1956 in literature
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1956.
Events
- c. January – The first book in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct police procedural series, Cop Hater, is published in the United States under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym.
- February 2 – Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night receives a posthumous world première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in Swedish, directed by Bengt Ekerot and starring Lars Hanson. Its Broadway debut at the Helen Hayes Theatre on November 7 follows an American première at the Shubert Theatre.
- February 25 – The English poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath meet in Cambridge, England.
- March 11 – The U.S. release of Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III plays simultaneously on NBC 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 – The widowed English author Aldous Huxley marries the Italian-American film-maker and author Laura Archera at a drive-in wedding chapel in Yuma, Arizona.
- April 23 – The British author C. S. Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham have a civil marriage at Oxford register office.
- May 8 – The first performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger is given by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The press release describes Osborne as one of the angry young men of the time, a phrase used on July 26 in a Daily Express headline.
- June 16 – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at St George the Martyr, Holborn in the London Borough of Camden.
- June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
- June 26 and August 23 – Books published by the discredited psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich are burned in the United States under a court injunction.
- June – Nineteen-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested as an accessory to robbery.
- June 29 – Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe in White Plains, New York.
- July – After pleas by Israeli diplomats, the Romanian communist regime releases A. L. Zissu, formally sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954. Zissu emigrates to Israel, where he dies on September 6.
- July 4 – The National Library of Scotland's first purpose-built premises open in Edinburgh.
- July 8 – The drama series Armchair Theatre, produced by ABC Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom, begins a twelve-year run.
- August 14 – Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley at Oxford register office.
- September 14 – Harold Pinter marries Vivien Merchant in a civil ceremony at Bournemouth, after they meet while touring in repertory theatre.
- October – The Ladder becomes the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the United States.
- November 1 – Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems, a signal work of the Beat Generation, is published by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
- December
- *J. G. Ballard's first professional publications, the science fiction short stories "Escapement" and "Prima Belladonna", appear in this month's issues of New Worlds and Science Fantasy respectively.
- *Martin Gardner begins his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.
- December 3 – Writing as Emile Ajar, the author Romain Gary becomes the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice, this time for Les Racines du ciel.
- Finished in 1952, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, is first published.
- Sixteen-year-old Michael Moorcock becomes editor of Tarzan Adventures.
- Jorge Luis Borges becomes a professor of English and American literature at the University of Buenos Aires.
New books
Fiction
- Nelson Algren – A Walk on the Wild Side
- Kingsley Amis – That Uncertain Feeling
- Poul Anderson – Planet of No Return
- Isaac Asimov – The Naked Sun
- James Baldwin – Giovanni's Room
- Sybille Bedford – A Legacy
- Saul Bellow – Seize the Day
- Pierre Berton – The Mysterious North
- Alfred Bester – The Stars My Destination
- W. E. Bowman – The Ascent of Rum Doodle
- Pearl S. Buck – Imperial Woman
- Anthony Burgess – Time for a Tiger
- Albert Camus – The Fall
- John Dickson Carr
- *Patrick Butler for the Defense
- *Fear is the Same
- Agatha Christie – Dead Man's Folly
- Arthur C. Clarke – The City and the Stars
- A. J. Cronin
- *A Thing of Beauty
- *Crusader's Tomb
- Antonio di Benedetto – Zama
- Nh. Dini – Dua Dunia
- Philip K. Dick
- *The Man Who Japed
- *The Minority Report
- Gordon R. Dickson
- *Alien From Arcturus
- *Mankind on the Run
- Alfred Döblin – Tales of a Long Night
- Friedrich Dürrenmatt – A Dangerous Game
- Ian Fleming – Diamonds Are Forever
- Naomi Frankel – Shaul ve-Yohannah
- Romain Gary – Les Racines du ciel
- William Golding – Pincher Martin
- Winston Graham – The Sleeping Partner
- Henri René Guieu – Les Monstres du Néant
- Mark Harris – Bang the Drum Slowly
- Frank Herbert – The Dragon in the Sea
- Georgette Heyer – Sprig Muslin
- Kathryn Hulme – The Nun's Story
- James Kennaway – Tunes of Glory
- Feri Lainšček – Petelinji zajtrk
- C. S. Lewis –
- Rose Macaulay – The Towers of Trebizond
- Compton Mackenzie – Thin Ice
- Ed McBain – Cop Hater
- Naguib Mahfouz – Palace Walk
- Grace Metalious – Peyton Place
- Yukio Mishima – The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
- Nicholas Monsarrat – The Tribe that Lost its Head
- Farley Mowat – Lost in the Barrens
- Agnar Mykle – The Song of the Red Ruby
- Edwin O'Connor – The Last Hurrah
- Pier Paolo Pasolini – Ragazzi di vita
- Mervyn Peake – Boy in Darkness
- Mary Renault – The Last of the Wine
- Kenneth Roberts – Boon Island
- João Guimarães Rosa – The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
- Françoise Sagan – A Certain Smile
- Samuel Selvon – The Lonely Londoners
- Irwin Shaw – Lucy Crown
- Georges Simenon – The Little Man from Archangel
- Khushwant Singh – Train to Pakistan
- Rex Stout
- *Might as Well Be Dead
- *Three Witnesses
- A. E. van Vogt – The Wizard of Linn
- Heimito von Doderer – Die Dämonen: Nach der Chronik des Sektionsrates Geyrenhoff
- Angus Wilson – Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
- P. G. Wodehouse – French Leave
- Kateb Yacine – Nedjma
- Eiji Yoshikawa – The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War
Children and young people
- Polly Cameron – The Cat Who Thought He Was a Tiger
- Fred Gipson – Old Yeller
- Rumer Godden – The Fairy Doll
- C. S. Lewis – The Last Battle
- Alf Prøysen – Little Old Mrs Pepperpot
- Maurice Sendak – Kenny's Window
- Ian Serraillier – The Silver Sword
- Dodie Smith – The Hundred and One Dalmatians
- Eve Titus – Anatole
Drama
- Jean Anouilh – Pauvre Bitos, ou Le dîner de têtes
- Ferdinand Bruckner – The Fight with the Angel
- José Manuel Castañón – Moletú-Volevá
- Friedrich Dürrenmatt – The Visit
- Max Frisch – Philipp Hotz's Fury
- Hugh Leonard – The Birthday Party
- Saunders Lewis – Siwan
- Bruce Mason – The Pohutukawa Tree
- Ronald Millar – The Bride and the Bachelor
- Arthur Miller – A View from the Bridge
- Yukio Mishima – Rokumeikan
- Heiner Müller and Inge Müller – Der Lohndrücker
- Eugene O'Neill – Long Day's Journey into Night
- John Osborne – Look Back in Anger
- Arnold Wesker – Chicken Soup with Barley
Poetry
Non-fiction
Births
- James Aboud, Trinidad poet and judge
- James Belich, New Zealand historian
- Percival Everett, American writer and novelist
- Amy Gerstler, American poet
- Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist
Deaths
- January 13 – Wickham Steed, English journalist, editor and historian
- January 14 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English novelist
- January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and English language scholar
- January 31 – A. A. Milne, English children's author, novelist and dramatist
- March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English novelist and inventor of the clerihew
- May 15 – Arthur Talmage Abernethy, American theologian and poet
- May 20 – Max Beerbohm, English humorist
- May 22 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist
- June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet
- June 24 – Nicos Nicolaides, Greek writer
- July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet and novelist
- August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German dramatist
- September 6
- *Michael Ventris, English linguistic scholar
- *A. L. Zissu, Romanian novelist and Zionist leader
- October 30 – Pío Baroja, Spanish novelist
- December 6 - Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution of India
- December 13 – Arthur Grimble, Hong Kong-born English travel writer
- December 25 – Robert Walser, Swiss novelist and poet writing in German
Awards
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
- Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis : Roger Duvoisin and Louise Fatio, Happy Lion ; Astrid Lindgren, Mio, My Son; and Kurt Lütgen, Kein Winter für Wölfe
- Duff Cooper Prize: Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw
- 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
- Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary for The Roots of Heaven
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: MacKinlay Kantor – Andersonville
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems – North & South
- Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden