This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1956.

Events

*c. January – The first book in

Ed McBain Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino,(October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author and screenwriter best known for his 87th Precinct novels, written under his Ed McBain pen name, and the novel upon which the film ''Blackbo ...

's long-running

87th Precinct The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories by American author Ed McBain (a writing pseudonym of Evan Hunter). McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several o ...

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

series, ''

Cop Hater ''Cop Hater'' (1956) is the first 87th Precinct police procedural novel by Ed McBain. The murder of three detectives in quick succession in the 87th Precinct leads Detective Steve Carella on a search that takes him into the city's underworld and ...

'', is published in the United States under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym. *

February 2 Events Pre-1600 * 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths, promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (''Breviarium Alaricianum'' or ''Lex Romana Visigothorum''), a collection of "Roman law". * 880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King ...

–

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

's semi-autobiographical '' Long Day's Journey into Night'' (completed in

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

) receives a posthumous world première at the

Royal Dramatic Theatre The Royal Dramatic Theatre ( sv, Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages. The the ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, in Swedish (''Lång dags färd mot natt''), directed by

Bengt Ekerot Nils Bengt Folke Ekerot (8 February 1920 – 26 November 1971) was a Swedish actor best known for portraying Death in '' The Seventh Seal'' (1957) directed by Ingmar Bergman. In 1956, he directed the world premiere of '' Long Day's Journey i ...

and starring

Lars Hanson Lars Mauritz Hanson (26 July 1886 – 8 April 1965) was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era. Biography Born in Göteborg, Sweden, Hanson began his career on t ...

. Its

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut at the

Helen Hayes Theatre The Hayes Theater (formerly the Little Theatre, New York Times Hall, Winthrop Ames Theatre, and Helen Hayes Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 240 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Named for actress ...

November 7 Events Pre-1600 * 335 – Athanasius is banished to Trier, on the charge that he prevented a grain fleet from sailing to Constantinople. * 680 – The Sixth Ecumenical Council commences in Constantinople. * 921 – Treaty of Bon ...

follows an American première at the

Shubert Theatre (New Haven) The Shubert Theatre is a 1,600-seat theatre located at 247 College Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Originally opened in 1914 by The Shubert Organization, it was designed by Albert Swazey, a New York architect and built by the H.E. Murdock Constr ...

. *

February 25 Events Pre-1600 * 138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius as his son, effectively making him his successor. * 628 – Khosrow II, the last great Shah of the Sasanian Empire (Iran), is overthrown by his son Kavadh II. ...

– The English poet

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

and American poet

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The ...

meet in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England. *

March 11 Events Pre-1600 * 222 – Roman emperor Elagabalus is murdered alongside his mother, Julia Soaemias. He is replaced by his 14-year old cousin, Severus Alexander. * 843 – Triumph of Orthodoxy: Empress Theodora II restores the venerati ...

– The U.S. release of Sir

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

's film version of Shakespeare's ''

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

'' plays simultaneously on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

network television and as afternoon matinée screenings in movie theaters. Its TV audience is put at 25–40 million – almost certainly the largest to date for a Shakespeare production. *

March 19 Events Pre-1600 * 1277 – The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire. * 1279 – A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen en ...

– The widowed English author

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

marries the Italian-American film-maker and author Laura Archera at a drive-in wedding chapel in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

. * April 23 – The British author

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

and American poet

Joy Gresham Helen Joy Davidman (18 April 1915 – 13 July 1960) was an American poet and writer. Often referred to as a child prodigy, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University in English literature at age twenty in 1935. For her book of po ...

have a

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religion, religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Every country maintai ...

at Oxford

register office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...

. * May 8 – The first performance of

John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...

's play ''

Look Back in Anger ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) is a realist play written by John Osborne. It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working-class origin, Jimmy Porter, and his equally competent yet i ...

'' is given by the newly formed English Stage Company at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

in London. Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The press release describes Osborne as one of the

angry young men The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading figures included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis; other popular figures included John ...

of the time, a phrase used on July 26 in a ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' headline. *

June 16 Events Pre-1600 * 363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal, Roman forces suffer several attacks from the Persians. * 632 – Yazdegerd III ascends the throne as king ...

– Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at

St George the Martyr, Holborn St George the Martyr Holborn is an Anglican church located at the south end of Queen Square, Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. It is dedicated to Saint George, and was originally so-called to distinguish it from the later nearby churc ...

in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. *

June 21 Events Pre-1600 * 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date). * 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mo ...

– Playwright

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

appears before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

in Washington, D.C. *

June 26 Events Pre-1600 * 4 – Augustus adopts Tiberius. * 221 – Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar. * 363 – Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat fr ...

and

August 23 Events Pre-1600 *30 BC – After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the eldest son of Mark Antony, and Caesarion, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and only child of Julius Cae ...

– Books published by the discredited psychoanalyst

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...

are burned in the United States under a court injunction. *June – Nineteen-year-old

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

is arrested as an accessory to robbery. *

June 29 Events Pre-1600 * 226 – Cao Rui succeeds his father as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei. *1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi. * 1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway, ...

–

marries

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

. *July – After pleas by Israeli diplomats, the Romanian communist regime releases A. L. Zissu, formally sentenced to life imprisonment in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. Zissu emigrates to Israel, where he dies on

September 6 Events Pre-1600 * 394 – Battle of the Frigidus: Roman emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills Eugenius the usurper. His Frankish ''magister militum'' Arbogast escapes but commits suicide two days later. *1492 – Christopher Colu ...

. *

July 4 Events Pre-1600 * 362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans. * 414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaim ...

– The

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

's first purpose-built premises open in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. *

July 8 Events Pre-1600 * 1099 – Some 15,000 starving Christian soldiers begin the siege of Jerusalem by marching in a religious procession around the city as its Muslim defenders watch. * 1283 – Roger of Lauria, commanding the Aragonese ...

– The drama series ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canadi ...

'', produced by

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

network in the United Kingdom, begins a twelve-year run. * August 14 –

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

marries John Bayley at Oxford register office. *

September 14 Events Pre-1600 *AD 81 – Domitian becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire upon the death of his brother Titus. * 629 – Emperor Heraclius enters Constantinople in triumph after his victory over the Persian Empire. * 786 – "Night ...

–

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

marries

Vivien Merchant Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, was an English actress. She began her career in 1942, and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956 she married the playwright H ...

in a civil ceremony at

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, after they meet while touring in

repertory theatre A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing ...

. *October – ''

The Ladder A ladder is a runged climbing aid. Ladder, The Ladder, or Ladders may also refer to: Art, entertainment and media Film and television * "Ladders" (''Community''), the first episode of the sixth season of the sitcom ''Community'' * ''Ladders'', a ...

'' becomes the first nationally distributed

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

magazine in the United States. *

November 1 Events Pre-1600 * 365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities. * 996 – Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, ...

–

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

's ''

Howl and Other Poems ''Howl and Other Poems'' is a collection of poetry by Allen Ginsberg published November 1, 1956. It contains Ginsberg's most famous poem, " Howl", which is considered to be one of the principal works of the Beat Generation as well as " A Super ...

'', a signal work of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

, is published by

City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected tit ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. *December **

J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass medi ...

's first professional publications, the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short stories "Escapement" and "Prima Belladonna", appear in this month's issues of ''

New Worlds New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz Albums and EPs * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...

'' and ''

Science Fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

'' respectively. **

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

begins his ''Mathematical Games'' column in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

''. *

December 3 Events Pre-1600 * 915 – Pope John X crowns Berengar I of Italy as Holy Roman Emperor (probable date). 1601–1900 * 1775 – American Revolutionary War: becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the ...

– The author

Romain Gary Romain Gary (; 2 December 1980), born Roman Kacew (, and also known by the pen name Émile Ajar), was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names. He i ...

wins the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

for ''

Les Racines du ciel ''The Roots of Heaven'' (french: Les Racines du ciel) is a 1956 novel by the Lithuanian-born French writer and WW II aviator, Romain Gary (born Roman Kacew). It received the Prix Goncourt for fiction. It was translated into English in 1957. Syno ...

''. He would later become the only person to win the prize twice, publishing ''

La Vie devant soi ''The Life Before Us'' (1975; French: ''La vie devant soi'') is a novel by French author Romain Gary who wrote it under the pseudonym of "Emile Ajar". It was originally published in English as ''Momo'' translated by Ralph Manheim, then re-publis ...

'' under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975. *''unknown dates'' **Finished in 1952,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian author

Naguib Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha ( arz, نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

's '' Cairo Trilogy'' (''Palace Walk'', ''Palace of Desire'', ''Sugar Street''), is first published. **Sixteen-year-old

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

becomes editor of ''Tarzan Adventures''. **

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

becomes a professor of English and American literature at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...

New books

Fiction

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulated ...

– ''

A Walk on the Wild Side ''A Walk on the Wild Side'' is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn", a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans. Algren n ...

'' *

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...

– '' That Uncertain Feeling'' *

Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...

– '' Planet of No Return'' *

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

– ''

The Naked Sun ''The Naked Sun'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his ''Robot'' series. Like its predecessor, '' The Caves of Steel'', this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after being ...

'' *

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

– ''

Giovanni's Room ''Giovanni's Room'' is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. Stryker, Susan. ''Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback'' (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001), p. 104. The book focuses on the events in the life of an Americ ...

'' * Sybille Bedford – ''

A Legacy ''A Legacy'' is a semi-autobiographical novel by Sybille Bedford first published in 1956. It depicts a fictionalized version of the marriage of her parents and the troublesome relations of their two families. Their familial tumults and tragedies ...

'' *

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...

– '' Seize the Day'' *

Pierre Berton Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular culture. He also wr ...

– ''The Mysterious North'' *

Alfred Bester Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, inclu ...

– ''

The Stars My Destination ''The Stars My Destination'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester. Set in the 24th or 25th century, which varies between editions of the book, when humans have colonized the Solar System, it tells the story of Gully ull ...

'' (as ''Tiger! Tiger!'') * W. E. Bowman – ''

The Ascent of Rum Doodle ''The Ascent of Rum Doodle'' is a short 1956 novel by W. E. Bowman (1911–1985). It is a parody of the non-fictional chronicles of mountaineering expeditions (notably H. W. Tilman's account of the ascent of Nanda Devi and Maurice Herzog's book ...

'' *

Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...

– ''

Imperial Woman ''Imperial Woman'' is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1956. ''Imperial Woman'' is a fictionalized biography of Empress Dowager Cixi (Tz'u Hsi in Wade–Giles), who was a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the '' ...

'' *

Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his Utopian and dystopian fiction, d ...

– ''

Time for a Tiger ''The Malayan Trilogy'', also published as ''The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy'' in the United States, is a comic 'triptych' of novels by Anthony Burgess set amidst the decolonisation of Malaya. It is a detailed fictional exploration ...

'' *

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

– '' The Fall (La Chute)'' *

John Dickson Carr John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. He lived in England for a number of years, and is ...

**'' Patrick Butler for the Defense'' **''Fear is the Same'' (as Carter Dickson) *

Henry Cecil Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil (11 January 1943 – 11 June 2013) was a British flat racing horse trainer. Cecil was very successful, becoming Champion Trainer ten times and training 25 domestic Classic winners. These comprised four winners ...

– ''

Friends at Court ''Friends at Court'' is a 1956 comedy novel by the British writer Henry Cecil. It was published in the United States the following year by Harper Publications.Reilly p.278 It is a sequel to his bestseller '' Brothers in Law''. Roger Thursby the h ...

'' *

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

– ''

Dead Man's Folly ''Dead Man's Folly'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 November of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.9 ...

'' * Arthur C. Clarke – ''

The City and the Stars ''The City and the Stars'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1956. This novel is a complete rewrite of his earlier ''Against the Fall of Night'', Clarke's first novel, which had been published in '' Star ...

'' *

A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...

**''

A Thing of Beauty ''A Thing of Beauty'' is a novel by author A. J. Cronin, initially published in 1956, with the alternate title of ''Crusader's Tomb''. It tells the story of Stephen Desmonde, an English painter who struggles for recognition in a conventional wo ...

'' **''Crusader's Tomb'' *

Antonio di Benedetto Antonio di Benedetto (2 November 1922 – 10 October 1986) was an Argentine novelist, short story writer and journalist. Career Di Benedetto began writing and publishing stories in his adolescence, inspired by the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky an ...

– '' Zama'' *

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...

– '' A Tangled Web'' * R. F. Delderfield – ''

The Adventures of Ben Gunn ''The Adventures of Ben Gunn'' is a 1956 adventure novel by the British writer R.F. Delderfield. It is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Treasure Island''. In 1958 it was adapted into a BBC television The Adventures of Ben Gunn (TV series) ...

'' *

Nh. Dini Nurhayati Srihardini Siti Nukatin Coffin (29 February 1936 – 4 December 2018), better known by her pen name Nh. Dini (sometimes NH Dini in English), was an Indonesian novelist and feminist. She was the youngest of five children of Saljowidjojo ...

– ''Dua Dunia'' (Two Worlds, stories) * Philip K. Dick **''

The Man Who Japed ''The Man Who Japed'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1956. Although one of Dick's lesser-known novels, it features several of the ideas and themes that recur throughout his later works. The "jap ...

'' **''

The Minority Report "The Minority Report" is a 1956 science fiction novella by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in ''Fantastic Universe''. In a future society, three mutants foresee all crime before it occurs. Plugged into a great machine, these " p ...

'' *

Gordon R. Dickson Gordon Rupert Dickson (November 1, 1923 – January 31, 2001) was a Canadian-American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000. Biography Dickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, ...

**''Alien From Arcturus'' **''Mankind on the Run'' *

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...

– ''

Tales of a Long Night ''Tales of a Long Night'' (german: Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende) (1956) is the last novel of German author Alfred Döblin. Set in England immediately after the Second World War, the novel narrates the story of Edward Allison, an En ...

(Hamlet oder Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende)'' *

Friedrich Dürrenmatt Friedrich Dürrenmatt (; 5 January 1921 – 14 December 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-g ...

– '' A Dangerous Game'' (''Die Panne'' – The Breakdown – or ''Traps'') *

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

– '' Diamonds Are Forever'' * Naomi Frankel – ''Shaul ve-Yohannah'' (שאול ויוהאנה, "Saul and Joanna", publication begins) *

Sarah Gainham Rachel Ames, née Stainer (London, 1 October 1915 – Petronell, Austria, 24 November 1999) was a British novelist and journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Sarah Gainham. She is perhaps best known for her 1967 novel ''Night Falls on the Cit ...

– '' Time Right Deadly'' *

– ''

'' *

William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...

– '' Pincher Martin'' *

Winston Graham Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, born Winston Grime (30 June 1908 – 10 July 2003), was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote numerous other works, including contemporary ...

– '' The Sleeping Partner'' *

Walter Greenwood Walter Greenwood (17 December 1903 – 13 September 1974) was an English novelist, best known for the socially influential novel ''Love on the Dole'' (1933). Early life Greenwood was born at 56 Ellor Street, his father's house and hairdres ...

– '' Down by the Sea'' * Edward Grierson – ''

The Second Man ''The Second Man'' is a 1956 crime novel by the British writer Edward Grierson. It won the Gold Dagger award of the Crime Writers' Association. Synopsis A new female barrister Marion Kerrison defends a man accused of murdering his aunt to get h ...

'' * Henri René Guieu – ''Les Monstres du Néant'' * Mark Harris – ''

Bang the Drum Slowly ''Bang the Drum Slowly'' is a novel by Mark Harris, first published in 1956 by Knopf. The novel is the second in a series of four novels written by Harris that chronicles the career of baseball player Henry W. Wiggen. ''Bang the Drum Slowly'' ...

'' *

Frank Herbert Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920February 11, 1986) was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel '' Dune'' and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked a ...

– ''

The Dragon in the Sea ''The Dragon in the Sea'' (1956), also known as ''Under Pressure'' from its serialization, is a novel by Frank Herbert. It was first serialized in ''Astounding Science Fiction, Astounding'' magazine from 1955 to 1956, then reworked and published ...

'' (first book publication) *

Georgette Heyer Georgette Heyer (; 16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English novelist and short-story writer, in both the Regency romance and detective fiction genres. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brothe ...

– '' Sprig Muslin'' *

Kathryn Hulme Kathryn Hulme (July 6, 1900 – August 25, 1981) was an American author and memoirist most noted for her novel '' The Nun's Story''. The book is often misunderstood to be semi-autobiographical. Writing Her 1956 book ''The Nun's Story'' wa ...

– '' The Nun's Story'' *

James Kennaway James Peeble Ewing Kennaway (5 June 1928 – 21 December 1968) was a Scottish novelist and screenwriter. He was born in Auchterarder in Perthshire and attended Glenalmond College. Biography Born to a middle class family in Auchterarder, his f ...

– ''

Tunes of Glory ''Tunes of Glory'' is a 1960 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame, based on the 1956 novel and screenplay by James Kennaway. The film is a "dark psychological drama" focusing on events in a wintry Scottish Highland regimental barracks i ...

'' *

Feri Lainšček Feri Lainšček (born 5 October 1959) is a Slovenian writer, poet, and screenwriter. Early life He was born Franc Lainšček in a Slovene Lutheran family in the village of Dolenci (part of Šalovci), in northeastern Slovenia, then part of the ...

– '' Petelinji zajtrk'' *

Meyer Levin Meyer Levin (October 7, 1905 – July 9, 1981) was an American novelist. Perhaps best known for his work on the Leopold and Loeb case, Levin worked as a journalist (for the ''Chicago Daily News'' and, from 1933–1939, as an editor for ''Esquire ...

– ''

Compulsion Compulsion may refer to: * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compulsive disorder, a mental disorder characterized by i ...

– '' Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold'' * E. C. R. Lorac – ''

Murder in Vienna ''Murder in Vienna'' is a 1956 detective novel by E.C.R. Lorac, the pen name of the British writer Edith Caroline Rivett. It is the forty second in her long-running series featuring Chief Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard, one of the more conv ...

'' *

Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel ''The Towers of Trebizond'', about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spiritua ...

– ''

The Towers of Trebizond ''The Towers of Trebizond'' is a novel by Rose Macaulay (1881–1958). Published in 1956, it was the last of her novels, and the most successful. It was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in the year of its publication. Plot ...

'' *

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

– '' Thin Ice'' *

– ''

'' *

– ''

Palace Walk Palace Walk (Arabic title بين القصرين) is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, and the first installment of Mahfouz's ''Cairo Trilogy''. Originally published in 1956 with the title ''Bayn al-qasrayn'', the bo ...

'' (بين القصرين, ''Bein el-Qasrein'', first of the '' Cairo Trilogy'') *

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Det ...

– ''

Off with His Head ''Off with His Head'' is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the nineteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn. It was first published in the USA (by Little, Brown of Boston) in 1956, under the title ''Death of a Fool'', and in the UK (by Colli ...

'' *

Grace Metalious Grace Metalious (September 8, 1924 – February 25, 1964) was an American author known for her novel '' Peyton Place'', one of the best-selling works in publishing history. Early life Marie Grace DeRepentigny was born into poverty and a broken ...

– '' Peyton Place'' *

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

(三島由紀夫) – ''

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It was published in 1956 and translated into English by Ivan Morris in 1959. The novel is loosely based on the burning of the Reliquary (or Golden Pavilion) of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto by a young Bud ...

'' (金閣寺) *

Gladys Mitchell Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (21 April 1901 – 27 July 1983) was an English writer best known for her creation of Mrs Bradley, the heroine of 66 detective novels. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. Fê ...

– '' Twelve Horses and the Hangman's Noose'' *

Nicholas Monsarrat Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 19108 August 1979) was a British novelist known for his sea stories, particularly '' The Cruel Sea'' (1951) and ''Three Corvettes'' (1942–45), but perhaps known best i ...

– ''The Tribe that Lost its Head'' *

Farley Mowat Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Can ...

– ''

Lost in the Barrens ''Lost in the Barrens'' is a children's novel by Farley Mowat, first published in 1956. Later editions used the title ''Two Against the North''. It won Governor General's Award in 1956 and the Canada Library Association Book of the Year for Ch ...

'' *

Agnar Mykle Agnar Mykle (8 August 1915 – 15 January 1994) was a Norwegian author. He became one of the most controversial figures in Norwegian literature in the 20th century. Early life Born in Norway's third largest city, Trondheim, Mykle was often ...

– '' The Song of the Red Ruby (Sangen om den røde rubin)'' *

Edwin O'Connor Edwin Greene O'Connor (July 29, 1918 – March 23, 1968) was an American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1962 for his novel '' The Edge of Sadness'' (1961). His ancestry was Irish, and his no ...

– ''

The Last Hurrah ''The Last Hurrah'' is a 1956 novel written by Edwin O'Connor. It is considered the most popular of O’Connor's works, partly because of a 1958 movie adaptation starring Spencer Tracy. The novel was immediately a bestseller in the United Stat ...

'' *

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

– '' Ragazzi di vita'' *

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

– '' Boy in Darkness'' *

Mary Renault Eileen Mary Challans (4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983), known by her pen name Mary Renault ("She always pronounced it 'Ren-olt', though almost everyone would come to speak of her as if she were a French car." ), was an English writer best ...

– ''

The Last of the Wine ''The Last of the Wine'' is Mary Renault's first novel set in ancient Greece, the setting that would become her most important arena. The novel was published in 1956 and is the second of her works to feature male homosexuality as a major them ...

'' * Kenneth Roberts – ''

Boon Island Boon Island is a barren, rocky island in the Gulf of Maine off the coast of York, Maine. The island, which is approximately by at low tide, is the site of Boon Island Light, at high, it is the tallest lighthouse in New England. Numerous ves ...

'' *

João Guimarães Rosa João Guimarães Rosa (; 27 June 1908 – 19 November 1967) was a Brazilian novelist, short story writer and diplomat. Rosa only wrote one novel, '' Grande Sertão: Veredas'' (known in English as ''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands''), a revoluti ...

– ''

The Devil to Pay in the Backlands ''The Devil to Pay in the Backlands'' (, "Great Backcountry, Backlands: Paths"; also translated as ''The Great Backlands and Their Paths'') is a novel published in 1956 by the Brazilian literature, Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. The ...

(Grande Sertão: Veredas)'' *

Françoise Sagan Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois chara ...

– ''

A Certain Smile ''A Certain Smile'' was originally published in French as ''Un certain sourire'' by the Paris publisher Juillard in 1956. It was the second novel by Françoise Sagan and was written in two months. Two translations into English then followed in 195 ...

(Un certain Sourire)'' *

Samuel Selvon Samuel Selvon (20 May 1923 – 16 April 1994)"Samuel Selvon"
Encyclopædia Brit ...

– ''

The Lonely Londoners ''The Lonely Londoners'' is a 1956 novel by Trinidadian author Samuel Selvon. Its publication was one of the first to focus on poor, working-class black people following the enactment of the British Nationality Act 1948 alongside George Lamming' ...

'' *

Irwin Shaw Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...

– ''

Lucy Crown ''Lucy Crown'' is a novel by American author Irwin Shaw. First published in 1956, it was Shaw's third novel, following The Young Lions and The Troubled Air. Principal Characters * Lucy Crown, wife and mother * Oliver Crown, her husband * Anth ...

'' *

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...

– '' The Little Man from Archangel (Le Petit Homme d'Arkhangelsk)'' *

Khushwant Singh Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...

– ''

Train to Pakistan ''Train to Pakistan'' is a historical novel by writer Khushwant Singh, published in 1956. It recounts the Partition of India in August 1947 through the perspective of Mano Majra, a fictional border village. Instead of depicting the Partiti ...

'' *

Rex Stout Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...

**'' Might as Well Be Dead'' **''

Three Witnesses The Three Witnesses is the collective name for three men connected with the early Latter Day Saint movement who stated that an angel had shown them the golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon; they also stated tha ...

'' *

Julian Symons Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons) (pronounced ''SIMM-ons''; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was bor ...

– '' The Paper Chase'' *

A. E. van Vogt Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the ...

– '' The Wizard of Linn'' *

Heimito von Doderer Franz Carl Heimito, Ritter von Doderer; known as Heimito von Doderer (5 September 1896 23 December 1966) was an Austrian writer. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. Family Heimito von Doderer was born in Weidlinga ...

– ''Die Dämonen: Nach der Chronik des Sektionsrates Geyrenhoff'' (The Demons) *

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...

– '' Anglo-Saxon Attitudes'' *

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

– '' French Leave'' *

Kateb Yacine Kateb Yacine (; 2 August 1929 or 6 August 1929 – 28 October 1989) was an Algerian writer notable for his novels and plays, both in French and Algerian Arabic, and his advocacy of the Berber cause. Biography Kateb Yacine was officially bo ...

– '' Nedjma'' *

Eiji Yoshikawa was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as '' The Tale of the Heike'', ''Tale of Genji'', ''Water Margin'' and ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', ...

(吉川英治) – ''The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War'' (''Shin Heike monogatari'', a retelling of ''

The Tale of the Heike is an epic poetry, epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). Heike () refers to the Taira (), ''hei'' being ...

'') *

Francis Brett Young Francis Brett Young (29 June 1884 – 28 March 1954) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, composer, doctor and soldier. Life Francis Brett Young was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire. He received his early education at Iona, a pri ...

– '' Wistanslow''

Children and young people

* Rev. W. Awdry – ''

Percy the Small Engine This article is about the characters that have appeared in the books of ''The Railway Series'' by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and Christopher Awdry. Unless otherwise stated on this page, the technical notes come from actual notes laid out by Wilbert ...

'' (eleventh in ''

The Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. Twen ...

'' of 42 books by him and his son

Christopher Awdry Christopher Vere Awdry (born 2 July 1940) is an English author. He is best known for his contributions to ''The Railway Series'' of books featuring Thomas the Tank Engine, which was started by his late father, Wilbert Awdry (1911–1997). He has ...

) *Polly Cameron – '' The Cat Who Thought He Was a Tiger'' *

Fred Gipson Frederick Benjamin "Fred" Gipson (February 7, 1908 – August 14, 1973) was an American writer and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the 1956 novel ''Old Yeller'', which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film. Gipson was born on a farm ...

– ''

Old Yeller ''Old Yeller'' is a 1956 children's literature, children's novel written by Fred Gipson and illustrated by Carl Burger. It received a Newbery Medal, Newbery Honor in 1957. The title is taken from the name of the yellow dog who is the center of t ...

'' *

Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was an English author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus'' in 1947 and '' The River'' in ...

– ''The Fairy Doll'' *

– ''

The Last Battle ''The Last Battle'' is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by The Bodley Head in 1956. It was the seventh and final novel in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Like the other novels in the series, it was illustr ...

'' *

Alf Prøysen Alf Prøysen () (23 July 1914 – 23 November 1970) was a Norwegian author, poet, playwright, songwriter and musician. Prøysen was one of the most important Norwegian cultural personalities in the second half of the 20th century. He wor ...

– '' Little Old Mrs Pepperpot'' (first in a long series of Mrs Pepperpot – Teskjekjerringa – books) *

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...

– ''

Kenny's Window ''Kenny's Window'' is the first children's picturebook that was written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Originally published by Harper and Brothers Inc., it tells the story of a young boy's quest for a garden that he sees in his dream, which ...

'' *

Ian Serraillier Ian Serraillier (24 September 1912 – 28 November 1994) was an English novelist and poet. He retold legends from England, Greece and Rome and was best known for his children's books, especially '' The Silver Sword'' (1956), a wartime adventure s ...

– ''

The Silver Sword ''The Silver Sword'' is a children's novel written by Ian Serraillier and published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 1956 and then by Puffin Books in 1960. It has also been published in the United States under the title ''Escape From ...

'' *

Dodie Smith Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing ''I Capture the Castle'' (1948) and the children's novel ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1956). Other works i ...

– ''

The Hundred and One Dalmatians ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith about the kidnapping of a family of Dalmatian puppies. It was originally serialized in ''Woman's Day'' as ''The Great Dog Robbery'', and details the adventures of ...

'' *

Virginia Sorensen Virginia Louise Sorensen (née Eggertsen; February 17, 1912 – December 24, 1991), also credited as Virginia Sorenson, was an American literary regionalism, American regionalist writer. Her role in Utah and Mormon literature places her within th ...

– ''

Miracles on Maple Hill ''Miracles on Maple Hill'' is a 1956 novel by Virginia Sorensen that won the 1957 Newbery Medal for excellence in United States of America, American children's literature. The book was illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush. The settings and characters ...

'' *

Eve Titus Eve Titus (July 16, 1922 – February 4, 2002) was an American children's writer. She is particularly known for her books featuring the anthropomorphic mice characters Anatole, a heroic and resourceful French mouse, and Basil of Baker Street, a ...

– '' Anatole'' (first in the Anatole and Basil series of 14 books)

Drama

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ''Antigone'', an ad ...

– ''Pauvre Bitos, ou Le dîner de têtes'' (Poor Bitos) *

Ferdinand Bruckner Ferdinand Bruckner (born Theodor Tagger; 26 August 1891, in Sofia, Bulgaria – 5 December 1958, in Berlin) was an Austrian-German writer and theater manager. Although his works are relatively rarely revived, ''Krankheit der Jugend'' was put o ...

– ''The Fight with the Angel (Der Kampf mit dem Engel)'' * José Manuel Castañón – ''Moletú-Volevá'' *

– '' The Visit (Der Besuch der alten Dame)'' *

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant featur ...

– ''Philipp Hotz's Fury (Die Grosse Wut des Philipp Hotz)'' *

Anna Langfus Anna Langfus (born Anna-Regina Szternfinkiel; 2 January 192012 May 1966) was a Polish-French author. She was also a Holocaust survivor. She won the Prix Goncourt for ''Les bagages de sable'' (translated as "Bags of Sand"), about a concentration ca ...

– ''Les Lepreux'' (The Lepers, first performed) *

Hugh Leonard Hugh Leonard (9 November 1926 – 12 February 2009) was an Irish dramatist, television writer, and essayist. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote nearly 30 full-length plays, 10 one-act plays, three volumes of essay, two autobiograph ...

– ''The Birthday Party'' *

Saunders Lewis Saunders Lewis (born John Saunders Lewis) (15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985) was a Welsh politician, poet, dramatist, Medievalist, and literary critic. He was a prominent Welsh nationalist, supporter of Welsh independence and was a co-found ...

– '' Siwan'' *

Bruce Mason Bruce Edward George Mason (28 September 1921 – 31 December 1982) was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980, he was appoi ...

– ''The Pohutukawa Tree'' *

Ronald Millar Sir Ronald Graeme Millar (12 November 1919 – 16 April 1998) was an English actor, scriptwriter, and dramatist. Life and career After attending Charterhouse School, Millar studied at King's College, Cambridge for a year before joining th ...

– '' The Bride and the Bachelor'' *

– ''

A View from the Bridge ''A View from the Bridge'' is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was first staged on September 29, 1955, as a one-act verse drama with ''A Memory of Two Mondays'' at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The run was unsuccessful, and M ...

'' (revised version) *

– ''

Rokumeikan The was a large two-story building in Tokyo, completed in 1883, which became a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the Meiji period. Commissioned for the housing of foreign guests by the Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru, it was designed by Brit ...

'' *

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

and Inge Müller – ''Der Lohndrücker'' (The Scab, written) *

– '' Long Day's Journey into Night'' *

– ''

'' *

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...

– ''

Chicken Soup with Barley ''Chicken Soup with Barley'' is a 1956 play by British playwright Arnold Wesker. It is the first of the 'Wesker trilogy' – being followed by ''Roots'' and ''I'm Talking About Jerusalem'' – and was first performed on stage in 1958 at the Bel ...

'' (written)

Poetry

– ''

Howl Howl most often refers to: *Howling, an animal vocalization in many canine species *Howl (poem), a 1956 poem by Allen Ginsberg Howl may also refer to: Film * ''The Howl'', a 1970 Italian film * ''Howl'' (2010 film), a 2010 American arthouse b ...

'' *

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American writer and aviator. She was the wife of decorated pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, with whom she made many exploratory flights. Raised in Englewood, New Jers ...

– '' The Unicorn and Other Poems'' *

Harry Martinson Harry Martinson (6May 190411February 1978) was a Swedish writer, poet and former sailor. In 1949 he was elected into the Swedish Academy. He was awarded a joint 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 together with fellow ...

– ''

Aniara ''Aniara'' ( sv, Aniara : en revy om människan i tid och rum) is a book-length epic science fiction poem written by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson from 1953 to 1956. It narrates the tragedy of a large passenger spacecraft carrying a c ...

'' *

Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...

– ''Stantsiia Zima'' (Станция Зима,

Zima Zima may refer to: * Zima (drink), an alcoholic beverage * Zima (town), a town in Russia * Zima (surname) * '' Zima Blue and Other Stories'', a collection of short works by Alastair Reynolds * Zima, a character in the anime series ''Chobits ...

Station, translated as ''Winter Station'')

Non-fiction

Peter Frederick Anson Peter Frederick (Charles) Anson (22 August 1889 – 10 July 1975) was an English non-fiction writer on religious matters and architectural and maritime subjects. He spent time as an Anglican Benedictine monk before converting to Catholicism. B ...

– ''The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion'' *

John G. Bennett John Godolphin Bennett (8 June 1897 – 13 December 1974) was a British academic and author. He is best known for his books on psychology and spirituality, particularly on the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Bennett met Gurdjieff in Istanbul in ...

– ''Dramatic Universe'' * Peter M. Blau – ''Bureaucracy in Modern Society'' *

Gerald Durrell Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island o ...

– ''

My Family and Other Animals ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956) is an autobiographical book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells in an exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised way of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on ...

'' *

Margery Fish Margery Fish (née Townshend) (5 August 1892 – 24 March 1969) was an English gardener and gardening writer, who exercised a strong influence on the informal English cottage garden style of her period.

– ''We Made a Garden'' *

Georges Friedmann Georges Philippe Friedmann (; 13 May 1902 – 15 November 1977), was a French sociologist and philosopher, known for his influential work on the effects of industrial labor on individuals and his criticisms of the uncontrolled embrace of techno ...

– ''Le travail en miettes'' (The Anatomy of Work) *

Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

– ''

Mysterium Coniunctionis ''The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'' (german: Gesammelte Werke) is a book series containing the first collected edition, in English translation, of the major writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The twenty volumes, including a Bibliog ...

'' * A. J. Liebling – ''The Sweet Science'' *

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

– ''

The White Negro ''The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster,'' a 9,000-word essay by Norman Mailer, connects the "psychic havoc" wrought by the Holocaust and atomic bomb to the aftermath of slavery in America in the figuration of the Hipster, or t ...

'' *

Karl Mannheim Karl Mannheim (born Károly Manheim, 27 March 1893 – 9 January 1947) was an influential Hungarian sociologist during the first half of the 20th century. He is a key figure in classical sociology, as well as one of the founders of the sociolo ...

– ''Essays on the Sociology of Culture'' *

C. Wright Mills Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journ ...

– ''The Power Elite'' *

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

– ''El arco y la lira'' *

Lobsang Rampa Lobsang Rampa was the pen name of Cyril Henry Hoskin (8 April 1910 – 25 January 1981), an author who wrote books with paranormal and occult themes. His best known work is '' The Third Eye'', published in Britain in 1956. Following the ...

– '' The Third Eye'' *

Irving Stone Irving Stone (born Tennenbaum, July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989) was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are '' Lust for Life'' (1934), about the l ...

– ''Men to Match My Mountains'' (Account of the opening of the American Old West, 1840–1900) * John Strachey – ''Contemporary Capitalism''

Births

January 2 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – The Roman legions in Germania Superior refuse to swear loyalty to Galba. They rebel and proclaim Vitellius as emperor. * 366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading the Roman Empi ...

–

Storm Constantine Storm Constantine (12 October 1956 – 14 January 2021) was a British science fiction and fantasy author, primarily known for her Wraeththu series,Encyclopedia of Science Fictio"Constantine, Storm" Retrieved 2010-01-21. which began as one trilog ...

, British science fiction and fantasy author *

January 4 Events Pre-1600 *46 BC – Julius Caesar fights Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina. * 871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred are defeated by a Danish invasion army. 1601–1900 *1649 – Engli ...

–

Sarojini Sahoo Sarojini Sahoo (born 4 January 1956) is an Indian feminist writer, a columnist in ''The New Indian Express'' and an associate editor of Chennai-based English magazine ''Indian AGE.'' She has been enlisted among '' 25 Exceptional Women of India ...

, Indian journalist, author, and poet *

January 8 Events Pre-1600 * 307 – Emperor Huai of Jin, Jin Huaidi becomes emperor of China in succession to his father, Emperor Hui of Jin, Jin Huidi, despite a challenge from his uncle, Sima Ying. * 871 – Æthelred I, King of Wessex, Æthel ...

–

Jack Womack Jack Womack (born January 8, 1956) is an American author of fiction and speculative fiction. Womack was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and now lives in New York City with his wife and daughter. "Yeah, I was in Kentucky. Lived there till I was 21 ...

, American novelist *

January 10 Events Pre-1600 *49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war. * 9 – The Western Han dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and the be ...

–

Antonio Muñoz Molina Antonio Muñoz Molina (born 10 January 1956) is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He received the 1991 Premio Planeta, the 2013 Jerusalem Prize, and the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for lit ...

, Spanish novelist *

January 21 Events Pre-1600 * 763 – Following the Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa, the Alid rebellion ends with the death of Ibrahim, brother of Isa ibn Musa. * 1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Co ...

– Ian McMillan, English poet *

February 26 Events Pre-1600 *747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events. * 364 – Valentinian I is p ...

–

Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1956 or 1958) is a French author, known for his novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer ...

, French novelist *

March 7 Events Pre-1600 * 161 – Marcus Aurelius and L. Commodus (who changes his name to Lucius Verus) become joint emperors of Rome on the death of Antoninus Pius. * 1138 – Konrad III von Hohenstaufen was elected king of Germany at Cob ...

–

Andrea Levy Andrea Levy (7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019) was an English author best known for the novels '' Small Island'' (2004) and ''The Long Song'' (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to British ...

, English novelist (died

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

) *

March 12 Events Pre-1600 * 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius. * 1088 – Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Cat ...

–

Ruth Ozeki Ruth Ozeki is an American-Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her books and films, including the novels '' My Year of Meats'' (1998), '' All Over Creation'' (2003), '' A Tale for the Time Being'' (2013), and '' The Book of Form ...

, American novelist and filmmaker *

March 23 Events Pre-1600 *1400 – The Trần dynasty of Vietnam is deposed, after one hundred and seventy-five years of rule, by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official. *1540 – Waltham Abbey Church, Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of ...

–

Steven Saylor Steven Saylor (born March 23, 1956) is an American author of historical novels. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. Saylor's best-known work is his ''Roma Sub Rosa'' historical mystery ...

, American historical novelist *

April 29 Events Pre-1600 * 1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. * 1386 – Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and b ...

– Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist *

May 4 Events Pre-1600 * 1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull ''Licet ecclesiae catholicae''. * 1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are ...

– David Guterson, American journalist and novelist *

May 18 Events Pre-1600 * 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople. * 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 4 ...

–

John Godber John Harry Godber (born 18 May 1956) is known mainly for observational comedies. The ''Plays and Players Yearbook'' of 1993 rated him the third most performed playwright in the UK after William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn. He has been cre ...

, English dramatist *

May 20 Events Pre-1600 * 325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church. * 491 – Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed '' Augusta'' is able to choose her ...

–

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ� ...

, Russian novelist and essayist *

June 9 Events Pre-1600 *411 BC – The Athenian coup succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy. * 53 – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia. * 68 – Nero dies by suicide after quoting Vergil's ''Aeneid'', thus ending th ...

–

Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9, 1956) is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in ...

, American crime novelist *

– Éric Neuhoff, French novelist *

July 11 Events Pre-1600 * 472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. * 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abd ...

–

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

, Bengali Indian novelist *

October 9 Events Pre-1600 * 768 – Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned kings of the Franks. * 1238 – James I of Aragon founds the Kingdom of Valencia. * 1410 – The first known mention of the Prague astronomical clock. * 1446 &ndash ...

–

Robert Reed Robert Reed (born John Robert Rietz Jr.; October 19, 1932 – May 12, 1992) was an American actor. He played Kenneth Preston on the legal drama '' The Defenders'' from 1961 to 1965 alongside E. G. Marshall, and is best known for his role as the ...

, American science fiction author *

October 13 Events Pre-1600 * 54 – Roman emperor Claudius dies from poisoning under mysterious circumstances. He is succeeded by his adoptive son Nero, rather than by Britannicus, his son with Messalina. * 409 – Vandals and Alans cross the Py ...

– Chris Carter, American screenwriter *

October 16 Events Pre-1600 * 456 – Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire. * 690 – Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire. * ...

Meg Rosoff Meg Rosoff (born 16 October 1956) is an American writer based in London, United Kingdom. She is best known for the novel '' How I Live Now'' (Puffin, 2004), which won the Guardian Prize, Printz Award, and Branford Boase Award and made the ...

, American-British children's and young-adult writer *

October 18 Events Pre-1600 * 33 – Heartbroken by the deaths of her sons Nero and Drusus, and banished to the island of Pandateria by Tiberius, Agrippina the Elder dies of self-inflicted starvation. * 320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philos ...

– Lucy Ellmann, Anglo-American novelist *

November 11 Events Pre-1600 * 308 – At Carnuntum, Emperor ''emeritus'' Diocletian confers with Galerius, ''Augustus'' of the East, and Maximianus, the recently returned former ''Augustus'' of the West, in an attempt to end the civil wars of the ...

–

Tim Pears Tim Pears (born 15 November 1956) is an English novelist. His novels explore social issues as they are processed through the dynamics of family relationships. Biography Although born in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Tim Pears grew up in the village ...

, English novelist *

November 20 Events Pre-1600 * 284 – Diocletian is chosen as Roman emperor. * 762 – During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels. * 1194 – Palermo is conquered by Henry ...

– Elena Gremina, Russian dramatist (died

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

) *

November 26 Events Pre-1600 * 783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is held at a monastery to prevent her king from retaking the throne from Mauregatus. * 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynast ...

– John McCarthy, English journalist and hostage *

December 22 Events Pre-1600 *AD 69 – Vespasian is proclaimed Emperor of Rome; his predecessor, Vitellius, attempts to abdicate but is captured and killed at the Gemonian stairs. * 401 – Pope Innocent I is elected, the only pope to succeed h ...

–

Percival Everett Percival Everett (born December 22, 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Life Everett lives in Los Angeles, California. Literary career While completing his AM degree at B ...

, American writer and novelist *''unknown dates'' **

James Aboud James Christopher Aboud (born 1956) is a Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge and poet. Personal life He is the son of Jimmy Aboud and Lily Elias Aboud. He has three brothers, Gregory, Stephen and Gary Aboud, and one sister, Linda Aboud-Stephen ...

, Trinidad poet and judge ** James Belich, New Zealand historian **

Amy Gerstler Amy Gerstler (born 1956) is an American poet. She won a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. Biography Amy Gerstler was born in 1956. She is a graduate of Pitzer College and holds an M.F.A. from Bennington ...

, American poet

Deaths

January 13 Events Pre-1600 * 27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. * 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing ...

–

Wickham Steed Henry Wickham Steed (10 October 1871 – 13 January 1956) was an English journalist and historian. He was editor of ''The Times'' from 1919 to 1922. Early life Born in Long Melford, England, Steed was educated at Sudbury Grammar School an ...

, English journalist, editor and historian (born 1871) *

January 14 Events Pre-1600 *1236 – King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence. *1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary. 1601–1900 *1639 – The "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, Fundamenta ...

–

Sheila Kaye-Smith Sheila Kaye-Smith (4 February 1887 – 14 January 1956) was an English writer, known for her many novels set in the borderlands of Sussex and Kent in the English regional tradition. Her 1923 book ''The End of the House of Alard'' became a best- ...

, English novelist (born

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

) *

January 29 Events Pre-1600 * 904 – Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher. * 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler o ...

–

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

, American journalist and English language scholar (born

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

) *

January 31 Events Pre-1600 * 314 – Pope Sylvester I is consecrated, as successor to the late Pope Miltiades. * 1208 – The Battle of Lena takes place between King Sverker II of Sweden and his rival, Prince Eric, whose victory puts him on the t ...

–

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

, English children's author, novelist and dramatist (born

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in ...

) *

March 30 Events Pre-1600 * 598 – Balkan Campaign: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis. Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro- Slavic hordes are decimated by the plague. * 1282 &ndas ...

–

Edmund Clerihew Bentley Edmund Clerihew Bentley (10 July 1875 – 30 March 1956), who generally published under the names E. C. Bentley or E. Clerihew Bentley, was a popular English novelist and humorist, and inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse ...

, English novelist and inventor of the

clerihew A clerihew () is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem of a type invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. The first line is the name of the poem's subject, usually a famous person, and the remainder puts the subject in an absurd light or reveals som ...

(born

1875 Events January–March * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the ...

) *

April 22 Events Pre-1600 * 1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil. * 1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico. * 1529 – Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern ...

–

Otto Roth Otto Roth, occasionally rendered as Willy Otto Roth Stelian Neagoe in ''Jurnalul Național'', 30 September 2006 or Dr. RotTemperley & Otte, p. 347 ( hu, Róth Ottó; 6 December 1884 – 22 April 1956), was a Hungarian and Romanian lawyer, journali ...

, Hungarian Romanian politician, journalist, and literary promoter (born 1884 ) *

May 15 Events Pre-1600 * 221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. * 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbog ...

– Arthur Talmage Abernethy, American theologian and poet (born

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

) *

–

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturday ...

, English humorist (born

) *

May 22 Events Pre-1600 * 192 – Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu. * 760 – Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. * 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt. * 11 ...

–

Ion Călugăru Ion Călugăru (; born Ștrul Leiba Croitoru, Ion Călugăru, Ioan Lăcustă''"Uzina care încearcă să gonească morții". Note nepublicate (1948)'' at thMemoria Digital Library retrieved February 17, 2010 also known as Buium sin Strul-Leiba Croi ...

, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist (born 1902) *

June 22 Events Pre-1600 * 217 BC – Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom. * 168 BC – Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus ...

–

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...

, English poet (born 1873) *

June 24 Events Pre-1600 * 1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa. * 109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, northwest of Rome. * ...

–

Nicos Nicolaides Nicos Nicolaides ( el, Νίκος Νικολαΐδης) was a Greek Cypriot painter and writer. Early life Nicolaides was born the son of poor parents in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 3 April 1884. A sister, Maria, followed him two years later. He was ...

, Greek writer (born

1884 Events January–March * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 18 – Dr. William Price atte ...

) *

July 7 Events Pre-1600 * 1124 – The city of Tyre falls to the Venetian Crusade after a siege of nineteen weeks. * 1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her execution. * 1520 – Spanish ''conquistad ...

–

Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951. Biography and work Family and beginnings Go ...

, German poet and essayist (born 1886) *

–

Giovanni Papini Giovanni Papini (9 January 18818 July 1956) was an Italian journalist, essayist, novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, and Italian philosophy, philosopher. A controversial literary figure of the early and mid-twentieth century, he ...

, Italian essayist, poet and novelist (born 1881) * August 14 –

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

, German dramatist (born

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

) *

Michael Ventris Michael George Francis Ventris, (; 12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English architect, classicist and philologist who deciphered Linear B, the ancient Mycenaean Greek script. A student of languages, Ventris had pursued deciphermen ...

, English linguistic scholar (born

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

) ** A. L. Zissu, Romanian novelist and Zionist leader (born 1888) *

September 12 Events Pre-1600 *490 BC – Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece. * 372 – Sixteen Kingdoms: Ji ...

–

Hans Carossa Hans Carossa (15 December 1878 in Bad Tölz, Kingdom of Bavaria – 12 September 1956 in Rittsteig near Passau) was a German novelist and poet, known mostly for his autobiographical novels, and his "innere Emigration" ( inner emigration) during ...

, German novelist and poet (born

1878 Events January–March * January 5 – Russo-Turkish War – Battle of Shipka Pass IV: Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire. * January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy. * January 17 – Battle o ...

) *

October 30 Events Pre-1600 * 637 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Antioch surrenders to the Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of the Iron Bridge. * 758 – Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates. *1137 – Ranulf of Apulia defeats Ro ...

–

Pío Baroja Pío Baroja y Nessi (28 December 1872 – 30 October 1956) was a Spanish writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family. His brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his nephew ...

, Spanish novelist (born

) *

December 6 Events Pre-1600 *1060 – Béla I of Hungary, Béla I is crowned king of Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages, Hungary. *1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kyiv, defended by Voivode Dmytro, Siege of Kiev (1240), falls to the Mongols u ...

- Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution of India (born 1891) *December 13 – Arthur Grimble, Hong Kong-born English travel writer (born 1888) *December 25 – Robert Walser (writer), Robert Walser, Swiss novelist and poet writing in German (born

)

Awards

*Carnegie Medal (literary award), Carnegie Medal for children's literature:

, ''

''Hahn 2015, p. 660 *Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis (first award): Roger Duvoisin and Louise Fatio, ''Happy Lion'' (''Der glückliche Löwe''); Astrid Lindgren, ''Mio, My Son''; and Kurt Lütgen, ''Kein Winter für Wölfe'' ("Two Against the Arctic: Story of a Restless Life between Greenland and Alaska") *Duff Cooper Prize: Alan Moorehead, ''Gallipoli'' *James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction:

, ''

'' *James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: St John Greer Ervine, ''George Bernard Shaw'' *Madan Puraskar (first award): Satya Mohan Joshi, ''Hamro Lok Sanskriti''; Chittaranjan Nepali, ''Janaral Bhimsen Thapa Ra Tatkalin Nepal''; and Bala Ram Joshi, ''Adhikbibhav Sthirbidhoot Utpadhak'' *Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Lee Latham, ''Carry On, Mr. Bowditch'' *Nobel Prize for literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez *Premio Nadal: José Luis Martín Descalzo, ''La frontera de Dios'' *

for ''The Roots of Heaven (novel), The Roots of Heaven'' *Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, ''Diary of Anne Frank'' *Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: MacKinlay Kantor, ''Andersonville (novel), Andersonville'' *Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop, ''Poems – North & South'' *Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden

Notes

References

1956 books, Years of the 20th century in literature {{DEFAULTSORT:1956 In Literature