1952 in literature


This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1952.

Events

Uncertain dates

Fiction


  • Rodney Ackland – The Pink Room
  • Jean Anouilh
  • *The Lark
  • *The Waltz of the Toreadors
  • Jacinto Benavente –
  • Alice Childress – Gold Through the Trees
  • Noël Coward – Quadrille
  • Constance Cox – Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
  • Robertson Davies – A Masque of Aesop
  • Henry de Montherlant – La Ville dont le prince est un enfant
  • Friedrich Dürrenmatt – The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi
  • Charles Langbridge Morgan – The River Line
  • J.B. Priestley and Jacquetta Hawkes – Dragon's Mouth
  • Terence Rattigan – The Deep Blue Sea
  • Dodie Smith – Letter from Paris
  • Ben Travers – Wild Horses
  • John Van Druten – I've Got Sixpence

    Poetry

  • Paul Celan – Poppy and Memory
  • David Jones – The Anathemata: fragments of an attempted writing
  • Gabriela Mistral – Los sonetos de la muerte y otros poemas elegíacos
  • Sean O Riordain – Eireaball Spideoige

    Non-fiction

  • Roland Bainton – The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century
  • L. Sprague de Camp and Willy Ley – Lands Beyond
  • Dorothy Day – The Long Loneliness
  • Lawrence Gowing – Vermeer
  • Heinrich Harrer – Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama
  • Aldous Huxley
  • *The Devils of Loudun
  • *Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
  • Maurice Nicoll – Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky
  • Norman Vincent Peale – The Power of Positive Thinking
  • Gwen Raverat – Period Piece
  • P. R. Reid – The Colditz Story
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – Saint Genet, comédien et martyr
  • Pierre Schaeffer – In Search of a Concrete Music
  • F. Sherwood Taylor – The Alchemists
  • Paul Tillich – Courage To Be
  • Immanuel Velikovsky – Ages in Chaos
  • J. M. Wallace-Hadrill – The Barbarian West, 400–1000
  • Raymond Williams – Drama from Ibsen to Eliot

    Births

  • January 4 – Michele Wallace, American feminist author
  • January 12 – Walter Mosley, American novelist
  • January 21 – Louis Menand, American author and academic
  • February 10 – Gail Rebuck, English publisher
  • February 19
  • *Ryū Murakami, Japanese novelist, essayist and filmmaker
  • *Amy Tan, American novelist
  • February 29 – Tim Powers, American fantasy author
  • March 5 – Robin Hobb, American fantasy author
  • March 7 – William Boyd, Gold Coast-born Scottish novelist and screenwriter
  • March 11 – Douglas Adams, English science fiction author
  • March 13 – Ágnes Rapai, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
  • March 26 – T. A. Barron, American novelist
  • May 5 – Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Nigerian author and poet
  • June 7 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate
  • June 20
  • *Vince Gotera, American poet and critic
  • *Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
  • June 29 – Breece D'J Pancake, American short story writer
  • July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, Indian-born Canadian novelist
  • July 10 – Candice F. Ransom, American children's and young adult author
  • July 18 – Per Petterson, Norwegian novelist
  • August 28 – Rita Dove, American poet
  • October 18 – Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese author
  • November 15 – Rick Atkinson, American journalist, historian and author
  • November 21 – Pedro Lemebel, Chilean novelist
  • December 19 – Sean O'Brien, English poet
  • December 22 – Mick Inkpen, English children's writer and illustrator
Uncertain dates
  • Hoda Barakat, Lebanese novelist
  • Menna Elfyn, Welsh poet and playwright writing in Welsh

    Deaths

  • January 22 – Roger Vitrac, French poet and dramatist
  • January 26 – Lodewijk van Deyssel, Dutch novelist
  • February 7 – Norman Douglas, Austrian-born Scottish novelist
  • February 13 – Josephine Tey, Scottish crime novelist
  • February 19 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureate
  • March 1
  • *Mariano Azuela, Mexican novelist, dramatist and critic
  • *Masao Kume, Japanese playwright, novelist and haiku poet
  • March 27 – Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Romanian short story writer and politician
  • April 1 – Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian dramatist and novelist
  • May 17 – Paul Bujor, Romanian politician, zoologist and short story writer
  • May 26 – Eugene Jolas, American/French writer, literary translator and critic
  • June 1 – John Dewey, American philosopher and psychologist
  • July 1 – A. S. W. Rosenbach, American book collector
  • July 8 – August Alle, Estonian writer
  • August 9 – Jeffery Farnol, English historical novelist
  • August 22 – H. J. Massingham, English countryside writer
  • September 26 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist writing in English
  • October 4 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist
  • October 6 – Teffi, Russian humorist
  • November 3 – Louis Verneuil, French playwright
  • November 4 – Gilbert Frankau, English novelist
  • November 13 – Margaret Wise Brown, American children's author
  • November 16 – Charles Maurras, French poet and critic
  • November 18 – Paul Éluard, French surrealist poet
  • November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet
  • December 6 – Cicely Hamilton, English dramatist and suffragist

    Awards

  • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mary Norton, The Borrowers
  • Frost Medal: Carl Sandburg
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Evelyn Waugh, Men at Arms
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin
  • National Book Award: James Jones, From Here to Eternity.
  • Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Estes, Ginger Pye
  • Newdigate prize: Donald Hall
  • Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac
  • Premio Nadal: María Medio Estrada, Nosotros, los Rivero
  • Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
  • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
  • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
  • King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Andrew Young
  • National Book Award for Fiction: James Jones – From Here to Eternity