1938 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1938.

Events

January
*The John Dos Passos trilogy U.S.A. is published, containing his novels The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money.
*Samuel Beckett is stabbed in the chest in Paris and nearly killed.
February 21 – The gay American writer and composer Paul Bowles marries the lesbian American writer Jane Auer at a Reformed Church in Manhattan.
March 7 – Samuel Beckett's first completed novel Murphy is published in London.
July 11 – The first live drama adaptation in Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air series on CBS Radio in the United States is broadcast: Bram Stoker's Dracula.
August – Muslims protest in London against passages they see as disrespectful to their religion in H. G. Wells' A Short History of the World.
September 13 – The first production in Britain of a play by Bertolt Brecht, Mrs Carrar's Rifles, opens at the Unity Theatre, London.
October 30 – Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast in The Mercury Theatre on the Air series.
December 24 – Jorge Luis Borges is injured in an accident and develops blood poisoning. While recovering the following year he will write the first short story in his later characteristic style.
Uncertain dates
*The first complete performance of both parts of Goethe's Faust is given at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.
*The avant-garde musician and theoretician Pierre Schaeffer begins his writing career as an essayist for a number of French musical journals.

New books

Births

January 2 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian short story writer
January 5 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenyan novelist
January 6 – Mario Rodríguez Cobos, Argentine author and spiritualist
January 13 – Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Indian novelist, children's author and poet
January 20 – Liz Calder, English publisher and editor
February 7 – Andrea Newman, English novelist and screenwriter
February 9 – Jovette Marchessault, French Canadian writer and artist
February 12
*Judy Blume, American children's author
*Tor Obrestad, Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer
February 22 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, essayist and novelist
March 1 – Michael Kurland, American author of sci-fi and detective fiction
March 14 – Eleanor Bron, English humorous writer and actress
March 24 – Ian Hamilton, English critic, biographer and poet
March 27 – Hansjörg Schneider, Swiss novelist
April 20 – Chiung Yao, Taiwanese romance novelist
April 25 – John Nagenda, Ugandan writer and sportsman
April 30 – Larry Niven, American sci-fi author
May 13 – Norma Klein, American author
May 15 – Nancy Garden, American author
May 16 – Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian literature critic, television host and sexologist
May 25
*Raymond Carver, American short-story writer and poet
*Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer
May 26 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian novelist and playwright
June 5
*Allan Ahlberg, English children's author
*M. K. Wren, American novelist
June 16 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist
June 24 – Lawrence Block, American crime fiction writer
June 26 – Maria Velho da Costa, Portuguese writer
July 15 – Josephine Cox, English novelist
July 19
*Nicholas Bethell, English historian and politician
*Dom Moraes, Indian poet and columnist
*Tom Raworth, English poet
*Mary-Kay Wilmers, American-born editor
July 28 – Robert Hughes, Australian critic and historian
August 15 – Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer
August 21 – Mudrooroo, Australian novelist
August 25 – Frederick Forsyth, English thriller writer
August 30 – Dorota Terakowska, Polish writer and journalist, author of fantasy books for children and young adults
September 3 – Caryl Churchill, English dramatist
September 12 – Richard Booth, Welsh bookseller
September 15 – Charles L. Mee, American dramatist
September 18 – Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer
September 19 – Keorapetse Kgositsile, South African Poet Laureate
October 12 – Anne Perry, English historical novelist
October 13 – Hugo Young, English journalist
October 17 – Les Murray, Australian poet
October 19 – Allan Massie, Singapore-born Scottish writer
November 3 – Terrence McNally, American playwright
November 4 – Daniel Snowman, English non-fiction writer and historian
December 14 – Leonardo Boff, Brazilian philosopher and theologian
December 21 – Frank Moorhouse, Australian journalist, author and screenwriter
December 31 – Basudeb Dasgupta, Bengali novelist
unknown date – Gabriel Ruhumbika, Tanzanian novelist

Deaths

January 4 – Paola Drigo, Italian writer
January 16 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali novelist
January 19 – Branislav Nušić, Serbian novelist and dramatist
January 29 – Armando Palacio Valdés, Spanish novelist and critic
February 13 – Momčilo Nastasijević, Serbian poet, novelist and dramatist
March 6 – Eva Allen Alberti, American dramatics teacher
March 27 – Helen M. Winslow, American editor, author and publisher
March 31 – Willem Kloos, Dutch poet and critic
April 19 – Sir Henry Newbolt, English poet
April 21 – Lady Ottoline Morrell, English literary hostess
May 26 – James Forbes, Canadian American dramatist and screenwriter
June 9 – Ovid Densusianu, Romanian poet, philologist and literary historian
June 26
*James Weldon Johnson, American politician, poet and activist
*E. V. Lucas, English essayist and biographer
July 21 – Owen Wister, American Western fiction writer and historian
August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre director
August 26 – Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Albanian poet and writer
September 15 – Thomas Wolfe, American novelist
October 3 – Olivia Shakespear, British novelist, playwright and patron of the arts
October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and literary critic
December 13 – Virginia Frazer Boyle, American author and poet
December 23 – Robert Herrick, American realist novelist
December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech science fiction author and dramatist
December 27 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet and essayist

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Noel Streatfeild, The Circus Is Coming
Hawthornden Prize – David Jones, In Parenthesis
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Kate Seredy, The White Stag
Newdigate prize: Michael Thwaites
Nobel Prize in Literature: Pearl S. Buck
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marya Zaturenska, Cold Morning Sky
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Phillips Marquand, ''The Late George Apley''

1938 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards