This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1887.

• February – Oscar Wilde publishes "The Canterville Ghost", his first short story, in The Court and Society Review.^[1]
• March 30 – Théâtre Libre, established by André Antoine to promote naturalism in theatre, gives its first performances in Paris, originally as an amateur ensemble.^[2]
• April 22 – Syracuse University in New York State purchases the Ranke Library from the estate of historian Leopold von Ranke, outbidding the Prussian government.
• November – Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, is published in Beeton's Christmas Annual by Ward Lock & Co. in London, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson (illustrated by D. H. Friston).
• December 5 – The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) comes into effect.
• December 15 – The Romanian literary magazine Revista Nouă is launched in Bucharest by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who answers a request made by Ioan Bianu, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Alexandru Vlahuță and others. The first issue, illustrated by George Demetrescu Mirea, hosts Delavrancea's Hagi Tudose and Petre Ispirescu's Sarea în bucate^[3] (a localized folkloric version of the King Leir myth).^[4]
• unknown dates
  • Futabatei Shimei writes and begins to publish The Drifting Cloud (浮雲, Ukigumo), the first modern novel in Japan.
  • George Hutchinson establishes Hutchinson & Co. as a publisher in London.
  • John Lane and Elkin Mathews set up in partnership under the name The Bodley Head in London, originally as antiquarian booksellers.

• January 2 – Dmitrii Milev, Soviet Moldovan shorty story writer and critic (died 1937)
• January 7 – Oskar Luts, Estonian author and playwright (died 1953)
• January 10 – Robinson Jeffers, American poet (died 1962)
• January 22 – Helen Hoyt, American poet (died 1972)
• February 1 – Charles Nordhoff, English-born author (died 1947)^[10]
• February 3 – Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (died of overdose 1914)^[11]
• February 4 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English writer (died 1955)^[12]
• February 11 – John van Melle, South African writer (died 1953)
• February 20 – Carl Ebert, German theatre and opera director (died 1980)^[13]
• March 9 – Ion Buzdugan, Romanian poet and political figure (died 1967)
• March 14 – Sylvia Beach (Nancy Woodbridge Beach), American publisher and memoirist (died 1962)^[14]
• May 15 – Edwin Muir, Scottish poet and translator (died 1959)^[15]
• May 31 – Saint-John Perse, French diplomat, writer and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975)^[16]
• June 2 – Orrick Glenday Johns, American poet and playwright (died 1946)^[17]
• June 25 – George Abbott, American playwright, director and screenwriter (died 1995)^[18]
• July 1 – Amber Reeves, New Zealand-born English scholar, feminist and novelist (died 1981)
• July 6 – Walter Flex, German war writer (died 1917)^[19]
• August 3 – Rupert Brooke, English poet (died 1915)^[20]
• August 17 – Marcus Garvey, African American publisher, entrepreneur and Pan Africanist (died 1940)^[21]
• August 28 – István Kühár, Prekmurje Slovene poet, writer and politician (died 1922)
• September 1 – Blaise Cendrars (Frédéric-Louis Sauser), Swiss-born French writer (died 1961)^[22]
• September 8 – Constantin Beldie, Romanian literary promoter and memoirist (died 1954)
• September 26 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (died 1958)
• October 1 – Barbu Nemțeanu, Romanian poet and translator (died 1919)
• October 22 – John Reed, American journalist and poet (died 1920)^[23]
• November 10 – Arnold Zweig, German novelist (died 1968)^[24]
• December 15 – A. de Herz, Romanian playwright and journalist (died 1936)

• February 10 – Mrs Henry Wood (Ellen Wood), English novelist (born 1814)
• February 11 – François Laurent, Belgian historian (born 1810)^[25]
• February 19 – Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), Dutch-born writer (born 1820)^[26]
• February 21 – Elizabeth Caroline Gray, historian and travel author (born 1800)^[27]
• March 20 – Pavel Annenkov, Russian critic and memoirist (born 1813)
• April 23 – John Ceiriog Hughes, Welsh poet and folk song collector (born 1832)^[28]
• May 4 – William Murdoch, Scottish-born Canadian poet (born 1823)
• May 5 – James Grant, Scottish novelist and historian (born 1822)^[29]
• August 20 – Jules Laforgue, French poet (born 1860)^[30]
• August 25 – Emma Jane Guyton (Worboise), English novelist and magazine editor (born 1825)
• September 14 – Friedrich Theodor Vischer, German novelist, poet, playwright and art theorist (born 1807)
• September 27 – Mikalojus Akelaitis, Lithuanian writer, linguist and publicist (born 1829)
• October 12 – Dinah Craik, English novelist and poet (born 1826)^[31]
• November 2 – Alfred Domett, English-born New Zealand poet and politician (born 1811)^[32]
• November 19 – Emma Lazarus, American poet (born 1849)^[33]
• December 5 – Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (born 1804)^[34]