1936 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1936.

Events

January 8 – Jewish booksellers throughout Nazi Germany are deprived of their Reich Publications Chamber membership cards, without which no one can sell books.
May – The Greek poet and Communist activist Yiannis Ritsos is inspired to write his poem Epitaphios by a photograph of a dead protester at a massive tobacco workers' demonstration in Thessaloniki. It is published soon after. In August, the right-wing dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas comes to power in Greece and copies are burned publicly at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.
May 16–17 – About 30 left-wing writers of the Second Polish Republic gather at the Lviv Anti-Fascist Congress of Cultural Workers.
August 3 – George Heywood Hill establishes the Heywood Hill bookshop in London's Mayfair.
August 18 – The 38-year-old Spanish dramatist, Federico García Lorca, is arrested by Francoist militia during the White Terror and never seen alive again. His brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, the leftist mayor of Granada, is shot on the same day. Lorca's play The House of Bernarda Alba, completed on June 19, will not be performed until 1945.
November 6 – After United States publication in 1934, the U.K. authorities decide they will not prosecute or seize copies of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.
November 23 – Life magazine begins to appear as a weekly news magazine in the United States, under the management of Henry Luce.
unknown dates
*The New Theatre, Sydney, in Australia, attempts to stage Clifford Odets' anti-Nazi drama Till the Day I Die; the German Consul General in the country complains to the Commonwealth Government and the play is banned; but the theatre stages the play in private premises.
*The first lighthearted crime novel by Scottish-born university teacher of English literature J. I. M. Stewart, writing as Michael Innes, is published: Death at the President's Lodging, set in Oxford. It introduces his long-running character Detective Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard.
*The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is inaugurated by the Library Association in the United Kingdom. The first winner is Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post.

New books

Births

January 5 – Florence King, American writer
January 10 – Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian
January 28 – Ismail Kadare, Albanian novelist and poet
February 12 – Shawkat Ali, Bangladeshi writer
February 18 – Jean M. Auel, American historical novelist
March 1 – Jean-René Huguenin, French novelist and literary critic
March 2 – Gondoo U Thein Naing, Burmese writer
March 7 – Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker and essayist
March 28
* Peter Mayer, English-born publisher
* Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer, politician, journalist and essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
March 31 – Marge Piercy, American poet and activist
April 12 – Frankétienne, Haitian writer
April 13 – Choi In-hun, South Korean writer
April 30 – Viktor Likhonosov, Soviet Russian writer and editor
May 10 – Anthea Bell, English translator
May 23 – Ian Kennedy Martin, English scriptwriter and novelist
May 27 – Ivo Brešan, Croatian playwright, novelist, screenwriter and satirist
June 3
*Duff Hart-Davis, English biographer and journalist
*Larry McMurtry, American novelist, essayist and screenwriter
June 9 – Nell Dunn, English playwright and author
June 18 – Dick Wimmer, American novelist
June 23 – Richard Bach, American novelist and non-fiction writer
June 24 – J. H. Prynne, English poet
June 29 – David Rudkin, English playwright
July 5 – Valerie Flint, English medieval historian
July 6 – Abidullah Ghazi, Indian-American author, educator and poet
August 8 – Jan Pieńkowski, Polish-born British children's writer and illustrator
August 24 – A. S. Byatt, English novelist
August 27 – Philippe Labro, French writer, journalist and film director
September 1 – Roderick Thorp, American novelist
September 2 – Károly Krajczár, Hungarian Slovene teacher, writer and collector
September 10 – Peter Lovesey, English crime fiction and short story writer
September 20 – Andrew Davies, Welsh novelist and screenwriter
September 26 – Victor Watson, English children's writer and academic
October 1 – Kailayar Sellanainar Sivakumaran, Sri Lankan writer, art and literary critic, journalist and radio and TV personality
October 5 – Václav Havel, Czech dramatist and first president of Czech Republic
November 4 – C. K. Williams, American poet
November 17 – John Wells, English satirical writer and actor
November 18 – Suzette Haden Elgin, American science fiction writer
November 20 – Don DeLillo, American novelist
November 25 – William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet
November 27 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet
December 1 – Ma Văn Kháng, Vietnamese writer
December 2 – Hebe Uhart, Argentine writer
December 5
*James Lee Burke, American writer
*Lewis Nkosi, Zulu writer
December 11 – Ingvar Moe, Norwegian poet, novelist and children's writer
December 17 – Frank Martinus Arion, Curaçaoan novelist and poet

Deaths

January 4 – James Churchward, British writer
January 5 – Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Spanish dramatist and novelist
January 17 – Mateiu Caragiale, Romanian novelist and poet
January 18 – Rudyard Kipling, English writer and Nobel laureate
February 7 – Elizabeth Robins Pennell, American biographer and critic based in London
February 8 – Rahel Sanzara, German dancer, actress and novelist
February 23 – Lidia Veselitskaya, Russian novelist, memoirist and translator
March 1 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian poet, musician and novelist
March 9 – A. de Herz, Romanian playwright and journalist
March 16 – Marguerite Durand, French actress and journalist
April 30 – A. E. Housman, English poet
June 11 – Robert E. Howard, American fantasy writer
June 12:
*M. R. James, English ghost story writer and scholar
*Karl Kraus, Austrian writer and journalist
June 14 – G. K. Chesterton, English novelist, poet and Catholic apologist
June 18 – Maxim Gorky, Russian dramatist
July 25 – Donald Maxwell, English travel writer and illustrator
July 26 – F. J. Harvey Darton English children's literature historian and publisher
August 8 – Mourning Dove, Native American writer
August 15 – Grazia Deledda, Sardinian-born novelist and Nobel laureate
August 19 – Federico García Lorca, Spanish dramatist and poet
August 26 – Juliette Adam, French author
October 5 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist
October 9 – Harriette A. Keyser, American industrial reformer
November 12 – Stefan Grabiński, Polish horror writer
December – Emma Sheridan Fry, American actor, playwright, and drama teacher
December 10 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist and novelist
December 24 – Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley, English horticulturist and garden writer
December 27 – Kristína Royová, Slovak novelist, religious writer and poet
December 28 – John Cornford, English poet
December 31 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish novelist, poet and scholar
date unknown – Bertha M. Wilson, American playwright, critic and actress

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Winifred Holtby, South Riding
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn
Nobel Prize in Literature: Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
Prix Goncourt: Maxence Van Der Meersch, L'Empreinte de Dieu
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Strange Holiness
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Harold L. Davis, ''Honey in the Horn''

1936 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards