1935 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1935.

Events

January – The first published portions of Yasunari Kawabata's novel Snow Country appear as standalone stories in Japan.
January 6 – Clifford Odets becomes the first Method-trained playwright with his first produced play, the one-act Waiting for Lefty at the former Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City. This is followed by the equally political Awake and Sing! premiered on February 19 at the city's Belasco Theatre; Till the Day I Die on March 26 at the Longacre Theatre; and Paradise Lost opening on December 9 at the same location.
March 20 – The London publisher Boriswood pleads guilty and is fined in Manchester's Assize Court for publishing an "obscene" book, a 1934 cheap edition of James Hanley's 1931 novel Boy.
May 13 – T. E. Lawrence, having left the British Royal Air Force in March, has an accident with his Brough Superior motorcycle while returning to his cottage at Clouds Hill, England, after posting books to a friend, A. E. "Jock" Chambers, and sending a telegram inviting the novelist Henry Williamson to lunch. He dies six days later. On July 29 his Seven Pillars of Wisdom is first published in an edition for general circulation.
June 15
*British poet W. H. Auden contracts a marriage of convenience with exiled German anti-Nazi actress and writer Erika Mann, homosexual like him.
*T. S. Eliot's verse drama Murder in the Cathedral is premièred at Canterbury Cathedral, the setting for the action of the play.
July 30 – Allen Lane founds Penguin Books, as the first mass-market paperbacks in Britain.
August – Open-air reading room established by New York Public Library in Bryant Park.
August 27 – The Federal Theatre Project is established in the United States.
September 5 – Michael Joseph is founded as a publisher in London.
November 2 – The Scottish-born thriller writer John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, is sworn in as Governor General of Canada.
November 7 – The British and Foreign Blind Association introduces a library of talking books for the visually impaired.
November 26 – Scrooge, the first feature-length talking film version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol is released in Britain. Sir Seymour Hicks reprises the title rôle, which he has performed for decades on stage.
unknown dates
*The library journal Die Bucherei in Nazi Germany publishes guidelines for books to be removed from library shelves and destroyed: all those by Jewish authors, Marxist and pacifist literature, and anything critical of the state.
*The first published edition of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom , written in 1785, in a scholarly edition as a literary text, is completed.
*Fredric Warburg and Roger Senhouse retrieve the London publishers Martin Secker from receivership, as Secker & Warburg.

New books

Non-fiction

Julian Bell, ed. – We Did Not Fight: 1914–18 Experiences of War Resisters
M. C. Bradbrook – Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy
William Henry Chamberlin – Russia's Iron Age
Manuel Chaves Nogales – Juan Belmonte, matador de toros: su vida y sus hazañas
George Dangerfield – The Strange Death of Liberal England
Clarence Day – Life with Father
Dion Fortune – The Mystical Qabalah
Ernest Hemingway – Green Hills of Africa
Jack Hilton – Caliban Shrieks
Anne Morrow Lindbergh – North to the Orient
Merkantilt biografisk leksikon
Polish Biographical Dictionary
Iris Origo – Allegra
Caroline Spurgeon – Shakespeare's Imagery, and what it tells us
Nigel Tranter – The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland 1400–1650
J. Dover Wilson – What Happens in Hamlet
Thomas Wright – ''The Life of Charles Dickens''

Births

January 2 – David McKee, English children's writer and illustrator
January 8 – Lewis H. Lapham, American publisher, founder of Lapham's Quarterly
January 14 – Labhshankar Thakar, Indian Gujarati language poet, playwright and story writer
January 15 – Robert Silverberg, American Science fiction writer
January 18 – Jon Stallworthy, English poet and literary critic
January 27 – D. M. Thomas, English novelist, poet and translator
January 28
*David Lodge, English novelist and academic
*Hermann Peter Piwitt, German writer
January 30 – Richard Brautigan, American writer and poet
January 31 – Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese novelist and essayist
February 18 – Janette Oke, Canadian author
February 22 – Danilo Kiš, Serbian novelist
February 23 – Tom Murphy, Irish playwright
March 4 – Stanisław Moskal, Polish scientist and writer
March 13
*Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian poet and writer
*David Nobbs, English comedy writer
March 23 – Barry Cryer, English comedy writer and performer
March 27 – Abelardo Castillo, Argentinian writer
March 31 – Judith Rossner, American novelist
April 4
*Trevor Griffiths, English playwright and screenwriter
*Michael Horovitz, German-born English poet and translator
April 6 – John Pepper Clark, Nigerian poet and playwright
April 14 – Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer on paranormal
April 15 – Alan Plater, English playwright and screenwriter
April 25 – Li Ao, Chinese-Taiwanese writer, social commentator, historian and independent politician
April 26 – Patricia Reilly Giff, American author and educator
May 1 – Julian Mitchell, English playwright and screenwriter
May 2 – Lynda Lee-Potter, English columnist
May 9 – Roger Hargreaves, English children's author and illustrator
May 29 – André Brink, South African novelist
June 2 – Carol Shields, American-born writer
June 4 – Shiao Yi, Taiwanese-American wuxia novelist
June 7 – Harry Crews, American author and playwright
June 24 – Pete Hamill, American journalist and author
June 25
*Corinne Chevallier, Algerian historian and novelist
*Larry Kramer, American playwright, author, film producer and LGBT activist.
*Fran Ross, African-American satirist
June 30 – Peter Achinstein, American philosopher
July 11 – Günther von Lojewski, German journalist, television presenter and author
July 13 – Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian novelist and playwright
August 1 – Mohinder Pratap Chand, Urdu poet, writer and language advocate
August 15 – Régine Deforges, French dramatist, novelist and publisher
August 21 – Yuri Entin, Soviet and Russian poet, lyricist and playwright
August 22 – E. Annie Proulx, American novelist
September 5 – Ward Just, American novelist
September 10 – Mary Oliver, American poet
September 16 – Esther Vilar, German-Argentinian writer
September 17 – Ken Kesey, American novelist
October 7 – Thomas Keneally, Australian novelist and non-fiction writer
November 1 – Edward Said, Palestinian-American literary critic
November 7
*Elvira Quintana, Spanish-Mexican actress, singer, and poet
*Willibrordus S. Rendra, Indonesian dramatist, poet, activist, performer, actor and director
November 9 – Jerry Hopkins, American journalist and biographer
November 18
*Sam Abrams, American poet
*Rodney Hall, Australian author and poet
November 22 – Hugh C. Rae, Scottish novelist
December 5 – Yevgeny Titarenko, Soviet writer
December 10 – Shūji Terayama, Japanese avant-garde writer, film director and photographer
December 13
*Eyvindur P. Eiríksson, Icelandic poet and novelist
*Adélia Prado, Brazilian writer and poet
unknown date – Bahaa Taher, Egyptian writer

Deaths

February 7 – Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish novelist
February 13
*Ioan Bianu, Romanian librarian, bibliographer and linguist
*Vernon Lee, born Violet Paget, expatriate English writer
February 28 – Tsubouchi Shōyō, Japanese writer
April 6 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet
April 11 – Anna Katharine Green, American crime writer
April 16 – Panait Istrati, Romanian novelist, short story writer and political essayist
May 19 – T. E. Lawrence, English historian and memoirist
June 29 – Hayashi Fubo, Japanese novelist
July 17 – George William Russell, Irish nationalist, poet and artist
August 11 – Sir William Watson, English poet
August 17 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American novelist
August 30 – Henri Barbusse, French novelist and journalist
September 26 – Iván Persa, Hungarian Slovene writer and priest
September 29 – Winifred Holtby, English novelist
October 11 – Steele Rudd, Australian short story writer
November 4 – Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist and translator
November 28
November 29 – Mary G. Charlton Edholm, American journalist and temperance reformer
November 30 – Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet, philosopher and critic
December 14 – Stanley G. Weinbaum, American science-fiction author
December 17 – Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet
December 21 – Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist
December 28 – Clarence Day, American writer

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. W. Chambers, Thomas More
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Monica Shannon, Dobry
Nobel Prize in Literature: not awarded
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Zoë Akins, The Old Maid
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Audrey Wurdemann, Bright Ambush
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Josephine Winslow Johnson, ''Now in November''

1935 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards