1986 in literature

Template:Short description Template:Year nav topic5 This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1986.

EventsEdit

April 29 – A major fire at Los Angeles Public Library caused by arson destroys 400,000 volumes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
July 21 – Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
September 29 – Bloomsbury Publishing is set up in London by Nigel Newton.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
October 9 – The Phantom of the Opera, having been the longest running Broadway show ever, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
December 19 – The Soviet dissident author Andrei Sakharov is allowed to return to Moscow after six years' internal exile.

New booksEdit

FictionEdit

Kingsley Amis – The Old Devils
V. C. Andrews – Garden of Shadows
Piers Anthony – Ghost
Jeffrey Archer – A Matter of Honour
James Axler – Pilgrimage to Hell and Red Holocaust
Iain Banks – The Bridge
Thomas Bernhard – Extinction (Auslöschung)
Azouz Begag – Le Gone du Chaâba
Anita Brookner – A Misalliance
Orson Scott Card – Speaker for the Dead
Ana Castillo – Mixquiahuala Letters
Tom Clancy – Red Storm Rising
Arthur C. Clarke – The Songs of Distant Earth<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
James Clavell – Whirlwind
Jackie Collins – Hollywood Husbands
Pat Conroy – The Prince of Tides
Hugh Cook – The Wizards and the Warriors
Bernard Cornwell – Sharpe's Regiment
Bernard & Judy Cornwell (as Susannah Kells) – Coat of Arms (also as The Aristocrats)
Fernando Del Paso – Noticias del Imperio
Marguerite Duras – Blue Eyes, Black Hair
James Ellroy – Silent Terror
Steve Erickson – Rubicon Beach
Nuruddin Farah – Maps (first part of Blood in the Sun trilogy)
Richard Ford – The Sportswriter
Katherine V. Forrest – An Emergence of Green
John Gardner – Nobody Lives For Ever
Jacques Godbout – Une Histoire américaine
Peter Handke – Repetition
Ernest Hemingway - The Garden of Eden
Carl Hiaasen – Tourist Season
Kazuo Ishiguro – An Artist of the Floating World
Brian Jacques – Redwall
Stephen King – It
Judith Krantz – I'll Take Manhattan
Brigitte Kronauer – Berittener Bogenschütze
Louis L'Amour – Last of the Breed
Joe R. Lansdale – Dead in the West
John le Carré – A Perfect Spy
David Leavitt – The Lost Language of Cranes
Tanith Lee – Dreams of Dark and Light: The Great Short Fiction of Tanith Lee
Gordon Lish – Dear Mr. Capote
H. P. Lovecraft – Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (corrected edition)
Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Supremacy
Amin Maalouf – Leo Africanus
Allan Massie – Augustus (first in the Roman series)
Frank Miller – Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (graphic novel)
Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
Patrick O'Brian – The Reverse of the Medal
Ellis Peters
- The Raven in the Foregate<ref name=Peters>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Rose Rent<ref name=Peters/>
Terry Pratchett – The Light Fantastic
Reynolds Price – Kate Vaiden
James Purdy – In the Hollow of His Hand
Jean Raspail – Who Will Remember the People...
Mercè Rodoreda (died 1983) – La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring)
José Saramago – The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis)
Ken Saro-Wiwa – Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English
Idries Shah – Kara Kush
Danielle Steel – Wanderlust
Peter Taylor – A Summons to Memphis
James Tiptree, Jr. – Tales of the Quintana Roo
Mario Vargas Llosa – Who Killed Palomino Molero? (¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?)
Vladimir Voinovich – Moscow 2042<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Roger Zelazny – Blood of Amber

Children and young peopleEdit

Janet and Allan Ahlberg – The Jolly Postman
Chris Van Allsburg – The Stranger
Tony Bradman – Dilly the Dinosaur (first in the eponymous series of 22 books)
Steven Brust (with Alan Lee) – Brokedown Palace
Robert J. Burch – Queenie Peavy
Joy Cowley
- (with Jan van der Voo) – Turnips For Dinner
- (with Martin Bailey) – The King's Pudding
Crescent Dragonwagon – Half a Moon and One Whole Star
Jill Eggleton (with Kelvin Hawley) – Cat and Mouse
Berniece T. Hiser – The Adventure of Charlie and His Wheat-Straw Hat
Diana Wynne Jones – Howl's Moving Castle
Michael de Larrabeiti
- The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis
- The Provençal Tales
Arnold Lobel – The Random House Book of Mother Goose (in verse)
Ann M. Martin
- Kristy's Great Idea
- Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
- The Truth about Stacey (first three in The Baby-Sitters Club series of over 200 books, 35 written by Martin)
Patricia McKissack – Flossie & the Fox
Robert Munsch – Love You Forever
Jill Murphy – Five Minutes' Peace (first in The Large Family series)
Jenny Nimmo – The Snow Spider (first in The Magician Trilogy)
Bill Peet – Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
Claude Ponti – Adele's Album
Alison Prince – The Type One Super Robot
Gillian Rubinstein – Space Demons

DramaEdit

Caryl Churchill and David Lan – A Mouthful of Birds<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Nick Darke – The Dead Monkey
Tomson Highway – The Rez Sisters
Chinu Modi – Ashwamedh
Willy Russell – Shirley Valentine<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Arvo Salo – Vallan miehet<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Tom Stoppard – Dalliance (based on a work by Arthur Schnitzler)

PoetryEdit

Kama Sywor Kamanda – Chants de brumes (Songs of twilight)

Non-fictionEdit

Dave Stieb (with Kevin Boland) - Tomorrow I'll be Perfect
Martin Amis – The Moronic Inferno: And Other Visits to America
Bernard Bailyn – Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
Frank Barlow – Thomas Becket
Marjorie Chibnall – Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166
Richard Dawkins – The Blind Watchmaker
Karlheinz Deschner – Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (Criminal History of Christianity)
Adrian Edmondson et al. – How to be a Complete Bastard
Sita Ram Goel – History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996
Temple Grandin (with Margaret Scariano) – Emergence: Labeled Autistic
Patience Gray – Honey from a Weed (cookery)
Robert Irwin – The Middle East in the Middle Ages: The Early Mamlúk Sultanate 1250–1382
Kumari Jayawardena – Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World
Mark Mathabane – Kaffir Boy
Farley Mowat – My Discovery of America
Harvey Pekar – American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (graphic autobiography)
Marc Reisner – Cadillac Desert
Richard Rhodes – The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Jonathan Riley-Smith – The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading
Roger Scruton – Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation
Art Spiegelman – Maus: A Survivor's Tale (I: My Father Bleeds History) (graphic biography/autobiography)
Jean Vercoutter – The Search for Ancient Egypt
Mary Wilson – Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme

BirthsEdit

January 24 - Aimee Carter, American young-adult fiction writer
June 6 - Rachelle Dekker, American science-fiction writer
July 3 – Chris Bush, English playwright, artistic director and comedian
unknown dates
- Caroline Bird, English poet and dramatist<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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- Chigozie Obioma, Nigerian novelist

DeathsEdit

January 1 – Lord David Cecil, English critic and biographer (born 1902)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 4 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born novelist (born 1904)
January 7
- P. D. Eastman, American author and illustrator (born 1909)
- Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer (born 1917)
January 9 – W. S. Graham, Scottish poet (born 1918)
January 24 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science fiction writer, founder of Scientology (born 1911)
January 26 – Nicholas Moore, English poet (born 1911)
February 4 – Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Dominican writer (born 1908)
February 9 – Dora Oake Russell, Newfoundland writer, diarist and journalist (born 1912)
February 11 – Frank Herbert, American science fiction novelist (born 1920)
February 27 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (born 1903)
February 28 – Edith Ditmas, English archivist, historian and writer (born 1896)
March 4
- Ding Ling, Chinese fiction writer (born 1904)
- Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (born 1913)
March 15 – Pandelis Prevelakis, Greek novelist, poet, dramatist and essayist (born 1909)
March 18 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist (born 1914)
April 12 – Valentin Kataev, Russian novelist and dramatist (born 1897)
April 14
- Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and feminist writer (born 1908)
- Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist and political activist (born 1910)
April 17 – Bessie Head, Botswanan fiction writer (born 1937)
April 22 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian, philosopher and novelist (born 1907)
May 15 – Theodore H. White, American journalist, historian and novelist (born 1915)
June 14 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (born 1899)
July 16 – Stephen Coulter, English writer (born 1914)
August 1 – Lena Kennedy, English romantic novelist (born 1914)
August 3 – Beryl Markham, English-born Kenyan aviator and author (born 1902)
August 18 – Vivian Stuart, English novelist (born 1914)
August 20 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet, writer and playwright (born 1923)
September 11 – Noel Streatfeild, English novelist and children's writer (born 1895)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
October 28 – John Braine, English novelist (born 1922)
December 17 – J. F. Hendry, Scottish poet (born 1912)
December 19 – V. C. Andrews, American novelist (born 1923)
December 28 – John D. MacDonald, American novelist and short story writer (born 1916)

AwardsEdit

Nobel Prize for Literature: Wole Soyinka

AustraliaEdit

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Robin Walton, Glace Fruits
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Rhyll McMaster, Washing the Money and John A. Scott, St. Clair
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Robert Gray Selected Poems 1963–83
Mary Gilmore Prize: Stephen Williams, A Crowd of Voices
Miles Franklin Award: Elizabeth Jolley, The Well

CanadaEdit

See 1986 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

FranceEdit

Prix Goncourt: Michel Host, Valet de nuit
Prix Médicis French: Pierre Combescot, Les Funérailles de la Sardine
Prix Médicis International: John Hawkes, Aventures dans le commerce des peaux en Alaska

ReferencesEdit

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Template:Year in literature article categories

1986 in literature

EventsEdit

New booksEdit

FictionEdit

Children and young peopleEdit

DramaEdit

PoetryEdit

Non-fictionEdit

BirthsEdit

DeathsEdit

AwardsEdit

AustraliaEdit

CanadaEdit

FranceEdit

United KingdomEdit

United StatesEdit

ElsewhereEdit

ReferencesEdit