The Wars''
*
Leon Forrest – ''The Bloodworth Orphans''
*
John Fowles
John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist of international renown, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others.
Aft ...
– ''
Daniel Martin''
*
Marilyn French – ''
The Women's Room''
*
Jane Gardam – ''Bilgewater''
*
Pauline Gedge – ''Child of the Morning''
*
Richard Gordon – ''
The Invisible Victory''
*
Günter Grass – ''
The Flounder (Der Butt)''
*
Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin (born June 28, 1947) is an American novelist, journalist, conservative commentator, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and M ...
– ''Refiner's Fire''
*
Hammond Innes
Ralph Hammond Innes (15 July 1913 – 10 June 1998) was a British novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as works for children and travel books.
Biography
Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at Feltonfleet School, Cobham, Surrey ...
– ''
The Big Footprints''
*
Erica Jong
Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel ''Fear of Flying''. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured pro ...
– ''How to Save Your Own Life''
*
Elias Khoury
Elias Khoury ( ar, إلياس خوري; born 12 July 1948) is a Lebanon, Lebanese novelist, and prominent public intellectual. Accordingly, he has published myriad novels related to literary criticism, which have been translated into several fore ...
– الجبل الصغير (''al-Jabal al-saghir'', The Little Mountain)
*
Stephen King – ''
The Shining''
*
Derek Lambert – ''
Blackstone on Broadway
''Blackstone on Broadway'' is a 1977 historical thriller novel by the British writer Derek Lambert, published under the pen name Richard Falkirk. It is the final entry in a series of six novels featuring Edmund Blackstone, a member of the Bow St ...
''
*
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
– ''
The Honourable Schoolboy''
*
Ernest Lehman
Ernest Paul Lehman (December 8, 1915 – July 2, 2005) was an American screenwriter. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Ho ...
– ''
The French Atlantic Affair''
*
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...
– ''
The Chancellor Manuscript''
*
Brian Lumley
Brian Lumley (born 2 December 1937) is an English author of horror fiction. He came to prominence in the 1970s writing in the Cthulhu Mythos created by American writer H. P. Lovecraft but featuring the new character Titus Crow, and went on to ...
– ''
The Horror at Oakdeene and Others''
*
Ngaio Marsh – ''
Last Ditch''
*
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...
– ''
Dying of the Light''
*
Colleen McCullough – ''
The Thorn Birds''
*
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. – ''Terms of Endearment''
*
Robert Merle – ''
Fortune de France''
*
Toni Morrison – ''
Song of Solomon''
*
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 ...
– ''
The Sea, the Sea''
*
Péter Nádas – ''
The End of a Family Story''
*
John Neal – ''The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings'' (edited by Benjamin Lease and Hans-Joachim Lang)
*
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and cent ...
– ''
The Mauritius Command''
*
Ellis Peters – ''
A Morbid Taste for Bones
''A Morbid Taste for Bones'' is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters set in May 1137. It is the first novel in ''The Cadfael Chronicles'', first published in 1977.
It was adapted for television in 1996 by Central for ITV.
The monks of ...
''
*
Barbara Pym
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym FRSL (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are ''Excellent Women'' (1952) and '' A Glass of Blessings'' (1958). In 1977 ...
– ''
Quartet in Autumn''
*
Ruth Rendell – ''
A Judgement in Stone
''A Judgement in Stone'' is a 1977 novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, widely considered to be one of her greatest works.
Plot summary
Eunice is taken on as a housekeeper by a family of four. She has kept her illiteracy a secret and is obse ...
''
*
Alun Richards – ''
Ennal's Point''
*
Harold Robbins – ''Dreams Die First''
*
Paul Scott – ''
Staying On''
*
Erich Segal – ''
Oliver's Story''
*
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'' ...
– ''
Beggarman, Thief''
*
M. P. Shiel – ''
Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk''
*
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer. He was prominent in the 1930s, first working on Broadway plays, and then in motion pictures, notably writing the successful comedy '' The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxe ...
– ''
Bloodline
Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic informa ...
''
*
Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko (born Leslie Marmon; born March 5, 1948) is an American writer. A Laguna Pueblo Indian woman, she is one of the key figures in the First Wave of what literary critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance ...
– ''
Ceremony''
*
Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Ann Gilmour (née Smart; born November 3, 1987) is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News. She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell. ...
– ''A Bonus''
*
Botho Strauß – ''
Devotion
Devotion or Devotions may refer to:
Religion
* Faith, confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept
* Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians
* Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance
* Cat ...
''
*
Remy Sylado – ''Gali Lobang Gila Lobang''
*
Craig Thomas – ''
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current ...
''
*
J. R. R. Tolkien (died 1973) – ''
The Silmarillion''
*
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, '' The Story of a Three-Day Pass'' ...
– ''The True American, A Folk Fable''
*
Mario Vargas Llosa – ''
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter'' (''La tía Julia y el escribidor'')
*
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 ...
(died 1975) – ''
Sunset at Blandings
''Sunset at Blandings'' is an unfinished novel by P. G. Wodehouse published in the United Kingdom by Chatto & Windus, London, on 17 November 1977 and in the United States by Simon & Schuster, New York, 19 September 1978.McIlvaine, E., Sherby, L ...
''
*
Christopher Wood – ''
James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me''
Children and young people
*
Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
**''The Drum''
**''The Flute''
*
Richard Adams
**''
The Plague Dogs
''The Plague Dogs'' is the third novel by Richard Adams, author of ''Watership Down'', about the friendship of two dogs that escape an animal testing facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government and the media. It was first pub ...
''
**''
The Ship's Cat''
*
Sandra Boynton – ''Hippos Go Berserk!''
*
Helen Cresswell
Helen Cresswell (11 July 1934 – 26 September 2005) was an English television scriptwriter and author of more than 100 children's books, best known for comedy and supernatural fiction. Her most popular book series, '' Lizzie Dripping'' and '' T ...
– ''
The Bagthorpe Saga''
*
Willi Glasauer – ''Le Journal Enseveli (The Buried Newspaper)''
*
Rumer Godden – ''The Rocking Horse Secret''
*
Shirley Hughes – ''
Dogger''
*
Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually d ...
– ''
Charmed Life''
*
Ruth Manning-Sanders – ''
A Book of Enchantments and Curses''
*
C. L. Moore (with
Alicia Austin) – ''
Black God's Shadow''
*
Bill Peet – ''Big Bad Bruce''
*
Maurice Sendak – ''
Seven Little Monsters
''Seven Little Monsters'' is a children's picture book by American author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Published by Harper & Row in 1977, it was originally created as an animated short for Sesame Street in 1971 and served as the basis for the C ...
''
*
Barbara Smucker – ''
Underground to Canada'' (also ''Runaway to Freedom: A Story of the Underground Railway'')
*
Peter Spier – ''
Noah's Ark''
*
Judith Viorst
Judith Viorst (; née Stahl,Aarons, Leroy ''People (magazine)'', February 18, 1980 Vol. 13 No. 7. Accessed August 4, 2016. "Born in Maplewood, N.J., the daughter of an accountant and a mother 'who was a reader and a bridge player,' Judith Stahl ...
– ''Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday''
Drama
*
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt (15 August 1924 – 20 February 1995) was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Doctor Zhivago'', and '' A Man for All Seasons'', ...
– ''
State of Revolution''
*
Roger Hall – ''
Middle-Age Spread''
*
Tony Harrison (adapter) – ''
The Mysteries
''The Mysteries'' is a version of the medieval English mystery plays first presented at London's National Theatre in 1977. The cycle of three plays tells the story of the Bible from the creation to the last judgement.
Background
It is based lar ...
''
*
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...
– ''
Abigail's Party
''Abigail's Party'' is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the ...
''
*
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 ...
– ''
Die Hamletmaschine'' (written)
*
Mary O'Malley – ''
Once a Catholic''
*
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
– ''
Brimstone and Treacle''
*
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan author and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English. He has been described as having been "considered East Africa’s leading novelist". His wo ...
and
Ngugi wa Mirii – ''
Ngaahika Ndeenda''
Poetry
*
Frank Belknap Long – ''
In Mayan Splendor''
Non-fiction
*
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.
Alfred DuPont Chandler Jr. (September 15, 1918 – May 9, 2007) was a professor of business history at Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins University, who wrote extensively about the scale and the management structures of modern corporatio ...
– ''
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business''
*
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...
– ''
In Patagonia''
*
Robert Coles – ''
Children of Crisis
''Children of Crisis'' is a social study of children in the United States written by child psychiatrist Robert Coles and published in five volumes by Little, Brown and Company between 1967 and 1977. In 2003, the publisher released a one-volume com ...
''
**vol. 4, ''
Eskimos, Indians, Chicanos''
**vol. 5, ''
The Privileged Ones: The Well-off and the Rich in America''
*
Esther Deans – ''Esther Deans' Gardening Book: Growing Without Digging''
*
Len Deighton – ''
Fighter: the True Story of the Battle of Britain''
*
Patrick Leigh Fermor – ''
A Time Of Gifts''
*
Jim Fixx
James Fuller Fixx (April 23, 1932 – July 20, 1984) was an American who wrote the 1977 best-selling book '' The Complete Book of Running''. He is credited with helping start America's fitness revolution by popularizing the sport of running ...
– ''
The Complete Book of Running''
*
Michael Herr – ''
Dispatches''
*
Edith Holden (died 1920) – ''The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady''
*
R. C. Majumdar – ''
The History and Culture of the Indian People
''The History and Culture of the Indian People'' is a series of eleven volumes on the history of India, from prehistoric times to the establishment of the modern state in 1947. Historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar was the general editor of the serie ...
'', vol. 11
*
Bharati Mukherjee and
Clark Blaise – ''
Days and Nights in Calcutta''
*
V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...
– ''
India: A Wounded Civilization''
*
David M. Potter – ''
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861''
*
E. F. Schumacher – ''
A Guide for the Perplexed
''A Guide for the Perplexed'' is a short book by E. F. Schumacher, published in 1977. The title is a reference to Maimonides's '' The Guide for the Perplexed''. Schumacher himself considered ''A Guide for the Perplexed'' to be his most important ...
''
*
A. T. Q. Stewart – ''The Narrow Ground: Aspects of Ulster 1609–1969''
*
Lawrence Stone – ''The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500–1800''
*
Peter Ustinov – ''
Dear Me''
Births
*
February 21
Events Pre-1600
*452 or 453 – Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, is martyred in Palestine.
* 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
*1440 – The Pru ...
–
Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
*
March 4
Events Pre-1600
*AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title '' princeps iuventutis'' (head of the youth).
* 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
* 852 – Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a st ...
–
Dan Wells, American horror and science fiction author
*
May 2
Events Pre-1600
* 1194 – King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
*1230 – William de Braose is hanged by Prince Llywelyn the Great.
* 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprison ...
–
Alessandro D'Avenia, Italian writer
*
August 24 –
John Green
John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...
, American author and YouTube vlogger
*
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.
* ...
–
Laura Wade
Laura Wade is an English playwright.
Early life
Wade was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire. She grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where her father worked for a computer company. After completing her secondary education at Lady Manners School i ...
, English playwright
*
September 5
Events Pre-1600
* 917 – Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu.
*1367 – Swa Saw Ke becomes king of Ava
*1590 – Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry ...
–
Tena Štivičić
Tena Štivičić (; born 1977) is a Croatian playwright and screenwriter. She won the 2014-2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Life
She was born in Zagreb where she studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art. She completed an MA in Writing for Performa ...
, Croatian playwright
*
September 15 –
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She was described in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "the most prominent" of a "procession of criticall ...
, Nigerian novelist
*
November 12 –
Richelle Mead
Richelle Mead (born November 12, 1976) is an American fantasy author. She is known for the '' Georgina Kincaid'' series, '' Vampire Academy'', '' Bloodlines'' and the '' Dark Swan'' series.
Education and career
Richelle Mead was born in Michigan, ...
, American young-adult novelist
Deaths
*
January 14 –
Anaïs Nin, French-Cuban erotic novelist and diarist (born
1903
Events January
* January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
* January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having bee ...
)
*
January 18
Events Pre-1600
* 474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.
* 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
* 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chi ...
–
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer.
Life and career
Born in Nackenheim in Rhenish Hesse, he was ...
, German playwright (born
1896
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers.
* January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
* January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...
)
*
January 26
Events Pre-1600
* 661 – The Rashidun Caliphate is effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last caliph.
*1531 – The 6.4–7.1 Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.
* 1564 – The Council of Tren ...
–
William Glynne-Jones, Welsh novelist and children's writer (born
1907
Events
January
* January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.
February
* February 11 – The French warship ''Jean Bart'' sinks off the coast of Morocco ...
)
*
February 19 –
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book '' The ...
, British author and politician (born
1918)
*
February 27 –
John Dickson Carr, American crime novelist (born
1906
Events
January–February
* January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
)
*
March 4
Events Pre-1600
*AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title '' princeps iuventutis'' (head of the youth).
* 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
* 852 – Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a st ...
**
Andrés Caicedo
Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela (29 September 1951 – 4 March 1977) was a Colombian writer born in Cali, the city where he would spend most of his life. Despite his premature death, his works are considered to be some of the most original produce ...
, Colombian novelist and cinéaste (suicide, born
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
)
**
Alexandru Ivasiuc, Romanian novelist (killed in earthquake, born
1933)
*
March 15
Events Pre-1600
*474 BC – Roman consul Aulus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years' truce.
* 44 BC – The assassination of Julius Caesar takes place.
* 493 – Odo ...
–
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin (24 October 1929 – 15 March 1977) was a Quebec novelist, Activism, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor.
Aquin was born in Montreal and graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1951. From 1951 to 1954, he stu ...
, French Canadian novelist, essayist and political activist (suicide, born
1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
))
*
April 7
Events Pre-1600
* 451 – Attila the Hun captures Metz in France, killing most of its inhabitants and burning the town.
* 529 – First ''Corpus Juris Civilis'', a fundamental work in jurisprudence, is issued by Eastern Roman Empe ...
–
Jim Thompson, American fiction writer (born
1906
Events
January–February
* January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
)
*
April 11
Events Pre-1600
* 491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.
*1241 – Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi.
*1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: Franco-Ferrare ...
–
Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (born
1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
)
*
May 9 –
James Jones, American novelist (heart failure, born
1921)
*
July 2
Events Pre-1600
* 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
* 626 – Li Shimin, t ...
–
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
, Russian/American novelist (born
1899
Events January 1899
* January 1
** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City.
* January 2 –
**Bolivia sets up a c ...
)
*
July 20
Events Pre-1600
* 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
* 792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defea ...
–
Friedrich Georg Jünger, German writer (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 ...
)
*
August 13 –
Henry Williamson
Henry William Williamson (1 December 1895 – 13 August 1977) was an English writer who wrote novels concerned with wildlife, English social history and ruralism. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 for his book ''Tarka ...
, English naturalist and novelist (born
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
)
*
August 20
Events Pre-1600
* AD 14 – Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is mysteriously executed by his guards while in exile.
* 636 – Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take con ...
–
Gurbaksh Singh, Punjabi novelist (born
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...
)
*
August 26
Events Pre-1600
* 683 – Yazid I's army kills 11,000 people of Medina including notable Sahabas in Battle of al-Harrah.
*1071 – The Seljuq Turks defeat the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert, and soon gain control of most ...
–
H. A. Rey
Hans Augusto (H.A.) Rey (né Reyersbach; September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977) was a German-born American illustrator and author, known best for the ''Curious George'' series of children's picture books that he and his wife Margret Rey create ...
, German-born American children's writer and illustrator (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 ...
)
*
September 4
Events Pre-1600
* 476 – Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy", thus ending the Western Roman Empire.
* 626 – Li Shimin, posthumously known as Emperor Taizong of Tang, assumes the throne ove ...
–
E. F. Schumacher, German-born economist (born
1911)
*
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: Jin ...
–
Robert Lowell, American poet (heart attack, born
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Fo ...
)
*
October 27
Events Pre-1600
* 312 – Constantine is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.
* 1275 – Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
* 1524 – French troops lay siege to Pavia.
* 1553 – Condemned as ...
–
James M. Cain, American novelist and newspaperman (born
1892
Events
January–March
* January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States.
* February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado.
* February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...
)
*
November 10
Events Pre-1600
* 474 – Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of ten months. He is succeeded by his father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
* 937 – Ten Kingdoms: Li Bian usurps the throne and deposes Emperor Yang ...
–
Dennis Wheatley, English occult novelist (born
1897
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puni ...
)
*
November 30
**
Miloš Crnjanski, Serbian poet and novelist (born
1893
Events
January–March
* January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.
* Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson.
* January 6 – Th ...
)
**
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...
, English dramatist (bone cancer, born
1911)
*
December 9
Events Pre-1600
* 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flees the capital.
* 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, ...
–
Clarice Lispector, Brazilian novelist (ovarian cancer, born
1920)
*
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 ...
–
Frank Thiess
Frank Thiess (13 March 1890 – 22 December 1977) was a German writer.
Biography
Born in Eluisenstein (now Ogre Municipality), Kreis Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia), Thiess grew up in Berlin. He worked as a journalist f ...
, German novelist (born
1890)
Awards
*
Nobel Prize in Literature:
Vicente Aleixandre
Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...
Canada
*
1977 Governor General's Awards
France
*
Prix Goncourt:
Didier Decoin, ''John l'enfer''
*
Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and . It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."
The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. In 19 ...
French:
Michel Butel, ''L'Autre Amour''
[
*]Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and . It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."
The award goes to a work of fiction in the French language. In 19 ...
International: Héctor Bianciotti, ''Le Traité des saisons'' – Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
[
]
Spain
* Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Alejo Carpentier
United Kingdom
* Booker Prize: Paul Mark Scott, '' Staying On''
* Carnegie Medal for children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
: Gene Kemp, '' The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler''
* Eric Gregory Award: Tony Flynn, Michael Vince, David Cooke, Douglas Marshall, Melissa Murray
*James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
for fiction: John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
, '' The Honourable Schoolboy''
*James Tait Black Memorial Prize
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...
for biography: George Painter
George Duncan Painter OBE (5 June 1914 – 8 December 2005), known as George D. Painter, was an English author most famous as a biographer of Marcel Proust.
Career
Painter was born in Birmingham, England. His father was a schoolmaster, and his mot ...
, '' Chateaubriand: Volume 1 – The Longed-For Tempests''
*Knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
for services to the theatre: Peter HallQueen's Gold Medal for Poetry
The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is awarded for a book of verse published by someone in any of the Commonwealth realms. Originally the award was open only to British subjects living in the United Kingdom, but in 1985 the scope was extended to in ...
: Norman Nicholson
* Whitbread Best Book Award: Beryl Bainbridge, '' Injury Time''
United States
* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for the Novel, 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 w ...
* Nebula Award: Frederik Pohl, '' Gateway''
*Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished cont ...
for children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
: Mildred D. Taylor, '' Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry''
*Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science is given annually by the Phi Beta Kappa Society to authors of significant books in the fields of science and mathematics. The award was first given in 1959 to anthropologist Loren Eiseley.
Award winners
Source ...
: Gerard K. O'Neill, '' The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space''
*Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were a ...
: Michael Cristofer
Michael Cristofer (born January 22, 1945) is an American actor, playwright and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for '' The Shadow Box'' in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip ...
, '' The Shadow Box''
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: ''no award given''
*Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...
: James Merrill, '' Divine Comedies''
*Pulitzer Prize for History
The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...
: David M. Potter: ''The Impending Crisis, 1841-1861'' (Completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher).
* Pulitzer Prize for Biography: John E. Mack: ''A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...
''
Rest of the World
* Miles Franklin Award: Ruth Park
Rosina Ruth Lucia Park AM (24 August 191714 December 2010) was a New Zealand–born Australian author. Her best known works are the novels '' The Harp in the South'' (1948) and ''Playing Beatie Bow'' (1980), and the children's radio serial '' ...
, ''Swords and Crowns and Rings
''Swords and Crowns and Rings'' is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Ruth Park. It mainly follows the stories of two children in a town in rural New South Wales across three decades at the start of the 20th century.
The p ...
''
*Premio Nadal
Premio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino, part of Planeta. It has been awarded every year on 6 January since 1944. The Josep Pla Award for Catalan literature is given at the same ceremo ...
: José Asenjo Sedano, ''Conversación sobre la guerra''
* Viareggio Prize: Davide Lajolo, ''Veder l'erba dalla parte delle radici''
Notes
*
References
{{Year in literature article categories
Years of the 20th century in literature