1957 in literature

Events

• January 10 – T. S. Eliot marries his secretary Valerie Fletcher, 30 years his junior, in a private church ceremony in London. His first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, died in 1947.
• January 15 – The film Throne of Blood, a reworking of Macbeth by Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明), is released in Japan.
• March – The Cat in the Hat, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel as 'Dr. Seuss' as a more entertaining alternative to traditional literacy primers for children, is first published in a trade edition in the United States, initially selling an average of 12,000 copies a month, a figure which rises rapidly.
• March 13 – A 1950 Japanese translation of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover by Sei Itō (伊藤整) is found on appeal to be obscene.
• March 15 – Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature) is first published in Hungary as a literary magazine.
• March 21 – C. S. Lewis marries Joy Gresham in a Christian ceremony at her bedside in the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England.
• March 25 – Copies of Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems (first published 1 November 1956) printed in England are seized by United States Customs Service officials in San Francisco on grounds of obscenity. On October 3, in People v. Ferlinghetti, a subsequent prosecution of publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the city, the work is ruled not to be obscene.
• April – John Updike moves to Ipswich, Massachusetts, the model for the fictional New England town of Tarbox in his 1968 novel Couples.
• June 2 – Joe Orton submits The Last Days of Sodom, a novel jointly written with Kenneth Halliwell, to a publisher; it is rejected within three days and they give up working in partnership.
• July 1 – The opening performance is held at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival's Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, with its thrust stage designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch.
• July 19 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh is published.
• August 7 – Italo Calvino's letter of resignation from the Italian Communist Party appears in l'Unità.
• October – The first American Beat Generation (poets Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky) stay at the "Beat Hotel" (Hotel Rachou) in Paris.
• November 22 – Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago is first published, in Italian translation, by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan, having been rejected for publication in the Soviet Union.
• unknown dates
  • Justine, the first novel in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, is published. The last will be published in 1960.
  • Dorothy Parker begins writing book reviews for Esquire.
  • E. E. Cummings gains a special citation from the National Book Award Committee in the United States for his Poems, 1923–1954.
  • Malcolm Muggeridge is replaced by Bernard Hollowood as editor of the British Punch magazine.
  • The Harry Ransom Center for research in the humanities is founded in the University of Texas at Austin by Harry Ransom.
  • John Sandoe opens a bookshop in Chelsea, London.
  • Noh is inscribed as an Intangible Cultural Property (Japan).
  • Three neo-Grotesque sans-serif typefaces are released: Folio (designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum), Neue Haas Grotesk (Max Miedinger) and Univers (Adrian Frutiger), will influence the International Typographic Style of graphic design.

New books

Fiction

• Caridad Bravo Adams – Corazón salvaje
• James Agee – A Death in the Family
• Lars Ahlin – Natt i marknadstältet (Night in the Market Tent)
• Isaac Asimov
  • Earth Is Room Enough
  • The Naked Sun
• John Bingham – Murder Off the Record
• Ray Bradbury – Dandelion Wine
• John Braine – Room at the Top
• Fredric Brown – Rogue in Space
• Pearl S. Buck – Letter from Peking
• Michel Butor – La Modification
• John Dickson Carr – Fire, Burn!
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Castle to Castle (D'un château l'autre)
• John Cheever – The Wapshot Chronicle
• Agatha Christie – 4.50 from Paddington
• Mark Clifton and Frank Riley – They'd Rather Be Right
• Ivy Compton-Burnett – A Father and His Fate
• Thomas B. Costain – Below the Salt
• James Gould Cozzens – By Love Possessed
• L. Sprague de Camp – Solomon's Stone
• Freeman Wills Crofts – Anything to Declare?
• Cecil Day-Lewis – End of Chapter
• Daphne du Maurier – The Scapegoat
• Lawrence Durrell – Justine
• Shusaku Endo (遠藤 周作) – The Sea and Poison (海と毒薬)
• Ian Fleming
  • The Diamond Smugglers
  • From Russia, with Love
• Janet Frame – Owls Do Cry
• Sarah Gainham
  • The Cold Dark Night
  • The Mythmaker
• Jean Giono – The Straw Man (Le Bonheur fou)
• José Giovanni – The Break (Le Trou)
• Martyn Goff – The Plaster Fabric
• Richard Gordon – Doctor in Love
• Winston Graham – Greek Fire
• L.P. Hartley – The Hireling
• Bill Hopkins – The Divine and the Decay
• Aldous Huxley – Collected Short Stories
• James Jones – Some Came Running
• Anna Kavan – Eagle's Nest
• Jack Kerouac – On the Road
• Frances Parkinson Keyes – Blue Camellia
• Christopher Landon – Ice Cold in Alex
• Halldór Laxness – The Fish Can Sing (Brekkukotsannáll)
• Chin Yang Lee – The Flower Drum Song
• Meyer Levin – Compulsion
• H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth – The Survivor and Others
• John D. MacDonald – The Executioners
• Compton Mackenzie – Rockets Galore
• Józef Mackiewicz – Kontra
• Alistair MacLean
  • The Guns of Navarone
  • South by Java Head
• Naguib Mahfouz – Sugar Street
• Bernard Malamud – The Assistant
• Richard Mason – The World of Suzie Wong
• James A. Michener – Rascals in Paradise
• Gladys Mitchell – The Twenty-Third Man
• Nancy Mitford – Voltaire in Love
• C. L. Moore – Doomsday Morning
• Elsa Morante – L'isola di Arturo
• Sławomir Mrożek – Słoń (The Elephant, short stories)
• Iris Murdoch – The Sandcastle
• Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
• Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp – The Return of Conan
• Marcel Pagnol – Le Château de ma mère
• Boris Pasternak – Doctor Zhivago
• Anthony Powell – At Lady Molly's
• Maurice Procter – The Midnight Plumber
• Qu Bo (曲波) – Tracks in the Snowy Forest (林海雪原)
• Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged
• Robert Randall (pseudonym of Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett) – The Shrouded Planet
• Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Jalousie
• Douglas Rutherford – The Long Echo
• Nevil Shute – On the Beach
• Robert Paul Smith – Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing
• Muriel Spark – The Comforters
• Howard Spring – Time and the Hour
• John Steinbeck – The Short Reign of Pippin IV
• Rex Stout
  • Three for the Chair
  • If Death Ever Slept
• Julian Symons – The Colour of Murder
• Elizabeth Taylor – Angel
• Kay Thompson – Eloise in Paris
• Roger Vailland – La Loi
• Jack Vance – Big Planet
• Arved Viirlaid – Seitse kohtupäeva (Seven Days of Trial)
• Henry Wade – The Litmore Snatch
• Evelyn Waugh – The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
• Patrick White – Voss
• Angus Wilson – A Bit Off the Map
• John Wyndham – The Midwich Cuckoos
• Ivan Yefremov – Andromeda Nebula
• Frank Yerby – Fairoaks

Children and young people

• Mabel Esther Allan – Ballet for Drina
• Gillian Avery – The Warden's Niece
• Rev. W. Awdry – The Eight Famous Engines (twelfth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
• Narain Dixit – Khar Khar Mahadev (serialized)
• Aileen Fisher – A Lantern in the Window
• Edward Gorey – The Doubtful Guest
• Éva Janikovszky – Csip-csup (Piffling)
• Tove Jansson – Moominland Midwinter (Trollvinter)
• Harold Keith – Rifles for Watie
• Elinor Lyon – Daughters of Aradale
• William Mayne – A Grass Rope
• Otfried Preußler – Die kleine Hexe (The Little Witch)
• Dr. Seuss
  • The Cat in the Hat
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
• Pat Smythe – Jacqueline Rides for a Fall (first of the Three Jays series of seven books)
• Elizabeth George Speare – Calico Captive
• Tomi Ungerer – The Mellops Go Flying
• Dare Wright – The Lonely Doll

Drama

• Samuel Beckett – Endgame and Act Without Words I (first performed); All That Fall and From an Abandoned Work (first broadcast of both)
• Emilio Carballido – El censo
• William Douglas Home – The Iron Duchess
• Christopher Fry – The Dark is Light Enough
• Jean Genet – The Balcony (Le Balcon)
• Günter Grass – Flood (Hochwasser)
• Graham Greene – The Potting Shed
• Michael Clayton Hutton – Silver Wedding
• William Inge – The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
• Errol John – Moon on a Rainbow Shawl
• Bernard Kops – The Hamlet of Stepney Green
• John Osborne
  • The Entertainer
  • Epitaph for George Dillon
• Harold Pinter – The Dumb Waiter (written)
• N. F. Simpson – A Resounding Tinkle
• Wole Soyinka – The Invention
• Boris Vian – Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (The Empire Builders)
• Tennessee Williams
  • Baby Doll
  • Orpheus Descending

Poetry

• Robert E. Howard – Always Comes Evening
• Ted Hughes – The Hawk in the Rain
• Pier Paolo Pasolini – Le ceneri di Gramsci
• Octavio Paz – Piedra de Sol
• Jibanananda Das – Rupasi Bangla
• Robert Penn Warren – Promises: Poems, 1954–1956. Won National Book Award for Poetry – Won 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Non-fiction

• Abdelmajid Benjelloun – Fī l-Ṭufūla
• B. R. Ambedkar (died 1956) – The Buddha and His Dhamma
• G. E. M. Anscombe – Intention
• Catherine Drinker Bowen – The Lion and the Throne: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634). Wins 1958 National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Gerald Brenan – South from Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village
• M. Đilas – The New Class
• Will Durant – The Reformation. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Elisabeth Elliot – Through Gates of Splendor
• Charles Evans – Kangchenjunga: The Untrodden Peak
• Douglas Southall Freeman – George Washington: A Biography. Wins 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Northrop Frye – Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays
• Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd – Plats du jour, illustrated by David Gentleman
• Louis M. Hacker – Alexander Hamilton in the American. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Bray Hammond – Banks and Politics in America. Won 1958 Pulitzer Prize for History
• Gilbert Highet – Poets in a Landscape. Nominated for 1958 National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Richard Hoggart – The Uses of Literacy
• Eric John Holmyard – Alchemy
• Stuart Holroyd – Emergence from Chaos
• Ernst Kantorowicz – The King's Two Bodies
• Henry Kissinger – Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Primo Levi – If This Is a Man (Se Questo è un Uomo)
• Art Linkletter – Kids Say the Darndest Things
• Christopher Lloyd – The Mixed Border
• Mary McCarthy – Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Tom Maschler (ed.) – Declaration (anthology)
• Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley – The Untouchables
• Iris Origo – The Merchant of Prato (life and commercial career of Francesco di Marco Datini)
• Walt Whitman Rostow & Max F. Milliken – A Proposal: Key to an Effective Foreign Policy. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Jean-Paul Sartre – Search for a Method (Questions de méthode)
• David Schoenbrun – As France Goes. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
• Rodolfo Walsh – Operación Masacre
• Ian Watt – The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding
• Alan Watts – The Way of Zen
• K. A. Wittfogel – Oriental Despotism

Births

• January 7 – Nicholson Baker, American novelist
• January 16 – Stella Tillyard, English writer and historian
• January 22 – Francis Wheen, English journalist and author
• January 27 – Frank Miller, American comic-book cartoonist and scriptwriter
• February 11 – Mitchell Symons, English writer and journalist
• February 15 – Shahriar Mandanipour, Iranian writer
• March 3 – Nicholas Shakespeare, English novelist and biographer
• March 7 – Robert Harris, English novelist and current-affairs writer
• March 20 – John Grogan, American journalist and non-fiction writer
• March 23 – Ananda Devi, Mauritian francophone fiction writer and poet
• March 26 – Paul Morley, English music journalist
• March 29 – Elizabeth Hand, American science fiction and fantasy writer
• April 3
  • Rainer Karlsch, German historian
  • Unni Lindell, Norwegian novelist
• May 13 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese author and screenwriter
• May 17 – Peter Høeg, Danish novelist
• May 23 – Craig Brown, English satirist
• June 8 – Scott Adams, American satirist (died 2026)
• July 12 – Pino Quartullo, Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright
• July 14 – Andrew Nicholls, English-born Canadian screenwriter
• July 29 – Liam Davison, Australian novelist (died 2014 in air crash)
• August 24 – Stephen Fry, English comedy performer, broadcast presenter and writer
• August 25 – Simon McBurney, British actor, writer and theatre director
• September 11 - James McBride, American writer and musician
• September 22 – Nick Cave, Australian author and musician
• October 9 – Herman Brusselmans, Belgian novelist, poet, playwright and columnist
• October 28 - Catherine Fisher, British poet and children's writer
• December 3 – Anne B. Ragde, Norwegian novelist
• December 11 – William Joyce, American children's author
• December 12 – Robert Lepage, Canadian playwright
• unknown dates
  • Peter Armstrong, English poet and psychotherapist
  • John Doyle, Irish-born Canadian critic
  • Ana Santos Aramburo, Spanish national librarian
  • Melanie Rae Thon, American author

Deaths

• January 10 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (born 1889)
• January 13 – A. E. Coppard, English short story writer and poet (born 1878)
• January 19 – Barbu Lăzăreanu, Romanian literary historian, poet, and communist journalist (heart attack, born 1881)
• February 10 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (born 1867)
• March 7 – Wyndham Lewis, British novelist (born 1882)
• March 9 – Rhoda Power, English children's writer and broadcaster (born 1890)
• March 12 – John Middleton Murry, English critic (born 1889)
• March 28 – Christopher Morley, American journalist, novelist and poet (born 1890)
• March 29 – Joyce Cary, Irish novelist (born 1888)
• April 22 – Roy Campbell, South African poet and satirist (born 1901)
• June 17
  • May Edginton, English popular novelist (born 1883)
  • Dorothy Richardson, English novelist and journalist (born 1873)
• June 26
  • Alfred Döblin, German novelist (born 1878)
  • Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (born 1909)
• July 10
  • Sholem Asch, Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist and essayist (born 1880)
  • Julia Boynton Green, American author and poet (born 1861)
• July 19 – Curzio Malaparte, Italian novelist, playwright, and journalist (cancer, born 1898)
• July 21 – Kenneth Roberts, American historical novelist (born 1885)
• July 23 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian novelist (born 1896)
• July 24 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born French playwright, actor and director (b. 1885)
• August 1 – Rose Fyleman, English writer and poet (born 1877)
• August 21 – Mait Metsanurk, Estonian writer (born 1879)
• August 25 – Leo Perutz, Austrian-born novelist and mathematician (born 1882)
• September 2 – William Craigie, Scottish lexicographer (born 1867)
• September 12 – José Lins do Rego, Brazilian novelist (born 1901)
• September 22 – Oliver St. John Gogarty, Irish poet and memoirist (born 1878)
• October 25 – Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (born 1878)
• October 26 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek novelist (born 1883)
• November 8 – Ernest Elmore (John Bude), English crime writer and theatre director (born 1901)
• November 24 – Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, English historian and political scientist (born 1879)
• December 15 – Mulshankar Mulani, Gujarati playwright (born 1867)
• December 17 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English crime novelist (born 1893)
• December 24 – Arturo Barea, Spanish journalist, broadcaster and writer (born 1897)
• December 25 – Stanley Vestal, American writer, poet and historian (born 1877)

Awards

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: William Mayne, A Grass Rope
• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Thornton Wilder
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Maurice Cranston, Life of John Locke
• Miles Franklin Award: Patrick White, Voss
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Virginia Sorenson, Miracles on Maple Hill
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Albert Camus
• Premio Nadal: Carmen Martín Gaite, Entre visillos
• Prix Goncourt: Roger Vailland, La Loi
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: Things of This World
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Siegfried Sassoon

Notes

References

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