1942 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1942 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- André GideAndré GideAndré Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
leaves France to live in Tunis. - Robertson DaviesRobertson DaviesWilliam Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...
becomes editor of the Peterborough ExaminerPeterborough ExaminerThe Peterborough Examiner is a newspaper that services Peterborough, Ontario and area. The paper started circulation in 1847, and is currently owned by the Sun Media, division of Quebecor Media. At one time, it was edited by Canadian man of letters Robertson Davies. It is the only daily newspaper...
. - Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
emigrates to California. - James HiltonJames HiltonJames Hilton was an English novelist who wrote several best-sellers, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.-Biography:...
wins an Oscar for the screenplay of Mrs. MiniverMrs. MiniverMrs. Miniver is a fictional character created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns for The Times, later adapted into a movie of the same name.-Origin:...
. - The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
launches influential New York Times Best Seller listNew York Times Best Seller listThe New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
.
New fiction books
- Samuel Hopkins AdamsSamuel Hopkins AdamsSamuel Hopkins Adams was an American writer, best known for his investigative journalism.-Biography:Adams was born in Dunkirk, New York...
- The Harvey GirlsThe Harvey GirlsThe Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main... - Henry BellamannHenry BellamannHeinrich Hauer Bellamann was an American novelist and poet, best known as the author of the novel Kings Row.- Biography :...
- Floods of Spring - Earle BirneyEarle BirneyEarle Alfred Birney, OC, FRSC was a distinguished Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honor, for his poetry.-Life:...
- David - Taylor CaldwellTaylor CaldwellJanet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell was an Anglo-American novelist and prolific author of popular fiction, also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner, and by her married name of J. Miriam Reback....
- The Strong City - Albert CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
- The StrangerThe Stranger (novel)The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
(L'Étranger) - John Dickson CarrJohn Dickson CarrJohn Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn....
- The Emperor's Snuff-BoxThe Emperor's Snuff-BoxThe Emperor's Snuff-Box is a non-series mystery novel by mystery novelist John Dickson Carr. The detective is psychologist Dr. Dermot Kinross....
- The Gilded ManThe Gilded ManThe Gilded Man is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr , who published it under the name of Carter Dickson...
(as by Carter Dickson)
- The Emperor's Snuff-Box
- Joyce CaryJoyce CaryJoyce Cary was an Anglo-Irish novelist and artist.-Youth and education:...
- To Be a PilgrimTo be a Pilgrim"To be a Pilgrim" "To be a Pilgrim" "To be a Pilgrim" (also commonly known as "He who would Valiant be" is the only hymn John Bunyan is credited with writing but is indelibly associated with him. It first appeared in Part 2 of Pilgrim's Progress, written in 1684 while he was serving a twelve-year... - Raymond ChandlerRaymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
- The High WindowThe High WindowThe High Window is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel to feature Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.-Plot introduction:... - Agatha ChristieAgatha ChristieDame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
- The Body in the LibraryThe Body in the LibraryThe Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence...
- Five Little PigsFive Little PigsFive Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of Murder in Retrospect and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943 although some sources state that publication occurred in November 1942...
- The Moving FingerThe Moving FingerThe Moving Finger is detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence...
- The Body in the Library
- Lloyd C. DouglasLloyd C. DouglasLloyd Cassel Douglas born Doya C. Douglas, was an American minister and author.He was born in Columbia City, Indiana, spent part of his boyhood in Monroeville, Indiana, Wilmot, Indiana and Florence, Kentucky, where his father, Alexander Jackson Douglas, was pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church...
- The RobeThe RobeThe Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in October 1942, and four weeks later rose to No. 1. It held the position for nearly a year... - Daphne du MaurierDaphne du MaurierDame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
- Frenchman's Creek - Rachel FieldRachel FieldRachel Lyman Field was an American novelist, poet, and author of children's fiction. She is best known for her Newbery Medal–winning novel for young adults, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, published in 1929. She won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award twice...
- And Now TomorrowAnd Now TomorrowAnd Now Tomorrow is a 1944 film based on the bestselling novel, published in 1942 by Rachel Field, directed by Irving Pichel and written by Raymond Chandler. Both center around one doctor's attempt for curing deafness. The film stars Alan Ladd and Susan Hayward. Its tagline was Who are you that a... - F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
- The Last Tycoon - Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
- Beyond This HorizonBeyond This HorizonBeyond This Horizon is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction and then eventually as a single volume by Fantasy Press in 1948.-Overview:The novel depicts a world where genetic selection for increased health,... - Kalki KrishnamurthyKalki KrishnamurthyKalki was the pen name of R. Krishnamurthy , a noted Tamil writer, film & music critic, Indian independence activist and journalist from Tamil Nadu, India.- Biography:...
- Parthiban KanavuParthiban KanavuParthiban Kanavu is a famous Tamil novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy.-Plot summary:This novel deals with the attempts of the son of Chola king Parthiban, Vikraman, to attain independence from the Pallava ruler, Narasimhavarman.The Cholas remain vassals of the Pallavas... - C. S. LewisC. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
- The Screwtape LettersThe Screwtape LettersThe Screwtape Letters is a satirical Christian apologetics novel written in epistolary style by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in February 1942... - Janette Sebring LowreyJanette Sebring LowreyJanette Sebring Lowry was an American Writer best known for writing The Poky Little Puppy. She wrote dozens of books aimed at children and young adults from the 1930s to the 1970s, but "The Pokey Little Puppy" remains her best known...
- The Poky Little PuppyThe Poky Little PuppyThe Poky Little Puppy is a children's book written by Texas author Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. It was first published in 1942 as one of the first 12 books in the Simon and Schuster series Little Golden Books... - Sándor MáraiSándor MáraiSándor Márai was a Hungarian writer and journalist.-Biography:...
- EmbersEmbers (novel)Embers is a 1942 novel by the Hungarian writer Sándor Márai. Its original Hungarian title is A gyertyák csonkig égnek, which means "Candles burn until the end"... - Beryl MarkhamBeryl MarkhamBeryl Markham was a British-born Kenyan aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west...
- West with the NightWest With the NightWest With the Night is a 1942 memoir by Beryl Markham, chronicling her experiences growing up in Kenya , in the early 1900s, leading to a career as a bush pilot there... - Robert MusilRobert MusilRobert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
- The Man Without QualitiesThe Man Without QualitiesThe Man Without Qualities is an unfinished novel in three books by the Austrian writer Robert Musil.... - Annie Greene Nelson - After The Storm
- Ellery QueenEllery QueenEllery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
- Calamity TownCalamity TownCalamity Town is a novel that was published in 1942 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the fictitious town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:... - Raymond QueneauRaymond QueneauRaymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
- Pierrot mon ami - Clayton RawsonClayton RawsonClayton Rawson was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies...
- No Coffin for the CorpseNo Coffin for the CorpseNo Coffin for the Corpse is a whodunnit mystery novel written by Clayton Rawson.It is the last of four mysteries featuring The Great Merlini, a stage magician and Rawson's favorite protagonist.-Plot summary:... - Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...
- Cross Creek - Nevil ShuteNevil ShuteNevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
- Pied PiperPied Piper (1942 novel)thumb|1st edition cover Pied Piper is a novel by Nevil Shute, first published in 1942. The title is a reference to the traditional German folk tale, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".-Plot summary:... - Curt SiodmakCurt SiodmakCurt Siodmak was a novelist and screenwriter. He made a name for himself in Hollywood with horror and science fiction films, most notably The Wolf Man and Donovan's Brain...
- Donovan's BrainDonovan's BrainDonovan's Brain is a 1942 science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak.The novel has become something of a cult classic, with fans including Stephen King. King discusses the novel in his own book Danse Macabre and the line Cory uses to resist Donovan is repeated to similar effect in King's horror novel,... - Clark Ashton SmithClark Ashton SmithClark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
- Out of Space and TimeOut of Space and TimeOut of Space and Time is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1942 and was the third book published by Arkham House. 1,054 copies were printed.... - Eleanor SmithEleanor SmithLady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was an English writer. The eldest of the politician F. E. Smith's three children, she worked as a society reporter and cinema reviewer for a while, then as a publicist for circus companies...
- CaravanCaravan (novel)Caravan is a melodramatic novel by the British writer Lady Eleanor Smith first published in 1942. A young Englishman Richard Darrell undertakes a mission to Spain for a business friend in order to have enough money to marry his sweetheart Oriana, but his villainous enemy Sir Francis Castleton...
- The Man in GreyThe Man in Grey (novel)The Man in Grey by Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, was first published in 1918. This time Orczy sets the action in post-revolutionary France....
- Caravan
- John SteinbeckJohn SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
- The Moon is DownThe Moon Is DownThe Moon Is Down, a novel by John Steinbeck fashioned for adaption for the theatre and for which Steinbeck received the Norwegian Haakon VII Cross of freedom, was published by Viking Press in March 1942... - Rex StoutRex StoutRex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
- Black OrchidsBlack OrchidsBlack Orchids is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine:... - Phoebe Atwood TaylorPhoebe Atwood TaylorPhoebe Atwood Taylor was an American mystery author.Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote mystery novels under her own name, and as Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton. Her first novel, The Cape Cod Mystery, introduced the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, who became a series character appearing in 24 novels...
- The Six Iron Spiders
- Three Plots for Asey Mayo
- VercorsJean BrullerJean Marcel Bruller was a French writer and illustrator who co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit with Pierre de Lescure and Yvonne Paraf. During the World War II occupation of northern France he joined the Resistance and his texts were published under the pseudonym Vercors.Several of his novels have...
- Le Silence de la merLe Silence de la merLe Silence de la mer is a novel written in early 1942 by Jean Bruller under the pseudonym Vercors. It was published secretly in Nazi-occupied Paris... - Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
- Put Out More FlagsPut Out More FlagsPut Out More Flags, the sixth novel by Evelyn Waugh, was first published by Chapman and Hall in 1942. The novel is set during the first year of the Second World War, and follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and... - Cornell WoolrichCornell WoolrichCornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
- Black Alibi
New drama
- Jean AnouilhJean AnouilhJean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh 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 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
- AntigoneAntigone (Anouilh play)Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name from the fifth century B.C... - Kaj MunkKaj MunkKaj Harald Leininger Munk was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during the Occupation of Denmark of World War II...
- Niels EbbesenNiels EbbesenNiels Ebbesen was a Danish squire and national hero, known for his killing of Count Gerhard III.Little is known of Ebbesen's background. He seems to have belonged to the Jutlandish gentry... - Eugene O'NeillEugene O'NeillEugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
- A Touch of the PoetA Touch of the PoetA Touch of the Poet is a play by Eugene O'Neill.It and its sequel, More Stately Mansions, were intended to be part of a nine-play cycle entitled A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed...
(written)
Non-fiction
- Albert CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
- The Myth of SisyphusThe Myth of SisyphusThe Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....
(Le Mythe de Sisyphe) - Salvador DalíSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
- The Secret Life of Salvador DalíThe Secret Life of Salvador DalíThe Secret Life of Salvador Dalí is an autobiography by the internationally famous artist Salvador Dalí published in 1942 by Dial Press. It covers his family history, his early life, and his early work up through the 1930s, concluding just after Dalí's return to Catholicism and just before the... - Edith HamiltonEdith HamiltonEdith Hamilton was an American educator and author who was "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist". She was sixty-two years old when The Greek Way, her first book, was published in 1930...
- MythologyMythology (book)Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is a book written by Edith Hamilton, published in 1942 by the Penguin Group. [ISBN-0452009855, 9780452009851]. It retells stories of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology drawn from several classical sources... - Aldous HuxleyAldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
- The Art of SeeingThe Art of SeeingThe Art of Seeing is a 1942 book by Aldous Huxley, which details his experience with and views on the controversial Bates method, which Huxley believed improved his eyesight.-Huxley’s own sight:... - C. S. LewisC. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
- A Preface to Paradise LostA Preface to Paradise LostA Preface to Paradise Lost is one of C. S. Lewis's most famous scholarly works. The book had its genesis in Lewis's Ballard Matthews Lectures which he delivered at the University College of North Wales in 1941.... - Elliot PaulElliot PaulElliot Harold Paul , was an American journalist and author.-Biography:Born in Linden, a part of Malden, Massachusetts, Elliot Paul graduated from Malden High School then worked in the U.S...
- The Last Time I Saw ParisThe Last Time I Saw ParisThe Last Time I Saw Paris is a 1954 romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited." It was directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein,... - Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.Adam Clayton Powell, Sr.Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was a pastor who developed Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York as the largest Protestant congregation in the country, with 10,000 members; a community activist, author, and the father of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr....
- Picketing Hell - Antoine de Saint-ExupéryAntoine de Saint-ExupéryAntoine de Saint-Exupéry , officially Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint Exupéry , was a French writer, poet and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of France's highest literary awards, and in 1939 was the winner of the U.S. National Book Award...
- Flight to ArrasFlight to ArrasFlight to Arras is a memoir by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Written in 1942, it recounts his role in the Armée de l'Air as pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940.... - Rebecca WestRebecca WestCicely Isabel Fairfield , known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public...
- Black Lamb and Grey FalconBlack Lamb and Grey FalconBlack Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia is a travel book written by Dame Rebecca West, published in 1941.The book is of exceptional length . It gives an account of Balkan history and ethnography, and the significance of Nazism, structured about West's six week trip to Yugoslavia in...
Births
- January 31 - Derek JarmanDerek JarmanMichael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
, director, writer (d. 1994) - February 1 - Terry JonesTerry JonesTerence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
, comedian and writer - March 2 - John IrvingJohn IrvingJohn Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
, novelist - April 1 - Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
, novelist and critic - April 4 - Kitty KelleyKitty KelleyKitty Kelley is an American journalist and author of several best-selling unauthorized biographies of celebrities and politicians. Her subjects have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and Oprah Winfrey...
, journalist and biographer - April 6 - Barry LevinsonBarry LevinsonBarry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
, screenwriter, director and producer - August 2 - Isabel AllendeIsabel AllendeIsabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...
, novelist - August 7 - Garrison KeillorGarrison KeillorGary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
, Lake Wobegon Days author - October 23 - Michael CrichtonMichael CrichtonJohn Michael Crichton , best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
, author (d. 2008) - October 23 - Douglas DunnDouglas DunnDouglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He currently lives in Scotland.-Background:Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire. He was educated at the Scottish School of Librarianship, and worked as a librarian before he started his studies in Hull...
, poet - December 6 - Peter HandkePeter HandkePeter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright.-Early life:Handke and his mother lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948 before resettling in Griffen...
, Austrian novelist - date unknown - Gladys CardiffGladys CardiffGladys Cardiff is a poet and academic, with interests in Native American, African American and American literature. She is an associate professor at Oakland University....
, poet - date unknown - Craig ThomasCraig Thomas (author)David Craig Owen Thomas was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series.-Background:...
, novelist
Deaths
- April 24 - Lucy Maud MontgomeryLucy Maud MontgomeryLucy Maud Montgomery OBE , called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success...
, Anne of Green Gables novelist - May 26 - Libero BovioLibero BovioLibero Bovio , was a Neapolitan lyricist and dialect poet.Bovio was one of those responsible for the rejuvenation of Neapolitandialect in plays, poetry and song at the beginning of the twentieth...
, Neapolitan dialect poet - June 30 - Léon DaudetLéon DaudetLéon Daudet was a French journalist, writer, an active monarchist, and a member of the Académie Goncourt.-Move to the right:...
, journalist - July 20 - Moses AnnenbergMoses AnnenbergMoses "Moe" Louis Annenberg was an American newspaper publisher, who purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer, the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States. in 1936. The Inquirer has the sixteenth largest average weekday U.S...
, publisher - September 19 - Condé NastCondé Montrose NastCondé Montrose Nast was the founder of Condé Nast Publications, a leading American magazine publisher known for publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.-Background:...
, magazine publisher - September 26 - Oskar KrausOskar KrausOskar Kraus was a Czech philosopher, jurist.-Life:Oskar Kraus, who converted from the Jewish to the Protestant faith, was the son of Hermann Kraus and Clara Reitler-Eidlitz...
, philosopher - October 14 - Cosmo HamiltonCosmo HamiltonCosmo Hamilton , born Henry Charles Hamilton Gibbs, was an English playwright and novelist. He took his mother's maiden name when he began to write. Hamilton was married twice: First to Beryl Faber, née Beryl Crossley Smith, the sister of C...
, dramatist and novelist - October 20 - Friedrich MünzerFriedrich MünzerFriedrich Münzer was a German classical scholar noted for the development of prosopography, particularly for his demonstrations of how family relationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles....
, classical scholar - 23 December - Konstantin Bal'mont, poet
- date unknown - Eleanor Stackhouse AtkinsonEleanor Stackhouse AtkinsonEleanor Stackhouse Atkinson was an American author, journalist and teacher.She was born Eleanor Stackhouse in Rensselaer, Indiana, and later married Francis Blake Atkinson, himself also an author. She taught in schools in both Indianapolis and Chicago...
, Greyfriars Bobby author
Awards
- Carnegie MedalCarnegie MedalThe Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
for children's literature: Denys Watkins-PitchfordDenys Watkins-PitchfordDenys James Watkins-Pitchford MBE was a British naturalist, children's writer, and illustrator who wrote under the pseudonym "BB".-Early life:...
, The Little Grey MenThe Little Grey MenThe Little Grey Men is a children's novel by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, written under the nom de plume “BB” and illustrated by the author. It was first published in 1942 and has been frequently republished. It tells the exploits of four gnomes, named after the flowers Baldmoney, Sneezewort, Dodder... - Frost MedalFrost MedalThe Robert Frost Medal is an award of the Poetry Society of America for "distinguished lifetime service to American poetry." Medalists receive a prize purse of $2,500....
: Edgar Lee MastersEdgar Lee MastersEdgar Lee Masters was an American poet, biographer, and dramatist... - James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction: Arthur WaleyArthur WaleyArthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
, Translation of MonkeyMonkey (book)Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, usually known as simply Monkey, is an abridged translation of the sixteenth century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by poet and novelist Wu Cheng'en, of the Ming dynasty...
by Wu Cheng'enWu Cheng'enWu Cheng'en , courtesy name Ruzhong , pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the attributed author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West.-Biography:Wu was born in Lianshui, in Jiangsu... - James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for biography: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry PonsonbyHenry PonsonbySir Henry Frederick Ponsonby GCB was a British soldier and royal court official who served as Queen Victoria's Private Secretary.-Biography:He was the son of the British Army general, Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby....
: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary - Newbery MedalNewbery MedalThe John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
for children's literatureChildren's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
: Walter D. EdmondsWalter D. EdmondsWalter "Walt" Dumaux Edmonds was an American author noted for his historical novels, including the popular Drums Along the Mohawk , which was successfully made into a Technicolor feature film in 1939 directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert.-Life:In 1919 he entered The...
, The Matchlock GunThe Matchlock GunThe Matchlock Gun is a novel by Walter D. Edmonds that won the Newbery Medal for excellence as the most distinguished contribution to American children's literature in 1942.-Synopsis:... - Nobel Prize for literature: not awarded
- Pulitzer Prize for DramaPulitzer Prize for DramaThe Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
: not awarded - Pulitzer Prize for PoetryPulitzer Prize for PoetryThe Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
: William Rose BenetWilliam Rose BenétWilliam Rose Benét was an American poet, writer, and editor.He was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét....
, The Dust Which Is God - Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Ellen GlasgowEllen GlasgowEllen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.-Biography:...
, In This Our LifeIn This Our Life (novel)thumb|1st edition cover In This Our Life is a 1941 novel by the American writer Ellen Glasgow. The title is a quote from the sonnet sequence Modern Love by George Meredith: "Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul/ When hot for certainties in this our life!" It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel...