Editing 1950 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1950|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of '''1950'''.
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''See also:'' [[1949 in literature]], [[1950|other events of 1950]], [[1951 in literature]], [[list of years in literature]].
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==Events==
*[[January 19]] – [[Isaac Asimov]]'s first full-length novel, ''[[Pebble in the Sky]]'', is published in the United States by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Isaac Asimov |title=Pebble in the Sky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VobAQAAIAAJ |year=1957 |publisher=Bantam Books}}</ref>
*[[January 26]] – For the [[film noir]] ''[[Gun Crazy]]'', released on this day in the United States, co-writer [[Dalton Trumbo]] is billed as [[Millard Kaufman]], due to the former's inclusion on the [[Hollywood blacklist]]. This year Trumbo serves 11 months in prison for [[Contempt of Congress]], in the [[federal penitentiary]] in [[Ashland, Kentucky]].
*February – [[Jack Kerouac]] has his first novel, ''[[The Town and the City]]'', published in the United States.
*[[April 8]] – [[J. D. Salinger]]'s wartime short story "[[For Esmé — with Love and Squalor]]" is published in ''[[The New Yorker]]''.
*[[May 11]] – [[Eugène Ionesco]]'s first play, ''[[The Bald Soprano]]'' is first performed, in Paris.
*[[September 10]] – [[George Bernard Shaw]] is taken to hospital after fracturing a hip falling out of a tree he was pruning.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Bernard Shaw treated in Luton after tree fall |url=http://www.dunstabletoday.co.uk/community/nostalgia/george-bernard-shaw-treated-in-luton-after-tree-fall-1-3686051 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130420111312/http://www.dunstabletoday.co.uk/community/nostalgia/george-bernard-shaw-treated-in-luton-after-tree-fall-1-3686051 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 20, 2013 |work=Dunstable Today |date=2012-03-31 |access-date=2013-04-11 }}</ref> He is released from hospital a few weeks later after a successful operation, but suffers [[kidney failure]] and dies at his home, [[Shaw's Corner]] ([[Ayot St Lawrence]], [[Hertfordshire]], England), aged 94.
*October – ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' magazine launches in the United States.
*[[October 2]] – The daily comic strip ''[[Peanuts]]'', by [[Charles M. Schulz]], makes its debut in nine United States newspapers.
*[[October 16]] – [[C. S. Lewis]]'s children's portal allegorical fantasy novel ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', illustrated by [[Pauline Baynes]], is published by [[Geoffrey Bles]] in London, first of the seven-book ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cslewis.drzeus.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=93874 |title=Lucy Barfield: The Real Lucy of Narnia|work=Into the Wardrobe |date=27 May 2006 |access-date=2010-10-04}}</ref>
*[[December 20]] – Poet [[T. S. Eliot]] expresses concerns about "the television habit" in a letter to ''The Times'' (London).<ref>{{cite book|author=Asa Briggs|title=The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume V: Competition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0pRGjVGtUvwC&pg=PA57|date=23 March 1995|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-215964-9|pages=57}}</ref>
*''unknown dates''
**[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] is sent to a "special camp" for political prisoners in [[Kazakhstan]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Andrej Kodjak |title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0dgAAAAMAAJ |year=1978 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=978-0-8057-6320-1 |pages=11–18}}</ref>
**The 13th–14th century Japanese [[epic poem]] ''[[The Tale of the Heike]]'' (平家物語) is retold in modern prose by the [[historical novel]]ist [[Eiji Yoshikawa]] as ''Shin Heike monogatari'' (New Tale of the Heike) and published in ''Asahi Weekly''.
**[[Blackwell's]] opens the first specialist children's bookshop, in [[Broad Street, Oxford]] (England).<ref>{{Cite book |first=Malcolm |last=Graham |title=On foot from Broad Street |publisher=Oxford Preservation Trust |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-9576797-1-9 |page=18}}</ref>
**[[Adrian Bell]] begins his ''Countryman's Notebook'' column in the ''[[Eastern Daily Press]]'' (England).<ref>{{Cite book |author=Richard Hawking |title=At The Field's Edge: Adrian Bell and the English Countryside|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CumRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT211|date=22 April 2019 |publisher=Crowood |isbn=978-0-7198-2907-9 |pages=211}}</ref>

==New books==
<!-- (''Title of published book translation''), ("Title of published poem/story translation"), (Literal translation of title) -->

===Fiction===
*[[Reginald Arkell]] – ''Old Herbaceous'' (reissued 2002)
*[[Isaac Asimov]]
**''[[I, Robot]]'' (collected short stories)
**''[[Pebble in the Sky]]''
*[[Georges Bataille]] – ''[[L'Abbé C]]''
* [[Nicolas Bentley]] – ''[[The Floating Dutchman (novel)|The Floating Dutchman]]''
*[[Georges Bernanos]] – ''[[Night Is Darkest]]''
*[[Ray Bradbury]] – ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]''
*[[Gwen Bristow]] – ''[[Jubilee Trail]]''
*[[Pearl S. Buck]] – ''The Child Who Never Grew''
*[[John Bude]] – ''[[Death Steals the Show]]''
*[[Victor Canning]] 
** ''[[A Forest of Eyes]]''
** ''[[Venetian Bird (novel)|Venetian Bird]]''
*[[John Dickson Carr]]
**''[[The Bride of Newgate]]''
**''[[Night at the Mocking Widow]]'' (as Carter Dickson)<ref>{{cite book|author=S. T. Joshi|title=John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYAiXtKV5TEC&pg=PA182|year=1990|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=978-0-87972-477-1|pages=182}}</ref>
* [[Alec Coppel]] – ''[[Mr. Denning Drives North (novel)|Mr. Denning Drives North]]''
* [[Peter Cheyney]]
** ''[[Dark Bahama]]''
** ''[[Lady, Behave!]]''
*[[Agatha Christie]]
**''[[A Murder Is Announced]]''
**''[[Three Blind Mice and Other Stories]]''
*[[Beverly Cleary]] – ''[[Henry Huggins]]''
*[[Catherine Cookson]] – ''Kate Hannigan''<ref name=Kynaston>{{Cite book |first=David |last=Kynaston |author-link=David Kynaston |title=Austerity Britain 1945–1951 |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7475-7985-4}}</ref>
*[[William Cooper (novelist)|William Cooper]] – ''Scenes from Provincial Life''<ref name=Kynaston/>
*[[Edmund Crispin]] – ''[[Frequent Hearses]]''
*[[A. J. Cronin]] – ''[[The Spanish Gardener (novel)|The Spanish Gardener]]''
*[[L. Sprague de Camp]] and [[P. Schuyler Miller]] – ''[[Genus Homo (novel)|Genus Homo]]''
*[[L. Sprague de Camp]] and [[Fletcher Pratt]] – ''[[The Castle of Iron]]''
*[[Daphne du Maurier]] – ''[[The Parasites]]''
*[[Marguerite Duras]] – ''Un Barrage contre le Pacifique ([[The Sea Wall (novel)|The Sea Wall]])''
*[[Friedrich Dürrenmatt]] – ''[[The Judge and His Hangman]] (Der Richter und sein Henker)''
*[[Hans Fallada]] (died 1947) – ''[[The Drinker (novel)|The Drinker]]'' (''Der Trinker''; written 1944)
* [[Jeffrey Farnol]] – ''[[The Ninth Earl]]''
*[[Ford Madox Ford]] (died 1939) – ''[[Parade's End]]'' (tetralogy first published together under this title)
*[[James Fugaté]] (as James Barr) – ''[[Quatrefoil: A Modern Novel]]''
*[[Hugh Garner]] – ''Cabbagetown''
*[[Gaito Gazdanov]] – ''The Buddha's Return'' (Возвращение Будды, ''Vozvrashchenie Buddy'', serialization completed)
* [[Anthony Gilbert (author)|Anthony Gilbert]] 
** ''[[Murder Comes Home]]''
** ''[[A Nice Cup of Tea (novel)|A Nice Cup of Tea]]''
*[[Frank Gilbreth, Jr.]] and [[Ernestine Gilbreth Carey]] – ''[[Belles on Their Toes]]''
*[[Winston Graham]] – ''[[Night Without Stars (novel)|Night Without Stars]]''
*[[Vasily Grossman]] – ''Stalingrad''
*[[Giovannino Guareschi]] – ''[[The Little World of Don Camillo]]''
*[[Frank Hardy]] – ''[[Power Without Glory]]''
*[[Ernest Hemingway]] – ''[[Across the River and Into the Trees]]''
*[[John Hersey]] – ''The Wall''
*[[Robert Hichens (writer)|Robert Hichens]] – ''[[Beneath the Magic]]''
*[[Patricia Highsmith]] – ''[[Strangers on a Train (novel)|Strangers on a Train]]''
*[[Anne Hocking]] – ''[[Death Disturbs Mr. Jefferson]]''
*[[Elizabeth Jane Howard]] – ''The Beautiful Visit''
*[[Robert E. Howard]] – ''[[Conan the Conqueror]]''
* [[Richard Hull (writer)|Richard Hull]] – ''[[Invitation to an Inquest]]''
*[[Hammond Innes]] –  ''[[The Angry Mountain]]''
*[[MacKinlay Kantor]] – ''[[Lee and Grant at Appomattox]]''
*[[Margaret Kennedy]] – ''[[The Feast (novel)|The Feast]]''
*[[Jack Kerouac]] – ''[[The Town and the City]]''
*[[Frances Parkinson Keyes]] – ''[[Joy Street (novel)|Joy Street]]''
*[[Damon Knight]] – ''[[To Serve Man (short story)|To Serve Man]]'' (short stories)
*[[Manuel Mujica Láinez]] – ''[[Misteriosa Buenos Aires]]'' (short stories)
*[[Doris Lessing]] – ''[[The Grass Is Singing]]''
*[[Audrey Erskine Lindop]] – ''[[The Tall Headlines (novel)|The Tall Headlines]]''
*[[E. C. R. Lorac]] – ''[[Accident by Design]]''
*[[Rose Macaulay]] – ''[[The World My Wilderness]]''
*[[Ross Macdonald]] – ''[[The Drowning Pool]]''
*[[Gladys Mitchell]] – ''[[Groaning Spinney]]''
*[[Roger Nimier]] – ''[[The Blue Hussar]]''
*[[Juan Carlos Onetti]] – ''[[La vida breve (novel)|La vida breve]]'' (A Brief Life)
*[[Cesare Pavese]] – ''[[La Luna e i Falò]]''
*[[Mervyn Peake]] – ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]''
*[[Pramoedya Ananta Toer]] – ''Perburuan'' (The Fugitive)
*[[Kukrit Pramoj]] – ''[[Four Reigns]]'' (สี่แผ่นดิน, ''Si Phaen Din'', serialized)
*[[Barbara Pym]] – ''[[Some Tame Gazelle]]''
*[[Ellery Queen]] – ''[[Double, Double (Ellery Queen novel)|Double, Double]]''
*[[Conrad Richter]] – ''[[The Town (1950 novel)|The Town]]''
*[[Henry Morton Robinson]] – ''[[The Cardinal]]''
*[[Cezaro Rossetti]] – ''[[Kredu min, sinjorino!]]''
*[[Budd Schulberg]] – ''[[The Disenchanted]]''
* [[Samuel Shellabarger]] – ''[[The King's Cavalier]]''
*[[Nevil Shute]] – ''[[A Town Like Alice]]''
*[[Josef Škvorecký]] – ''[[:cs:Konec nylonového věku|Konec nylonového věku]]'' (The End of the Nylon Age)
*[[John Steinbeck]] – ''[[Burning Bright]]''
*[[Rex Stout]]
**''[[Three Doors to Death]]''
**''[[In the Best Families]]''
*[[Cecil Street]] 
** ''[[Family Affairs (novel)|Family Affairs]]''
** ''[[The Two Graphs]]''
** ''[[A Village Afraid]]''
*[[Julian Symons]] – ''[[The Thirty-First of February (novel)|The Thirty-First of February]]''
*[[Edith Templeton]] – ''Summer In The Country''
* [[Josephine Tey]] – ''[[To Love and Be Wise]]''
*[[Tereska Torrès]] – ''[[Women's Barracks]]''
*[[Boris Vian]] – ''[[The Red Grass|L'Herbe rouge]]''
*[[Gore Vidal]] – ''[[Dark Green, Bright Red]]''
*[[A. E. van Vogt]] – ''[[The Voyage of the Space Beagle]]''
*[[Mika Waltari]] – ''[[The Adventurer (novel)|The Adventurer]]''
*[[Evelyn Waugh]] – ''[[Helena (1950 novel)|Helena]]''
*[[Denton Welch]] – ''[[A Voice Through a Cloud]]''
*[[Antonia White]] – ''The Lost Traveller''
*[[Kathleen Winsor]] – ''Star Money''
*[[Yasushi Inoue]]
**黯い潮 (''Kuroi ushio'')
**その人の名は云えない (''Sono hito no na ha ienai'')
**闘牛 (''Tōgyū'', The Bullfight)
*[[Frank Yerby]] – ''[[Floodtide (novel)|Floodtide]]''

===Children and young people===
*[[Mabel Esther Allan]]
**''Over the Sea to School''
**''A School in Danger''
*[[Rev. W. Awdry]] – ''[[List of Railway Series Books#Troublesome Engines|Troublesome Engines]]'' (fifth in ''[[The Railway Series]]'' of 42 books by him and his son [[Christopher Awdry]])
*[[Leila Berg]] – ''The Adventures of Chunky'' (first in the Chunky series)
*[[Joan Mary Wayne Brown]] as Mary Gervaise
**''A Pony of Your Own''
**''Ponies and Holidays'' (first two in the Georgie series of ten books)
*[[Anthony Buckeridge]] – ''Jennings Goes to School''
*[[Beverly Cleary]] – ''[[Henry Huggins]]''
*[[C. S. Forester]] – ''[[Mr. Midshipman Hornblower]]''
*[[William Glynne-Jones]] – ''Pennants on the Main''
*[[C. S. Lewis]] – ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' (first in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' series)
*[[Elinor Lyon]] – ''The House in Hiding'' (first novel in Ian and Sovra series)
*[[Katherine Milhous]] – ''[[The Egg Tree]]''
*[[Anne Parrish]] – ''[[The Story of Appleby Capple]]''
*[[Richard Scarry]] – ''First Book Ever''
*[[Dr. Seuss]]
**[[If I Ran the Zoo]]
**[[Gerald McBoing Boing]]
**[[Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories]]
*[[James Thurber]] – ''[[The 13 Clocks]]''

===Drama===
<onlyinclude>
*[[Arthur Adamov]]
**''La Parodie''
**''L'Invasion''
**''La Grande et la Petite Manoeuvre''
*[[Bertolt Brecht]] – ''[[The Tutor (Brecht)|The Tutor]]'' (''Der Hofmeister'', adapted from Lenz)
* [[Wynyard Browne]] – ''[[The Holly and the Ivy (play)|The Holly and the Ivy]]''
*[[Emilio Carballido]] – ''Rosalba y los Llaveros''
* [[Campbell Christie (writer)|Campbell Christie]]  – ''[[His Excellency (play)|His Excellency]]''
*[[John Dighton]] – ''[[Who Goes There! (play)|Who Goes There!]]''
*[[Friedrich Dürrenmatt]] – ''[[Romulus the Great]] (Romulus der Große)''
*[[Christopher Fry]] – ''Venus Observed''
*[[Kermit Hunter]] – ''[[Unto These Hills]]''
*[[William Inge]] – ''[[Come Back, Little Sheba (play)|Come Back, Little Sheba]]''
*[[Eugène Ionesco]] – ''[[The Bald Soprano]] (La Cantatrice chauve)''
* [[Benn Levy]] – ''[[Return to Tyassi]]''
*[[Frederick Lonsdale]] – ''[[The Way Things Go (play)|The Way Things Go]]''
* [[Roger MacDougall]] 
** ''[[The Gentle Gunman (play)|The Gentle Gunman]]''
** ''[[To Dorothy, a Son]]''
** ''[[Macadam and Eve]]''
*[[Esther McCracken]] – ''[[Cry Liberty]]''
* [[Colin Morris (playwright)|Colin Morris]] – ''[[Reluctant Heroes (play)|Reluctant Heroes]]''
*[[Terence Rattigan]] – ''[[Who Is Sylvia? (play)|Who Is Sylvia?]]''
*[[Nelly Sachs]] – ''Eli: Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels'' (verse)
* [[C. P. Snow]] – ''View Over the Park''
*[[John Steinbeck]] – ''[[Burning Bright]]''
*[[Vernon Sylvaine]] – ''[[Will Any Gentleman?]]''</onlyinclude>

===Poetry===
*[[Leah Bodine Drake]] – ''[[A Hornbook for Witches]]''
*[[Pablo Neruda]] – ''[[Canto General]]''
*[[Stevie Smith]] – ''[[Not Waving but Drowning]]''

===Non-fiction===
*[[Roland Bainton]] – ''Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther''
*[[Elizabeth David]] – ''[[A Book of Mediterranean Food]]''
*[[Victor Gollancz]] (ed.) – ''[[A Year of Grace]]''
*[[Ernst Gombrich]] – ''[[The Story of Art]]''
*[[Thor Heyerdahl]] – ''[[The Kon-Tiki Expedition]]''
*[[Octavio Paz]] – ''[[The Labyrinth of Solitude]]''
*[[Lionel Trilling]] – ''The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society''
*[[Raymond Williams]] – ''Reading and Criticism''
*[[Cecil Woodham-Smith]] – ''[[Florence Nightingale]]''
*[[Desmond Young (brigadier)|Desmond Young]] – ''[[Rommel: The Desert Fox]]''

==Births==
*[[January 5]] – [[Valentina Tăzlăuanu]], Moldovan essayist, journalist and theatre critic (died [[2020 in literature|2020]])
*[[January 17]] – [[Luis López Nieves]], Puerto Rican writer
*[[January 19]] – [[Will Weaver]], American author
*[[January 20]] – [[Edward Hirsch]], American poet
*[[January 22]] – [[Paul Bew]], Irish historian and academic
*[[January 24]] – [[Benjamin Urrutia]], Ecuadorian author and scholar
*[[January 25]] – [[Gloria Naylor]], African-American novelist and academic (died [[2016 in literature|2016]])
*[[February 11]] – [[Mauri Kunnas]], Finnish children's author
*[[February 20]] – [[Jean-Paul Dubois]], French novelist and journalist
*[[February 26]]:
**[[Irena Brežná]], Slovak-Swiss writer, journalist and activist writing in German
**[[Adam Cornford]], English poet and essayist
*[[March 17]] – [[Peter Robinson (novelist)|Peter Robinson]], British-born Canadian novelist (died [[2022 in literature|2022]])
*[[March 19]] – [[Kirsten Boie]], German children's writer
*[[March 23]] – [[Ahdaf Soueif]], Egyptian novelist
*[[April 20]] – [[Steve Erickson]], American novelist
*[[May 1]] – [[Aldino Muianga]], Mozambican physician and writer
*[[May 27]] – [[Alex Gray (author)|Alex Gray]], Scottish crime writer
*[[June 21]] – [[Anne Carson]], Canadian poet and scholar
*[[June 25]] – [[Barbara Gowdy]], Canadian novelist
*[[July 3]] – [[Zhang Kangkang]] (张抗抗), Chinese writer
*[[July 22]] – [[S. E. Hinton|Susan Eloise Hinton]], American novelist
*[[August 9]] – [[Nicole Tourneur]], French novelist (died [[2011 in literature|2011]])
*[[August 26]] – [[Carl Deuker]], American author
*[[September 7]] – [[Peggy Noonan]], American columnist, political writer
*[[September 16]] – [[Henry Louis Gates]], American literary critic
*[[September 20]] – [[James Blaylock]], American fantasy author
*[[September 28]] – [[Christina Hoff Sommers]], American author and philosopher<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J7CmUNr_HEgC|title=The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to Ethics|first=Nina|last=Rosenstand|date=November 20, 2003|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=9780767429108|via=Google Books}}</ref>
*[[October 10]] – [[Nora Roberts]], American novelist
*[[October 12]] – [[Edward Bloor]], American novelist
*[[October 15]] – [[Teresa Amy]], Uruguayan poet and translator (died [[2017 in literature|2017]])
*[[October 17]] – [[David Adams Richards]], Canadian author
*[[October 18]] – [[Wendy Wasserstein]], American playwright (died [[2006 in literature|2006]])
*[[October 27]] – [[Fran Lebowitz]], American writer
*[[November 3]] – [[Massimo Mongai]], Italian author
*[[November 4]] – [[Charles Frazier]], American novelist
*[[December 18]] – [[Leonard Maltin]], American film critic and historian
*[[December 20]] – [[Sheenagh Pugh]], English-born poet and novelist
*[[December 30]] – [[Timothy Mo]], Hong Kong British novelist
*''unknown dates''
**[[Bandi (writer)|Bandi]], North Korean fiction writer
**[[Greg McGee]], New Zealand playwright and crime fiction writer
**[[Candace Robb]], American historical novelist<ref>{{Cite book |author=Michelle Kazensky |title=The Writers Directory 2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxuNRg9Pl9EC |date=June 2007 |publisher=Thomson Gale |isbn=978-1-55862-600-3 |page=1670}}</ref>

==Deaths==
*[[January 5]] – [[Basil Williams (historian)|Basil Williams]], English historian (born [[1867 in literature|1867]])
*[[January 8]] – [[Joseph Schumpeter]], Austrian/American political economist (born [[1883 in literature|1883]])
*[[January 21]] – [[George Orwell]] (Eric Arthur Blair), English novelist (tuberculosis, born [[1903 in literature|1903]])<ref>{{Cite news |title=George Orwell, Author, 46, Dead. British Writer, Acclaimed for His '1984' and 'Animal Farm,' is Victim of Tuberculosis. Two Novels Popular Here, Distaste for Imperialism |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=22 January 1950}}</ref>
*[[February 7]] – [[D. K. Broster]], English historical novelist (born [[1877 in literature|1877]])
*[[February 13]] – [[Rafael Sabatini]], Italian-born English-language novelist (born [[1875 in literature|1875]])
*[[February 24]] – [[Irving Bacheller]], American journalist and novelist (born [[1859 in literature|1859]])
*[[March 5]] – [[Edgar Lee Masters]], American poet (born [[1868 in literature|1868]])
*[[March 11]] – [[Heinrich Mann]], German novelist (born [[1871 in literature|1871]])
*[[March 19]] – [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]], American author (born [[1875 in literature|1875]])
*[[March 22]] – [[Emmanuel Mounier]], French philosopher, journalist and theologian (born [[1905 in literature|1905]])
*''circa'' [[March 30]] – [[Henric Streitman]], Romanian essayist and journalist (born [[1870 in literature|1870]])<ref>{{cite news|title=H. St. Streitman, jurnalist-pensionar|newspaper=Adevărul|date=1950-03-31|page=2}}</ref>
*[[April 1]] – [[F. O. Matthiessen]], American historian and literary critic (born [[1902 in literature|1902]])
*[[April 4]] – [[Cuthbert Whitaker]], English yearbook editor (born [[1873 in literature|1873]])<ref>{{cite book|title=The Illustrated London News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8hO7JQ3NKtAC|date=April 1960|publisher=Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited|page=570}}</ref>
*[[April 8]] – [[Albert Ehrenstein]], Austrian Expressionist poet (born [[1886 in literature|1886]])
*[[April 27]] – [[H. Bonciu]], Romanian novelist, poet and translator (cancer, born [[1893 in literature|1893]])
*[[May 6]] – [[Agnes Smedley]], American journalist and writer (born [[1892 in literature|1892]])
*[[May 8]] – [[Cezaro Rossetti]], Scottish-born Esperanto writer (born [[1901 in literature|1901]])
*[[May 10]] – [[Belle da Costa Greene]], American librarian (born [[1883 in literature|1883]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belle da Costa Greene {{!}} American librarian and bibliographer |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Belle-da-Costa-Greene |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=13 July 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[May 11]] – [[Alfred O. Andersson]], English-born American journalist and newspaper publisher (born [[1874 in literature|1874]])
*[[June 4]] – [[George Cecil Ives]], German-born English poet, writer and reformer (born [[1867 in literature|1867]])
*[[June 14]] – [[Katharine Glasier]], English writer and socialist (born [[1867 in literature|1867]])
*[[July 7]] – [[Guy Gilpatric]], American short story writer (suicide, born [[1896 in literature|1896]])
*[[August 27]] – [[Cesare Pavese]], Italian poet and novelist (born [[1908 in literature|1908]])
*[[September 6]] – [[Olaf Stapledon]], English philosopher and science fiction writer (heart attack, born [[1886 in literature|1886]])
*[[September 18]] – [[Henrik Rytter]], Norwegian dramatist, lyricist and translator (born [[1887 in literature|1887]])
*[[October 9]] – [[Nicolai Hartmann]], German-Latvian philosopher (born [[1882 in literature|1882]])
*[[October 19]] – [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]], American poet (heart attack, born [[1892 in literature|1892]])
*[[October 31]] – [[Herbert Kelly]], English religious writer and cleric (born [[1860 in literature|1860]])
*[[November 2]] – [[George Bernard Shaw]], Irish dramatist, critic and activist (born [[1856 in literature|1856]])
*[[November 25]] – [[Johannes V. Jensen]], Danish author (born [[1873 in literature|1873]])
*[[December 28]] – [[Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky]], Soviet short-story writer (born [[1887 in literature|1887]])
*[[December 31]] – [[Xavier Villaurrutia]], Mexican poet and dramatist (born [[1903 in literature|1903]])
*''unknown dates''
**[[Edith Escombe]], English fiction writer and essayist (born [[1866 in literature|1866]])
**[[Helen Rowland]], American journalist and humorist (born [[1875 in literature|1875]])

==Awards==
*[[Carnegie Medal (literary award)|Carnegie Medal]] for [[children's literature]]: [[Elfrida Vipont]], ''[[The Lark on the Wing]]''
*[[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for Fiction: [[Robert Henriques]], ''Through the Valley''
*[[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for Biography: [[Cecil Woodham-Smith]], ''Florence Nightingale''
*Mystery Writer Of Japan – [[Kazuo Shimada]], ''Shakai-bu Kisha'' ("City Reporter")
*[[Newbery Medal]]: [[Marguerite de Angeli]], ''[[The Door in the Wall (novel)|The Door in the Wall]]''
*[[Newdigate Prize]]: [[John Bayley (writer)|John Bayley]]
*[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]: [[Bertrand Russell]]
*[[Premio Nadal]]: [[Elena Quiroga]], ''Viento del norte''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]]: [[Richard Rodgers]], [[Oscar Hammerstein II]], [[Joshua Logan]], ''South Pacific''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]]: [[A. B. Guthrie Jr.]], ''[[The Way West]]''
*[[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]]: [[Gwendolyn Brooks]], ''[[Annie Allen]]'' (first [[African American]] winner)

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}