1951 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1951.

— Opening lines of ''The Catcher in the Rye''

Events

*January 12 – Janie Moore, C. S. Lewis' so-called adoptive mother, dies.
*March – The American writer Flannery O'Connor leaves hospital after being diagnosed with lupus at the age of 25.
*March 12 – Hank Ketcham's U.S. '' Dennis the Menace'' appears for the first time in 16 United States newspapers.
*March 17 – The homonymous U.K. '' Dennis the Menace'' comic strip first appears in the children's comic ''The Beano''.
*Spring – Arthur C. Clarke's short story " The Sentinel", which will form a basis for the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) and a subsequent novel, is published as "Sentinel of Eternity" in the only issue ever produced of the American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine ''10 Story Fantasy''.
*May – Joe Orton enters the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he meets his lover and ultimate murderer Kenneth Halliwell.
*June 18 – Frank Hardy is acquitted of criminal libel in the Australian state of Victoria over his self-published, 1950 ''roman à clef'' on corruption in Melbourne political life, ''Power Without Glory''.
* July 16 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story ''The Catcher in the Rye'' is published by Little, Brown and Company in New York City.
*September 6 – William S. Burroughs shoots and kills his common-law wife Joan Vollmer, apparently by accident, in Mexico City.
*December 16 – Noël Coward leaves his home, White Cliffs, on the south coast of England, having sold it to Ian Fleming.
*''unknown dates''
** E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships. It is Cummings' second.
**Janet Frame's first book, ''The Lagoon and Other Stories'', is published by the Caxton Press (New Zealand) (dated 1952) while the author is a patient in Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, Seacliff, New Zealand, scheduled for a lobotomy. It is awarded the Hubert Church Memorial Award, at the time one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary prizes. This results in the cancellation of Frame's operation.
**Béla Hamvas completes his epic novel ''Karnevál''. He is banned from publication in Hungary at the time, so that it will appear only in 1985, 17 years after his death.
**The first novel in Anthony Powell's set of twelve, ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', is published by Heinemann in the U.K.
**The custom of performing medieval mystery plays is revived at York and Chester, England.
*The Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris is founded.

New books

Fiction

*Martha Albrand – ''Desperate Moment''
* Sholem Asch – ''Moses''
*Isaac Asimov
**''Foundation''
**'' The Stars Like Dust''
*Nigel Balchin – ''A Way Through the Wood''
*Samuel Beckett – ''Molloy''
* Peter Blackmore – ''The Blue Goose''
*Ray Bradbury
**''The Illustrated Man''
**"The Last Night of the World" (short story)
* John Brophy – ''Turn the Key Softly''
* Gill Hunt – ''Galactic Storm''
* Taylor Caldwell – ''The Balance Wheel''
*Morley Callaghan – ''The Loved and the Lost''
*Truman Capote – '' The Grass Harp''
* L. Sprague de Camp
**'' Rogue Queen''
**'' The Undesired Princess''
* John Dickson Carr – '' The Devil in Velvet''
* Henry Cecil – ''The Painswick Line''
*Camilo José Cela – '' The Hive (La Colmena)''
*James Hadley Chase – '' But a Short Time to Live''
*Peter Cheyney – '' Ladies Won't Wait''
*Agatha Christie
**'' The Under Dog and Other Stories''
**'' They Came to Baghdad''
*Arthur C. Clarke – ''Prelude to Space''
*Beverly Cleary – '' Ellen Tebbits''
* Howard Clewes – '' The Long Memory''
*Julio Cortázar – ''Bestiario''
*Freeman Wills Crofts – '' French Strikes Oil''
*Edmund Crispin – '' The Long Divorce ''
*Robertson Davies – '' Tempest-Tost''
*August Derleth – ''The Memoirs of Solar Pons''
*Heimito von Doderer – ''Die Strudlhofstiege, oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre'' (The Strudelhof Steps)
*Owen Dodson – ''Boy at the Window''
*Daphne du Maurier – ''My Cousin Rachel''
*Friedrich Dürrenmatt – ''Suspicion''
*Howard Fast – ''Spartacus''
*Per Anders Fogelström – ''Sommaren med Monika''
* Anthony Gilbert – '' Lady Killer''
*Julien Gracq – ''Le Rivage des Syrtes (The Opposing Shore)''
*Graham Greene – ''The End of the Affair''
* Henri René Guieu – ''Le Pionnier de l'atome''
* Cyril Hare – '' An English Murder''
* John Hawkes – ''The Beetle Leg''
*Robert A. Heinlein – ''The Puppet Masters''
* A. P. Herbert – '' Number Nine''
*Elizabeth Jane Howard and Robert Aickman – ''We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories''
* Laurence Hyde – ''Southern Cross'' (wordless novel)
* Michael Innes – '' Operation Pax''
* James Jones – ''From Here to Eternity''
*Margaret Kennedy – '' Lucy Carmichael''
* A. M. Klein – '' The Second Scroll''
* Wolfgang Koeppen – ''Tauben im Gras'' (Pigeons on the Grass)
*Kalki Krishnamurthy
**''Poiman Karadu''
**''Ponniyin Selvan'' (பொன்னியின் செல்வன், The Son of Ponni; publication begins)
*Louis L'Amour – ''The Rustlers of the West Fork''
*Eric Linklater – ''Laxdale Hall''
* E. C. R. Lorac – '' Murder of a Martinet''
*Ngaio Marsh – '' Opening Night''
*John Masters – ''Nightrunners of Bengal''
*François Mauriac – ''Le Sagouin'' (The Marmoset)
* James A. Michener – '' Return to Paradise''
*Nancy Mitford – '' The Blessing''
*Gladys Mitchell – '' The Devil's Elbow''
*Nicholas Monsarrat – '' The Cruel Sea''
*Alberto Moravia – ''The Conformist (Il conformista)''
*Robert Pinget – ''Entre Fantoine et Agapa''
*Anthony Powell – ''A Question of Upbringing''
*J. B. Priestley – ''Festival at Farbridge''
*Ernest Raymond – '' A Chorus Ending''
*Sax Rohmer – ''Sumuru''
* J. D. Salinger – ''The Catcher in the Rye''
*Ernst von Salomon – '' The Questionnaire'' (''Der Fragebogen'')
* Ooka Shohei (大岡 昇平) – '' Fires on the Plain'' (野火, ''Nobi'')
* Vern Schneider – '' The Teahouse of the August Moon''
*Georges Simenon
** ''Maigret and the Burglar's Wife''
** ''Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters''
* Margit Söderholm – '' Meeting in Vienna''
*Cardinal Spellman – ''The Foundling''
*Howard Spring – '' The Houses in Between''
*John Steinbeck – ''The Log from the Sea of Cortez''
*Rex Stout
**'' Curtains for Three''
**''Murder by the Book''
*Cecil Street
** '' Beware Your Neighbour''
** '' The Secret Meeting''
*William Styron – '' Lie Down in Darkness''
*Elizabeth Taylor – '' A Game of Hide and Seek''
*Phoebe Atwood Taylor – ''Diplomatic Corpse''
*Josephine Tey – ''The Daughter of Time''
*Anne de Tourville – ''Jabadao''
*Henry Wade – '' Diplomat’s Folly''
*Herman Wouk – ''The Caine Mutiny''
*John Wyndham – ''The Day of the Triffids''
*Frank Yerby – ''A Woman Called Fancy''
*Marguerite Yourcenar – ''Memoirs of Hadrian (Mémoires d'Hadrien)''
*Juan Eduardo Zúñiga – ''Inútiles totales'' (Totally useless)

Children and young people

*M. E. Atkinson – ''Castaway Camp'' (first in the Fricka series of five books)
* Rev. W. Awdry – ''Henry the Green Engine'' (sixth in ''The Railway Series'' of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
*Viola Bayley – ''The Dark Lantern''
*Margaret Biggs – ''The Blakes Come to Melling''
*Anne de Vries – ''Into the Darkness'' (''De Duisternis in'', first in the ''Journey Through the Night'' – ''Reis door de nacht'' – series of four books)
*Eleanor Estes – ''Ginger Pye''
*Rumer Godden – ''The Mousewife''
*Cynthia Harnett – '' The Wool-Pack''
*C. S. Lewis – ''Prince Caspian''
*Elinor Lyon – ''We Daren't Go A'Hunting''
*Gianni Rodari – ''l romanzo di Cipollino'' (The Adventures of the Little Onion)
*Sydney Taylor – ''All-of-a-Kind Family''

Drama

* Muriel Box and Sydney Box – ''The Seventh Veil (play), The Seventh Veil''
* Agatha Christie – ''The Hollow (play), The Hollow''
* Ian Hay – ''The White Sheep of the Family (play), The White Sheep of the Family''
* Kenneth Horne (writer), Kenneth Horne – ''And This Was Odd''
*Eugène Ionesco – ''The Lesson (La Leçon)''
* Ronald Jeans – ''Count Your Blessings (play), Count Your Blessings''
*Maryat Lee – ''Dope!''
*A. A. Milne – ''Before the Flood''
*Lawrence Riley – ''Kin Hubbard''
*Jean-Paul Sartre – ''The Devil and the Good Lord (Le Diable et le Bon Dieu)''
*Peter Ustinov –
** ''The Love of Four Colonels''
** ''The Moment of Truth (play), The Moment of Truth''
*John Van Druten – ''I Am a Camera''
*John Whiting
**''A Penny for a Song''
**''Saint's Day'' (first performance)
*Tennessee Williams – ''The Rose Tattoo''

Poetry

*Clark Ashton Smith – ''The Dark Chateau''
*Frank O'Hara – ''A City Winter and Other Poems''
*Iona and Peter Opie – ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes''

Non-fiction

*Nelson Algren – ''Chicago: City on the Make'' (essay)
*Lou Andreas-Salomé (died 1937 in literature, 1937) – ''Lebensrückblick'' (Looking Back)
*Hannah Arendt – ''The Origins of Totalitarianism''
*Albert Camus – ''The Rebel (book), The Rebel (L'Homme révolté)''
*Rachel Carson – ''The Sea Around Us''
*Nirad C. Chaudhuri – ''The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian''
*Wolfgang Clemen – ''The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery''
*Thomas B. Costain – ''The Magnificent Century'' (second book in the Plantagenet or Pageant of England series)
*Daphne du Maurier (ed.) – ''The Young George du Maurier: a selection of his letters 1860–67''
*Jacquetta Hawkes
**''A Land''
**''A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales''
*Eric Hoffer – ''The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements''
*Karl Huber (executed 1943) – ''Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Leibniz''
*Dumas Malone – ''Jefferson and His Time, Jefferson and the Rights of Man''
*C. Wright Mills – ''White Collar: The American Middle Classes''
*Vladimir Nabokov – ''Speak, Memory''
*Joseph Schumpeter, J. A. Schumpeter – ''Imperialism and Social Classes''
*Tran Duc Thao – ''Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique''

Births

*January 1 – Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
*January 13 – Nigel Cox (author), Nigel Cox, New Zealand novelist
*January 22 – Steve J. Spears, Australian actor, singer, and playwright (died 2007 in literature, 2007)
*February 13 – Katja Lange-Müller, German novelist
*February 17 – Jagadish Mohanty, Indian novelist (died 2013 in literature, 2013)
*March 4 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, South Korean-born novelist and artist (died 1982 in literature, 1982)
*March 12 – Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's writer
*March 17 - Lian Tanner, Australian children's writer
*April 5 – Guy Vanderhaeghe, Canadian author
*April 19 – Pierre Lemaitre, French suspense novelist
*May 3 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian novelist, essayist and TV presenter
*May 9
**Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet
**Joy Harjo, Native American poet
*May 15 – David Almond, English writer for children and young adults
*May 20 – Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist, writer and broadcaster (died 2020 in literature, 2020)
*May 21 – Al Franken, American comedian, actor, writer and politician
*June 15 – Amir Barghashi, Iranian-born Swedish actor and dramatist
*June 22 – Rosario Murillo, Nicaraguan poet and political activist
*June 29 – Don Rosa, American writer and artist of Disney comics
*August 20 – Greg Bear, American science fiction writer
*August 24 – Orson Scott Card, American science fiction writer
*September 20 – Javier Marías, Spanish novelist
*September 29 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian novelist and cinema critic (suicide 1977 in literature, 1977)
*October 3 – Bernard Cooper, American writer
*October 11 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian (died 2016 in literature, 2016)
*October 12 – Peter Flannery, English dramatist
*October 17 – Clark Parent, Haitian novelist, musician and politician
*November 18 - Dennis Foon, Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist
*December 6 – Tomson Highway, Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist and children's author
*December 8 – Bill Bryson, American travel writer
*December 22 – Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician
*''Unknown dates''
**Mohammed Achaari, Moroccan writer
**Carol Birch, English novelist

Deaths

*January 7 – René Guénon, French philosophical writer (born 1886 in literature, 1886)
*January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist (born 1885 in literature, 1885)
*January 29 – James Bridie, Scottish dramatist (born 1888 in literature, 1888)
*February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (born 1877 in literature, 1877)
*February 16 – Henri-René Lenormand, French dramatist (born 1882 in literature, 1882)
*February 19 – André Gide, French author (born 1869)
*February 28 – Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Russian dramatist and screenwriter (born 1900 in literature, 1900)
*March 25 – Oscar Micheaux, African American author, film director and producer (born 1884 in literature, 1884)
*April 3 – Henrik Visnapuu, Estonian poet and dramatist (born 1890 in literature, 1890)
*April 9 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist (born 1903 in literature, 1903; suicide)
*April 12 - Henry De Vere Stacpoole. Irish author (born 1863 in literature, 1863)
*April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (born 1889 in literature, 1889)
*May 30 – Hermann Broch, Austrian writer (born 1886 in literature, 1886)
*June 10 – Håkon Evjenth, Norwegian children's writer (born 1894 in literature, 1894)
*June 11 – W. C. Sellar, Scottish humorist (born 1898 in literature, 1898)
*August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper tycoon (born 1863 in literature, 1863)
*August 18 – Richard Malden, English editor, classical and Biblical scholar, and ghost story writer (born 1879 in literature, 1879)
*August 31 – Abraham Cahan, American Jewish journalist and novelist (born 1860 in literature, 1860)
*September 2 – Antoine Bibesco, Romanian dramatist (born 1878 in literature, 1878)
*September 7 – F. G. Loring, English writer and naval officer (born 1869 in literature, 1869)
*September 28 – Petre P. Negulescu, Romanian philosopher (born 1870 in literature, 1870)
*November 5 – I. C. Vissarion, Romanian novelist, dramatist, poet and science writer (born 1879 in literature, 1879)
*November 27 – Timrava (Božena Slančíková), Slovak novelist, short story writer and playwright (born 1867 in literature, 1867)
*December 4 – Pedro Salinas, Spanish poet (born 1891 in literature, 1891)
*December 10 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist and journalist (born 1869 in literature, 1869)

Awards

*Carnegie Medal (literary award), Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Harnett, '' The Wool-Pack''
*Frost Medal: Wallace Stevens
*James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Chapman Mortimer, ''Father Goose''
*James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Noel Annan, ''Leslie Stephen''
*Newbery Medal: Elizabeth Yates (author), Elizabeth Yates, ''Amos Fortune, Free Man''
*Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist
*Premio Nadal: Luis Romero, ''La noria''
*Pulitzer Prize for Drama: ''no award given''
*Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, ''The Town (1950 novel), The Town''
*Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, ''Complete Poems''

Notes

*

References

1951 books,
Years of the 20th century in literature

{{DEFAULTSORT:1951 In Literature