the Middle Qing period, Shen Deqian, Weng Fanggang, and Yuan Mei each formed new trends in poetry in opposition to the style of Wang Shizhen. became popular among prose writers in the Middle Qing period in opposition to the Tongcheng school. Six Records of a Floating Life was an autobiography by Shen Fu that emphasized direct language and emotional appeal over style. Performing arts of the Middle Qing period included the northern drum lyric and the southern strummed lyric, the latter of which was often written by women poets. Novels of the Middle Qing period included The Scholars and Dream of the Red Chamber, both of which eschewed popular taste in favor of philosophy. Drama went out of fashion among the Qing literati, though theatrical performances remained common entertainment for the public. In the Late Qing period, Western culture was a significant influence on Chinese society. The Tongguang school was popular among adherents to typical Chinese poetry, styled after that of the Song dynasty. Chivalrous novels telling the tales of folk heroes, political novels that were critical of the falling Qing government, and genre fiction all became popular in the final years of the Qing dynasty.

Literature in the Republic of China reflected the societal changes brought about by the 1911 Revolution. Chinese literature broke away from classical tradition and literary restrictions with the New Literature Movement in 1919, beginning with works such as Experiments by Hu Shih, Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun, and The Goddess by Guo Moruo. The May Fourth Movement was a further cultural movement that promoted the use of vernacular Chinese. Advocates of liberal reform in China supported these shifts in literary tradition to challenge imperial institutions, and these works typically supported humanism and individualism. A refutation of individualism emerged in response at the onset of the Chinese Civil War, and revolutionary literature was spread in support of the Chinese Red Army.

Contemporary literature is defined as literature written after the end of World War II in 1945. Postmodern literature was written from roughly 1945 to 1980. Popular literature developed its own genres such as fantasy and science fiction. Ignored by mainstream literary criticism, these genres develop their own establishments and critical awards, such as the Nebula Award (since 1965), the British Fantasy Award (since 1971) or the Mythopoeic Awards (since 1971).

1. ^ Schmandt-Besserat, Denise; Erard, Michael (2008). "Origins and Forms of Writing". In Bazerman, Charles (ed.). Handbook of research on writing : history, society, school, individual, text. L. Erlbaum Associates. pp. 7-26. ISBN 9781410616470. OCLC 418043692.

2. "Literary Genres and Literary Styles". Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. University of California Press. 2019-05-07. doi:10.1525/9780520973619-005. ISBN 978-0-520-97361-9. S2CID 240659212. Archived from the original on 2022-08-25.

3. ^ Chengxue, W. U.; Hongbing, S. H. A. (2007-01-01). "The classics of ancient Chinese literature". Frontiers of Literary Studies in China. 1 (1): 50-79. doi:10.1007/s11702-007-0003-9. ISSN 1673-7423. S2CID 195069499.

4. ^ Petraeus, David (2018-03-26). "'The Art of War': As relevant now as when it was written". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2022-07-23.

5. ^ Mark Woolmer (ed.). "Phoenician: A Companion to Ancient Phoenicia". A Companion to Ancient Phoenicia, ed. Mark Woolmer: 4. Archived from the original on 2022-01-17. Altogether, the known Phoenician texts number nearly seven thousand. The majority of these were collected in three volumes constituting the first part of the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (CIS), begun in 1867 under the editorial direction of the famous French scholar Ernest Renan (1823-1892), continued by J.-B. Chabot and concluded in 1962 by James G. Février. The CIS corpus includes 176 "Phoenician" inscriptions and 5982 "Punic" inscriptions (see below on these labels).

6. ^ Parker, Heather Dana Davis; Rollston, Christopher A. (2019). "9". In Hamidović, D.; Clivaz, C.; Savant, S. (eds.). Teaching Epigraphy in the Digital Age. Vol. 3. Alessandra Marguerat. LEIDEN; BOSTON: Brill. pp. 189-216. ISBN 9789004346734. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctvrxk44t.14. Archived from the original on 2022-01-18. Of course, Donner and Röllig's three-volume handbook entitled KAI has been the gold standard for five decades now

7. ^ Suder, Robert W. (1984). Hebrew Inscriptions: A Classified Bibliography. Susquehanna University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-941664-01-1.

8. ^ Doak, Brian R. (2019-08-26). The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-19-049934-1. Most estimates place it at around ten thousand texts. Texts that are either formulaic or extremely short constitute the vast majority of the evidence.

9. Philip R. Davies in ^ The Canon Debate, page 50: "With many other scholars, I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty."

10. ^ Ong, Walter J. (1984). "Orality, Literacy, and Medieval Textualization". New Literary History. 16 (1): 1-12. doi:10.2307/468772. ISSN 0028-6087. JSTOR 468772. Archived from the original on 2022-08-26.

11. John Grant and John Clute, ^ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Arabian fantasy", p. 51 ISBN 0-312-19869-8

12. John Grant and John Clute, ^ The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Arabian fantasy", p. 52 ISBN 0-312-19869-8

13. ^ Khammas, Achmed A. W. (2006-10-10). "The Almost Complete Lack of the Element of "Futureness"". heise.de. Archived from the original on 2006-10-25.

14. ^ Hall, Kenneth R. (2005). "Traditions of Knowledge in Old Javanese Literature, c. 1000-1500". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 36 (1): 1-27. doi:10.1017/S0022463405000019. ISSN 1474-0680. S2CID 161351530. Archived from the original on 2022-08-27.

15. O'Connell, Joanna (1994). "Pre-Columbian Literatures". In Foster, David William (ed.). Mexican Literature. University of Texas Press. pp. 1-30. doi:10.7560/724822-002. ISBN 978-0-292-73397-8. S2CID 244159599. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04.

16. ^ Lu, Tina (2010). Chang, Kang-i Sun; Owen, Stephen (eds.). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature: From 1375. Cambridge University Press. pp. 63-64. ISBN 978-0-521-85559-4.

Lane, Richard J. (2011). The Routledge Concise History of Canadian Literature. Routledge.

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The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pieces. Not all writings constitute literature.

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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, in the west, originated in the southern Mesopotamia region of Sumer (c. 3200) in the city of Uruk and flourished in Egypt, later in Greece (the written word having been imported there from the Phoenicians) and from there, to Rome. Writing seems to have originated independently in China from divination practices and also independently in Mesoamerica and elsewhere. The first author of literature in the world, known by name, was the high-priestess of Ur, Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE) who wrote hymns in praise of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Much of the early literature from Mesopotamia concerns the activities of the gods but, in time, humans came to be featured as the main characters in such poems as Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta and Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum (c.2600-2000 BCE). For the purposes of study, Literature is divided into the categories of fiction or non-fiction today but these are often arbitrary decisions as ancient literature, as understood by those who wrote the tales down, as well as those who heard them spoken or sung pre-literacy, was not understood in the same way as it is in the modern-day.

The Truth in Literature

Homer's soaring odes to the grandeur of the Grecian fleet sailing for Troy or Odysseus's journey across the wine-dark sea were as real to listeners as his descriptions of the sorceress Circe, the cyclops Polyphemus or the Sirens. Those tales which today are regarded as myth were then considered as true and sacred as any of the writings contained in the Judeo-Christian Bible or the Muslim Koran. Designations such as fiction and non-fiction are fairly recent labels applied to written works. The ancient mind understood that, quite often, truth may be apprehended through a fable about a fox and some unattainable grapes. The modern concern with the truth of a story would not have concerned anyone listening to one of Aesop's tales; what mattered was what the story was trying to convey.

One of the earliest known literary works is the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh from c. 2150 BCE.

Even so, there was a value placed on accuracy in recording actual events (as ancient criticism of the historian Herodotus' accounts of events shows). Early literary works were usually didactic in approach and had an underlying (or often overt) religious purpose (such as the Sumerian Enuma Elish of 1120 BCE or the of the Greek writer Hesiod of the 8th century BCE). One of the earliest known literary works is the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh from c. 2150 BCE which deals with themes of heroism, pride, nationality, friendship, disappointment, death, and the quest for eternal life. Whether what happened in the tale of Gilgamesh 'actually happened' was immaterial to the writer and to the listener.

Examples of Ancient Literature

The Pyramid Texts of Egypt, also considered literature, tell of the journey of the soul to the afterlife in the Field of Reeds. Homer's recounts the famous ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans while his tells of the great hero Odysseus's journey back home after the war to his beloved wife Penelope of Ithaca. The story told in the biblical Book of Exodus (1446 BCE) is considered historical truth by many today, but originally could have been meant to be interpreted as liberation from bondage in a spiritual sense as it was written to empower the worshipers of Yahweh to resist the temptations of the indigenous peoples of Canaan. The Song of Songs (c. 950 BCE) from the Hebrew scripture of the Tanakh, immortalizes the passionate love between a man and a woman (interpreted by Christians, much later, as the relationship between Christ and the church, though no such interpretation is supported by the original text) and the sacred aspect of such a relationship. The Indian epic Mahabharata (c.800-400 BCE) relates the birth of a nation while the Ramayana (c. 200 BCE) tells the tale of the great Rama's rescue of his abducted wife Sita from the evil Ravna. The works found in the Assyrian King Asurbanipal's library (647-627 BCE) record the heroic deeds of the gods, goddesses and the struggles and triumphs of heroic kings of ancient Mesopotamia such as Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, and Gilgamesh.

Originality in Ancient Literature

Most early works were written in the poetical metre which the writer had heard repeated over time and, therefore, the dating of such pieces as the Enuma Elish or the Odyssey is difficult in that they were finally recorded in writing many years after their oral composition. The great value which modern-day readers and critics place on 'originality' in literature was unknown to ancient people. The very idea of according a work of the imagination of an individual with any degree of respect would never have occurred to anyone of the ancient world. Stories were re-tellings of the feats of great heroes, of the gods, the goddesses, or of creation (as in Hesiod and Homer). So great was the respect for what today would be called 'non-fiction', that Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100-1155 CE) claimed his famous History of the Kings of Briton (which he largely made up) was actually a translation from an earlier text he had 'discovered' and Sir Thomas Malory (1405-1471 CE) famed as the author of the Morte D'Arthur, denied any original contributions to the work he compiled from earlier authors, even though today it is clear that he added much to the source material he drew from. This literary tradition of ascribing an original work to earlier, seemingly-authoritative, sources is famously exemplified in the gospels of the Christian New Testament in that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, understood by many believers to be eye-witness accounts of the ministry of Jesus, were written much later by unknown authors who chose names associated with the early church.

Literature encompasses forms such as poetry, drama, prose, folklore, epic tale, personal narrative, poetry, history, biography, satire, philosophical dialogues, essays, legends and myths, among others. Plato's Dialogues, while not the first to combine philosophical themes with dramatic form, were the first to make drama work in the cause of philosophical inquiry. Later writers drew on these earlier works for inspiration (as Virgil did in composing his , based on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, between 30-18 BCE) and this tradition of borrowing lasted until the time of Shakespeare (1564-1616 CE) and continues in the present day.

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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, in the west, originated in the southern Mesopotamia region of Sumer (c.

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On this day in 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Racing-or NASCAR, as it will come to be widely known-is officially incorporated. NASCAR racing will go on to become one of America's most popular spectator sports, as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

The driving force behind the establishment of NASCAR was William "Bill" France Sr. (1909-1992), a mechanic and auto-repair shop owner from Washington, D.C., who in the mid-1930s moved to Daytona Beach, Florida. The Daytona area was a gathering spot for racing enthusiasts, and France became involved in racing cars and promoting races. After witnessing how racing rules could vary from event to event and how dishonest promoters could abscond with prize money, France felt there was a need for a governing body to sanction and promote racing. He gathered members of the racing community to discuss the idea, and NASCAR was born, with its official incorporation in February 1921. France served as NASCAR's first president and played a key role in shaping its development in the sport's early decades.

NASCAR held its first Strictly Stock race on June 19, 1949, at the Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina. Some 13,000 fans were on hand to watch Glenn Dunnaway finish the 200-lap race first in his Ford; however, Jim Roper (who drove a Lincoln) collected the $2,000 prize after Dunnaway was disqualified for illegal rear springs on his vehicle. In the early years of NASCAR, competitors drove the same types of cars that people drove on the street-Buicks, Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, among others-with minimal modifications. (Today, the cars are highly customized.)

In 1950, the first NASCAR-based track, the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, opened. More new raceways followed, including the Daytona International Speedway, which opened in 1959. Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500, which was run on February 22 of that year. The Daytona 500 became NASCAR's season opener and one of its premiere events. Lee Petty's son Richard, who began his racing career in 1958, won the Daytona 500 a record seven times and became NASCAR's first superstar before retiring in 1992. On February 18, 1979, the first live flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500 was broadcast on television. An end-of-the-race brawl between drivers Cale Yarborough and Donnie and Bobby Allison was a huge publicity generator and helped boost NASCAR's popularity on a national scale.

In 1972, France's son, William France Jr., took over the presidency of NASCAR from his father. Over the next three decades, the younger France (1933-2007) was instrumental in transforming NASCAR from a regional sport popular primarily in the southeast U.S. into one with a global fan base. France led NASCAR into a new era of lucrative corporate sponsorships and billion-dollar TV contracts. Today, NASCAR has three national series as well as four regional series and two international series. The organization sanctions over 1,200 races at 100 tracks across North America.

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NASCAR founded - Feb 21, 1948 - HISTORY.com

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On this day in 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Racing-or NASCAR, as it will come to be widely known-is officially incorporated. NASCAR racing will go on to become one of America's most popular spectator sports, as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry. The driving force behind the establishment of NASCAR was William "Bill" France Sr.

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Development of the automobile started in 1672 with the invention of the first steam-powered vehicle, which led to the creation of the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation, built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769. Inventors began to branch out at the start of the 19th century, creating the de Rivaz engine, one of the first internal combustion engines, and an early electric motor. Samuel Brown later tested the first industrially applied internal combustion engine in 1826. Only two of these were made.

Development was hindered in the mid-19th century by a backlash against large vehicles, yet progress continued on some internal combustion engines. The engine evolved as engineers created two- and four-cycle combustion engines and began using gasoline. The first modern car-a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use-and the first car in series production appeared in 1886, when Carl Benz developed a gasoline-powered automobile and made several identical copies. In 1890, Gottlieb Daimler, inventor of the high-speed liquid petroleum-fueled engine, and Wilhelm Maybach formed Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. In 1926, the company merged with Benz & Cie. (founded by Carl Benz in 1883) to form Daimler-Benz, known for its Mercedes-Benz automobile brand.

From 1886, many inventors and entrepreneurs got into the "horseless carriage" business, both in America and Europe, and inventions and innovations rapidly furthered the development and production of automobiles. Ransom E. Olds founded Oldsmobile in 1897, and introduced the Curved Dash Oldsmobile in 1901. Olds pioneered the assembly line using identical, interchangeable parts, producing thousands of Oldsmobiles by 1903. Although sources differ, approximately 19,000 Oldsmobiles were built, with the last produced in 1907. Production likely peaked from 1903 through 1905, at up to 5,000 units a year. In 1908, the Ford Motor Company further revolutionized automobile production by developing and selling its Ford Model T at a relatively modest price. From 1913, introducing an advanced moving assembly line allowed Ford to lower the Model T's price by almost 50%, making it the first mass-affordable automobile.

Power sources

The early automobile history concentrated on searching for a reliable portable power unit to propel the vehicle.

Steam-powered wheeled vehicles

17th and 18th centuries

Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built a steam-powered vehicle around 1672 as a toy for the Kangxi Emperor. It was small-scale and could not carry a driver, but it was, perhaps, the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile').

Steam-powered self-propelled vehicles large enough to transport people and cargo were devised in the late 18th century. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot demonstrated his fardier à vapeur ("steam dray"), an experimental steam-driven artillery tractor, in 1770 and 1771. Cugnot's design proved impractical, and his invention was not developed in his native France. The center of innovation shifted to Great Britain. By 1784, William Murdoch had built a working model of a steam carriage in Redruth and in 1801 Richard Trevithick was running a full-sized vehicle on the roads in Camborne.

19th century

During the 19th century, attempts were made to introduce steam-powered vehicles. Innovations such as hand brakes, multispeed transmissions, and better steering developed. Some successful vehicles provided mass transit until a backlash against these large vehicles resulted in the passage of legislation such as the UK Locomotives Act 1865, which required many self-propelled vehicles on public roads to be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn. This effectively halted road auto development in the United Kingdom for most of the 19th century; inventors and engineers shifted their efforts to improvements in railway locomotives. The law was not repealed until 1896, although the need for the red flag was removed in 1878.

In 1816, a professor at Prague Polytechnic, Josef Bozek, built an oil-fired steam car. Walter Hancock, builder and operator of London steam buses, in 1838 built a two-seated car phaeton.

In 1867, Canadian jeweler Henry Seth Taylor demonstrated his four-wheeled "steam buggy" at the Stanstead Fair in Stanstead, Quebec and again the following year. The basis of the buggy, which he began building in 1865, was a high-wheeled carriage with bracing to support a two-cylinder steam engine mounted on the floor. In 1873, Frenchman Amédée Bollée built self-propelled steam road vehicles to transport groups of passengers.

The first automobile suitable for use on existing wagon roads in the United States was a steam-powered vehicle invented in 1871 by Dr. J.W. Carhart, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Racine, Wisconsin. It induced the state of Wisconsin in 1875 to offer a US$10,000 (equivalent to $277,455 in 2023) award to the first to produce a substitute for the use of horses and other animals. They stipulated that the vehicle would have to maintain an average speed of more than 8 km/h (5 mph) over a 320 km (200 mi) course. The offer led to the first city-to-city automobile race in the United States, starting on 16 July 1878 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and ending in Madison, Wisconsin, via Appleton, Oshkosh, Waupun, Watertown, Fort Atkinson, and Janesville. While seven vehicles were registered, only two started competing: the Green Bay and Oshkosh entries. The vehicle from Green Bay was faster but broke down before completing the race. The Oshkosh finished the 323 km (201 mi) course in 33 hours and 27 minutes and posted an average speed of 9.7 km/h (6 mph). In 1879, the legislature awarded half the prize.

20th century

Steam-powered road vehicles, both cars and wagons, reached the peak of their development in the early 1930s with fast-steaming lightweight boilers and efficient engine designs. Internal combustion engines also developed considerably during World War I, becoming easier to operate and more reliable. The development of the high-speed diesel engine from 1930 began to replace them for wagons, accelerated in the UK by tax changes making steam wagons uneconomic overnight. Although a few designers continued to advocate steam power, no significant developments in the production of steam cars took place after Doble in 1931.

Whether steam cars will ever be reborn in later technological eras remains to be seen. Magazines such as Light Steam Power continued to describe them into the 1980s. The 1950s saw interest in steam-turbine cars powered by small nuclear reactors (this was also true of aircraft). Still, the fears about the dangers inherent in nuclear fission technology soon killed these ideas.

Electric automobiles

The German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world[20]

19th century

In 1828, Ányos Jedlik, a Hungarian who invented an early electric motor, constructed a tiny model car powered by his new motor. In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American DC electric motor, installed his motor in a small model car, which he operated on a short circular electrified track. In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker created a small-scale electrical car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells. In 1838, Scotsman Robert Davidson built an electric locomotive that attained a speed of 6.4 km/h (4 mph). In England, a patent was granted in 1840 for using tracks as conductors of electric current, and similar American patents were issued to Lilley and Colten in 1847.

Sources point to different creations, such as the first electric car. Between 1832 and 1839 (the exact year is uncertain), Robert Anderson of Scotland invented a crude electric carriage powered by non-rechargeable primary cells. In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled car powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity. English inventor Thomas Parker, who was responsible for innovations such as electrifying the London Underground, overhead tramways in Liverpool and Birmingham, and the smokeless fuel coalite, built an electric car in London in 1884, using his own specially designed high-capacity rechargeable batteries. However, some others regard the Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888 by German inventor Andreas Flocken as the first actual electric car.

20th century

Electric cars enjoyed popularity between the late 19th century and the early 20th century when electricity was among the preferred methods for automobile propulsion. Advances in internal combustion technology, especially the electric starter, soon rendered this advantage moot; the greater range of gasoline cars, quicker refueling times, and growing petroleum infrastructure, along with the mass production of gasoline vehicles by companies such as the Ford Motor Company, which reduced prices of gasoline cars to less than half that of equivalent electric cars, led to a decline in the use of electric propulsion, effectively removing it from markets such as the US by the 1930s.

21st century

Increased concerns over the environmental impact of gasoline cars, higher gasoline prices, improvements in battery technology, and the prospect of peak oil have brought about renewed interest in electric cars, which are perceived to be more environmentally friendly and cheaper to maintain and run, despite high initial costs.

Internal combustion engines

Gas mixtures

The lack of suitable fuels, particularly liquids, hampered early attempts at making and using internal combustion engines-therefore, some of the earliest engines used gas mixtures. In 1806, the Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an engine powered by internal combustion of a hydrogen and oxygen mixture. In 1826, Englishman Samuel Brown tested his hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine by using it to propel a vehicle up Shooter's Hill in southeast London. Etienne Lenoir's automobile with a hydrogen-gas-fueled one-cylinder internal combustion engine made a test drive from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont in 1860, covering some 9 km (5.6 mi) in about three hours. A later version was propelled by coal gas. A Delamare-Deboutteville vehicle was patented and trialed in 1884.

Nicolaus Otto and Eugen Langen had built a working engine in 1867. About 1870, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, inventor Siegfried Marcus put a liquid-fueled internal combustion engine on a simple handcart which made him the first man to propel a vehicle using gasoline. Today, this is known as "the first Marcus car" but would be better described as a cart. His second car, built and run in 1875, was the first gasoline-driven car and is housed at the Vienna Technical Museum. In 1883, Marcus secured a German patent for a low-voltage ignition system of the magneto type; this was his only automotive patent. During his lifetime, he was honored by some as the originator of the motorcar, but the Nazis all but erased his place in history during World War II. Because Marcus was of Jewish descent, the Nazi propaganda office ordered his work to be destroyed, his name expunged from future textbooks, and his public memorials removed. John Nixon of the London Times in 1938 considered Marcus' development of the motor car to have been experimental, as opposed to Carl Benz who took the concept from experimental to production. Nixon described Marcus' cars as impractical.

Benz built his first automobile, the Benz Patent Motorcar, in 1885 in Mannheim. It is considered the first modern car-a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use-and the first in series production. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on 29 January 1886, and began the first production of automobiles in 1888, after Bertha Benz, his wife, had proved-with the first long-distance trip in August 1888, from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back-that the horseless coach was capable of extended travel. Since 2008, a Bertha Benz Memorial Route commemorates this event.

Soon after, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart in 1889 designed a vehicle from scratch to be an automobile, rather than a horse-drawn carriage fitted with an engine. They also are usually credited with inventing the first motorcycle in 1885.

In 1891, John William Lambert built a three-wheeler in Ohio City, Ohio, which was destroyed in a fire the same year, while Henry Nadig constructed a four-wheeler in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The first four-wheeled gasoline-driven automobile in the United Kingdom was built in Walthamstow by Frederick Bremer in 1892. Another was made in Birmingham in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester, who also patented the disc brake. The first electric starter was installed on an Arnold, an adaptation of the Benz Velo, built in Kent between 1895 and 1898.

George Foote Foss of Sherbrooke, Quebec, built a single-cylinder gasoline car in 1896, which he drove for four years, ignoring city officials' warnings of arrest for his "mad antics".

Eras of invention

Horseless carriage or veteran era

Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899

The American George B. Selden filed for a patent on 8 May 1879. His application included the engine and its use in a four-wheeled car. Selden filed a series of amendments to his application, which stretched out the legal process, resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent was granted on 5 November 1895. Selden licensed his patent to most major American automakers, collecting a fee on each car they produced and creating the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. The Ford Motor Company fought this patent in court, and eventually won on appeal. Henry Ford testified that the patent did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the United States.

The first automobiles were produced by Carl Benz in 1888 in Germany and, under license from Benz, in France by Emile Roger. There were numerous others, including tricycle builders Rudolf Egg, Edward Butler, and Léon Bollée. Bollée, using a 650 cc (40 cu in) engine of his own design, enabled his driver, Jamin, to average 45 km/h (28 mph) in the 1897 Paris-Tourville rally. By 1900, mass production of automobiles had begun in France and the United States.

The first company formed exclusively to build automobiles was Panhard et Levassor in France, which is also credited for introducing the first four-cylinder engine. Formed in 1889, Panhard was followed by Peugeot two years later. By the start of the 20th century, the automobile industry began taking off in Western Europe, especially in France, where 30,204 were produced in 1903, representing 48.8 percent of world automobile production that year.

Across the northern US, local mechanics experimented with various prototypes. In Iowa, for example, by 1890, Jesse O. Wells drove a steam-powered Locomobile. There were numerous experiments in electric vehicles driven by storage batteries. The first users ordered the early gasoline-powered cars, including Haynes, Mason, and Duesenberg automobiles. Blacksmiths and mechanics started operating repair and gasoline stations. In Springfield, Massachusetts, brothers Charles and Frank Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in 1893, becoming the first American automobile manufacturing company. The Autocar Company, founded in 1897, established many innovations still in use and remains the oldest operating motor vehicle manufacturer in the US. However, it was Ransom E. Olds and his Olds Motor Vehicle Company (later known as Oldsmobile) who would dominate this era with the introduction of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash. Its production line was running in 1901. The Thomas B. Jeffery Company developed the world's second mass-produced automobile, and 1,500 Ramblers were built and sold in its first year, representing one-sixth of all existing motorcars in the US at the time. Within a year, Cadillac (formed from the Henry Ford Company), Winton, and Ford were also producing cars in the thousands. In South Bend, Indiana, the Studebaker brothers, having become the world's leading manufacturers of horse-drawn vehicles, made a transition to electric automobiles in 1902, and gasoline engines in 1904. They continued to build horse-drawn vehicles until 1919.

The first motor car in Central Europe was produced by the Austro-Hungarian company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra in today's Czech Republic) in 1897, the Präsident automobile. In 1898, Louis Renault had a De Dion-Bouton modified, with fixed drive shaft and differential, making "perhaps the first hot rod in history" and bringing Renault and his brothers into the car industry. Innovation was rapid and rampant, with no clear standards for basic vehicle architectures, body styles, construction materials, or controls; for example, many veteran cars use a tiller, rather than a wheel for steering. During 1903, Rambler standardized on the steering wheel and moved the driver's position to the left-hand side of the vehicle. Chain drive was dominant over the drive shaft, and closed bodies were scarce. Drum brakes were introduced by Renault in 1902. The next year, Dutch designer Jacobus Spijker built the first four-wheel drive racing car; it never competed . It would be 1965 and the Jensen FF before four-wheel drive was used on a production car.

Within a few years, hundreds of producers across the Western world were using many technologies. Steam, electricity, and gasoline-powered automobiles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance by the 1910s. Dual- and even quad-engine cars were designed, and engine displacement ranged to more than 12 L (3.2 US gal). Many modern advances, including gas/electric hybrids, multi-valve engines, overhead camshafts, and four-wheel drive, were attempted and discarded at this time.

Innovation was not limited to the vehicles themselves. Increasing numbers of cars propelled the growth of the petroleum industry, as well as the development of technology to produce gasoline (replacing kerosene and coal oil) and of improvements in heat-tolerant mineral oil lubricants (replacing vegetable and animal oils).

There were social effects, also. Music would be made about cars, such as "In My Merry Oldsmobile" (a tradition that continues in several genres). At the same time, in 1896, William Jennings Bryan would be the first presidential candidate to campaign in a car (a donated Mueller), in Decatur, Illinois. Three years later, Jacob German would start a tradition for New York City cabdrivers when he sped down Lexington Avenue, at the "reckless" speed of 19 km/h (12 mph). Also in 1899, Akron, Ohio, adopted the first self-propelled paddy wagon.

By 1900, the early centers of national automotive industry developed in many countries, including Belgium (home to Vincke, that copied Benz; Germain, a pseudo-Panhard; and Linon and Nagant, both based on the Gobron-Brillié), Switzerland (led by Fritz Henriod, Rudolf Egg, Saurer, Johann Weber, and Lorenz Popp), Vagnfabrik AB in Sweden, Hammel (by A. F. Hammel and H. U. Johansen at Copenhagen, in Denmark, which only built one car, ca. 1886), Irgens (starting in Bergen, Norway, in 1883, but without success), Italy (where FIAT started in 1899), and as far afield as Australia (where Pioneer set up shop in 1898, with an already archaic paraffin-fueled center-pivot-steered wagon). Meanwhile, the export trade had begun, with Koch exporting cars and trucks from Paris to Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, and the Dutch East Indies. Motor cars were also exported to British colonies. For example, the first was shipped to India in 1897.

Throughout the veteran car era, the automobile was seen more as a novelty than a genuinely useful device. Breakdowns were frequent, fuel was difficult to obtain, roads suitable for traveling were scarce, and rapid innovation meant that a year-old car was nearly worthless. Significant breakthroughs in proving the usefulness of the automobile came with the historic long-distance drive of Bertha Benz in 1888, when she traveled more than 80 km (50 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, to make people aware of the potential of the vehicles her husband, Karl Benz, manufactured, and after Horatio Nelson Jackson's successful transcontinental drive across the US in 1903 on a Winton car.

Brass/Edwardian era

The Brass or Edwardian period lasted from roughly 1905 through 1914 and the beginning of World War I. It is generally referred to as the Edwardian era, but in the United States, it is often known as the Brass era from the widespread use of brass in vehicles during this time.

Within the 15 years that make up this era, the various experimental designs and alternate power systems would be marginalized. Although the modern touring car had been invented earlier, it was not until Panhard et Levassor's Système Panhard was widely licensed and adopted that recognizable and standardized automobiles were created. This system specified front-engine, rear-wheel drive internal combustion-engine cars with a sliding gear transmission. Traditional coach-style vehicles were rapidly abandoned, and buckboard runabouts lost favor with the introduction of tonneaus and other less-expensive touring bodies.

By 1906, steam car development had advanced, and they were among the fastest road vehicles in that period.

Throughout this era, the development of automotive technology was rapid, partly due to hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included the electric ignition system, independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes. Leaf springs were widely used for suspension, though many other systems were still in use, with angle steel taking over from armored wood as the frame material of choice. Transmissions and throttle controls were widely adopted, allowing a variety of cruising speeds. However, vehicles generally still had discrete speed settings, rather than the infinitely variable system familiar in cars of later eras. Safety glass also debuted and was patented by John Crewe Wood in England in 1905. (It would not become standard equipment until 1926, on a Rickenbacker.)

Between 1907 and 1912 in the United States, the high-wheel motor buggy (resembling the horse buggy of before 1900) was in its heyday, with over 75 makers including Holsman (Chicago), IHC (Chicago), and Sears (which sold via catalog); the high-wheeler would be killed by the Model T. In 1912, Hupp (in the US, supplied by Hale & Irwin) and BSA (in the UK) pioneered the use of all-steel bodies, joined in 1914 by Dodge (who produced Model T bodies). While it would be another two decades before all-steel bodies would be standard, the change would mean improved supplies of superior-quality wood for furniture makers.

The 1908 New York to Paris Race was the world's first circumnavigation by automobile. German, French, Italian, and American teams began in New York City on 12 February 1908, with three competitors ultimately reaching Paris. The US-built Thomas Flyer with George Schuster (driver) won the race covering 35,000 km (22,000 mi) in 169 days. Also in 1908, the first South American automobile was built in Peru, the . In 1909, Rambler became the first car company to equip its cars with a spare tire that was mounted on a fifth wheel.

Some examples of cars of the period included:

1907 Takuri-the first entirely Japanese-made gasoline engine car produced by Komanosuke Uchiyama in April 1907. Also, in Japan, the Hatsudoki Seizo Co. Ltd. is formed, which was later renamed in 1951 as Daihatsu Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha.

1908-1927 Ford Model T-the era's most widely produced and available four-seater car. It used a planetary transmission and had a pedal-based control system. Ford T was proclaimed the most influential car of the 20th century in the international Car of the Century awards.

1909 Hudson Model 20-named after its rated power output and sold on its first market for US$900 (equivalent to $30,520 in 2023).

1909 Morgan Runabout-a popular cyclecar, cyclecars were sold in greater quantities than four-seater cars in this period.

1910-1920 Bugatti Type 13-a notable racing and touring model with advanced engineering and design. Similar models were Types 15, 17, 22, and 23.

1914-1917 Dattogo-a two-cylinder, 10 hp (7,500 W) "all-Japanese" car manufactured in seven units by the Kaishinsha Motor Works operated by Masujiro Hashimoto in Tokyo, while importing, assembling, and selling British cars. Kaishinsha was the first automobile manufacturing business in Japan.

1917 Mitsubishi Model A-an all hand-built car built by Japanese company Mitsubishi in limited numbers for Japanese executives.

Vintage era

The vintage era lasted from the end of World War I (1918) until the Wall Street Crash at the end of 1929. During this period, the front-engine car layout dominated, with closed bodies and standardized controls becoming the norm. In 1919, 90 percent of cars sold were open; by 1929, 90 percent were closed. Development of the internal combustion engine continued at a rapid pace, with multivalve and overhead camshaft engines produced at the high end, and V8, V12, and even V16 engines conceived for the ultrarich. Also in 1919, hydraulic brakes were invented by Malcolm Loughead (cofounder of Lockheed); they were adopted by Duesenberg for their 1921 Model A. Three years later, Hermann Rieseler of Vulcan Motor invented the first automatic transmission, which had two-speed planetary gearbox, torque converter, and lockup clutch; it never entered production. (It would only become an available option in 1940.) Just at the end of the vintage era, tempered glass (now standard equipment in side windows) was invented in France. In this era, the pontoon design of cars without fully articulated fenders, running boards, and other non-compact ledge elements were introduced in small series. Still, mass production of cars with these features began after World War II.

American auto companies in the 1920s expected they would soon sell six million cars a year but did not do so until 1955. Numerous companies disappeared. Between 1922 and 1925, the number of US passenger car builders decreased from 175 to 70. H. A. Tarantous, managing editor of "MoToR Member Society of Automotive Engineers", in a New York Times article from 1925, suggested many were unable to raise production and cope with falling prices (due to assembly line production), especially for low-priced cars. The new pyroxylin-based paints, eight-cylinder engines, four-wheel brakes, and balloon tires were the biggest trends for 1925.

Examples of period vehicles:

The pre-war part of the classic era began with the Great Depression in 1930, and ended with the recovery after World War II, commonly placed during 1946. It was in this period that integrated fenders and fully-closed bodies began to dominate sales, with the new saloon/sedan body style even incorporating a trunk or boot at the rear for storage. The old open-top runabouts, phaetons, and touring cars were largely phased out by the end of the classic era as wings, running boards, and headlights were gradually integrated with the body of the car.

By the 1930s, most of the mechanical technology used in today's automobiles had been invented, although some ideas were later "re-invented" and credited to others. For example, front-wheel drive was re-introduced by André Citroën with the launch of the Traction Avant in 1934. However, cars with front-wheel drive were made several years earlier in road cars produced by Alvis and Cord as well as in racing cars by Miller (and may have appeared as early as 1897). In the same vein, the independent suspension was initially developed by Amédée Bollée in 1873, but not put in production until the low-volume Mercedes-Benz 380 in 1933, and later by other automakers using the design. In 1930, the number of auto manufacturers declined sharply as the industry consolidated and matured, thanks in part to the effects of the Great Depression.

Examples of pre-war automobiles:

Postwar era

1954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first US all-metal station wagons

A significant change in automobile design since World War II was the popularity of pontoon style, in which running boards were eliminated and fenders were incorporated into the body. Among the first representatives of the style were the Soviet GAZ-M20 Pobeda (1946), British Standard Vanguard (1947), US Studebaker Champion, and Kaiser (1946), as well as the Czech Tatra T600 Tatraplan (1946) and the Italian Cisitalia 220 sports car (1947).

Automobile design and production finally emerged from the military orientation and the shadow of war in 1949, the year high-compression V8 engines and modern bodies from General Motors's Oldsmobile and Cadillac brands were introduced. Hudson presented the "step-down" design with the 1948 Commodore, which placed the passenger compartment down inside the perimeter of the frame, that was one of the first new-design postwar cars made, and it featured trend-setting slab-side styling. The unibody/ strut-suspended 1951 Ford Consul joined the 1948 Morris Minor and 1949 Rover P4 in the automobile market in the UK. In Italy, Enzo Ferrari was beginning his 250 series, just as Lancia introduced the revolutionary V6-powered Aurelia.

Throughout the 1950s, engine power and vehicle speeds rose, designs became more integrated and artful, and automobiles were marketed internationally. Alec Issigonis's Mini and Fiat's 500 diminutive cars were introduced in Europe, while the similar kei car class became popular in Japan. The Volkswagen Beetle continued production after World War II and began exports to other nations, including the US. At the same time, Nash introduced the Nash Rambler, the first successful modern compact car made in the US, while the standard models produced by the "Big Three" domestic automakers grew larger, featuring increasing amounts of chrome trim, and luxury as exemplified by the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The markets in Europe expanded with new small-sized automobiles, as well as expensive grand tourers (GT), like the Ferrari America.

The market changed in the 1960s, as the US "Big Three" automakers began facing competition from imported cars, European makers adopted advanced technologies, and Japan emerged as a car-producing nation. Japanese companies began to export some of their more popular cars in Japan internationally, such as the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Corona, Nissan Sunny, and Nissan Bluebird in the mid-1960s. The success of American Motors's compact-sized Rambler models spurred GM and Ford to introduce their own downsized cars in 1960. Performance engines became a focus of marketing by US automakers, exemplified by the era's muscle cars. In 1964, the Ford Mustang developed a new market segment, the pony car. New models to compete with the Mustang included the Chevrolet Camaro, AMC Javelin, and Plymouth Barracuda.

Captive imports and badge engineering increased in the US and the UK as amalgamated groups such as the British Motor Corporation consolidated the market. BMC's space-saving and trend-setting transverse engine, front-wheel-drive, independent suspension and monocoque bodied Mini, which first appeared in 1959, was marketed under the Austin and Morris names, until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. Competition increased, with Studebaker, a pioneering automaker, shutting down. The trend for consolidation reached Italy, where niche makers like Maserati, Ferrari, and Lancia were acquired by larger companies. By the decade's end, the number of automobile marques had been greatly reduced.

Technology developments included the widespread use of independent suspensions, wider application of fuel injection, and an increasing focus on safety in automotive design. Innovations during the 1960s included NSU's Wankel engine, the gas turbine, and the turbocharger. Of these, only the last endured, pioneered by General Motors, and adopted by BMW and Saab, later seeing mass-market use during the 1980s by Chrysler. Mazda continued developing its Wankel engine despite problems in longevity, emissions, and fuel economy. Other Wankel licensees, including Mercedes-Benz and GM, never produced their designs because of engineering and manufacturing problems and the need for greater fuel economy after the 1973 oil crisis.

The 1970s were turbulent years for automakers and buyers, with prominent events reshaping the industry, such as the 1973 oil crisis, stricter automobile emissions control and safety requirements, increasing exports by the Japanese and European automakers, as well as growth in inflation and the stagnant economic conditions in many nations. Smaller-sized cars grew in popularity. During the Malaise era, the US saw the establishment of the subcompact segment with the introduction of the AMC Gremlin, followed by the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto. The station wagon (estate, break, kombi, universal) body design was popular, as well as increasing sales of noncommercial all-wheel drive off-road vehicles.

Toward the end of the 20th century, the US Big Three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) partially lost their leading position. Japan became a leader in car production for a time, and cars began to be mass manufactured in new Asian, East European, and other countries.

Examples of postwar cars:

The Toyota Corolla is the world's bestselling nameplate.

The modern era is normally defined as the 40 years preceding the current year. The modern era has been one of increasing standardization, platform sharing, and computer-aided design -to reduce costs and development time-and of increasing use of electronics for both engine management and entertainment systems.

Some contemporary developments are the proliferation of front- and all-wheel drive, the adoption of the diesel engine, and the ubiquity of fuel injection. Most modern passenger cars are front-wheel-drive monocoque or unibody designs with transversely mounted engines.

Body styles have changed as well in the modern era. Three types, the hatchback, sedan, and sport utility vehicle, dominate today's market. All initially emphasized practicality, but have mutated into today's high-powered luxury crossover SUV, sports wagon, and two-volume Large MPV. The rise of pickup trucks in the US and SUVs worldwide has changed the face of motoring, with these "trucks" coming to command more than half of the world's automobile market. There was also the introduction of the MPV class (smaller noncommercial passenger minivans), among the first of which were the French Renault Espace and the Chrysler minivan versions in the US.

The modern era has also rapidly improved fuel efficiency and engine output. The automobile emissions concerns have been eased with computerized engine management systems.

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 cut almost a third of light vehicle sales from Chrysler, Toyota, Ford, and Nissan. It also subtracted about a fourth of Honda's sales and a seventh of sales from General Motors.

Since 2009, China has become the world's largest car manufacturer, producing more than Japan, the US, and Europe. Besides the increasing car production in Asia and other countries, there has been growth in transnational corporate groups, with the production of transnational automobiles sharing the same platforms and badge engineering or rebadging to suit different markets and consumer segments.

Since the end of the 20th century, several award competitions for cars and trucks have become widely known, such as European Car of the Year, Car of the Year Japan, North American Car of the Year, World Car of the Year, Truck of the Year, and International Car of the Year.

Examples of modern cars:

1966-1992 Oldsmobile Toronado-First modern-era American car with front-wheel drive as well as introduced electronic antilock braking system and airbag.

1975-present BMW 3 Series-the 3 Series has been on Car and Driver magazine's annual Ten Best list 17 times

1977-present Honda Accord saloon/sedan-a Japanese sedan that became popular in the US

1984-present Renault Espace-first mass one-volume car of noncommercial MPV class

1986-2019 Ford Taurus-a midsized front-wheel drive sedan that dominated the US market in the late 1980s

1997-present Toyota Prius-launched in the Japanese market and became a popular hybrid electric vehicle in many markets.

2008-2012 Tesla Roadster-first highway-capable all-electric vehicle in serial production for sale in the US in the modern era. It sold about 2,500 units worldwide.

2008-2013 BYD F3DM-first highway-capable series production plugin hybrid, launched in China in December 2008, sold over 2,300 units.

2009-present, Mitsubishi i-MiEV-first highway-capable series production all-electric car, launched in Japan in July 2009 for fleet customers and in April 2010 for retail customers. Rebadged versions of the i-MiEV are sold in Europe by PSA Peugeot Citroën (PSA) as the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero.

2010-present, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt-all-electric car and plugin hybrid correspondingly, launched in December 2010, are the world's top-selling mass production vehicles of their kind. As of December 2015, global Volt sales totaled over 100,000. Nissan Leaf global sales achieved the 300,000 unit milestone in January 2018, making the Leaf the world's all-time bestselling highway-capable electric car in history.

2012-present, Tesla Model S-Plugin electric vehicle was ranked the world's bestselling plugin electric vehicle in 2015. It was also named car of the century by Car and Driver.

Beginnings

Benz Patent Motorwagen ("patent motorcar"; 1885), a three-wheel vehicle widely regarded as the world's first production automobile

Benz Velo (1894), follow-up 4-wheel model of the Benz Patent Motorwagen

Early developments essential to the development of automobiles

Car and car engine designers, chronologically by first vehicle/engine built

Nicolaus Otto, developer of the first successful compressed charge gaseous fueled internal combustion engine (1860s-70s)

Wilhelm Maybach, designed engines starting in the 1870s-80s; the first motorbike (1885), the second internal combustion car (1889)

Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer, pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development (1870s and on)

References

Further reading

Early sources

External links

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Development of the automobile started in 1672 with the invention of the first steam-powered vehicle, which led to the creation of the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation, built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769. Inventors began to branch out at the start of the 19th century, creating the de Rivaz engine, one of the first internal combustion engines, and an early electric motor.

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Birth of Pro Football | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site

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Discover the stories and interesting history behind the birth of pro football here at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players - Wikipedia

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The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players was a ten-part television series presented by the NFL Network in 2010. The series was based on a list of the top 100 National Football League players of all time, as compiled by a "blue-ribbon" panel assembled by the NFL Network.