Literature-timeline

1950 BC - The novel was invented with a narrative form. This was Story of Sinuhe about a prince of Egypt who flees after a court killing, is saved in the desert by a Bedouin tribe, and marries the eldest daughter of a king. Some people see Story of Sinuhe as the precursor of the story of Moses in the Bible.

675 BC - The heroic ballad was invented by Stesichorus of Sicily.

553 - Scandal literature was invented by Procopius in Anecdota.

808 - Copying written works by printing was invented by the Chinese who created The Diamond Sutra a seven page paper scroll, printed with woodblocks.

1022 - The romance novel was invented by Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese noblewoman who wrote Genji the Shining One.

1657 - The science fiction novel was invented by Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac who wrote Les etas et empires de la lune about a trip to the moon.

1816 - Literary horror was invented by Mary Shelley who wrote Frankenstein.

1843 - The mystery novel was invented by Edgar Allan Poe who wrote "The Gold-Bug".

1843 - The photographically illustrated book was invented by Anna Atkins with her book, "British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions"

1857 - Writing in which the author conceals a single narrator's perspective and uses multiple other points of view was first done by Gustav Flaubert in Madame Bovary.

1895 - The serial comic strip was invented by the publisher, Joseph Pulitzer with The Yellow Kid, in the New World Newspaper.