1952 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1952.

Events

February – The historical periodical Past & Present is launched in Oxford, U.K.
February 29 – Derek J. de Solla Price reveals his discovery of a lost medieval scientific work entitled Equatorie of the Planetis, initially attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Times Literary Supplement.
March 3 – J. L. Carr takes over as Headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will later feature in his novel The Harpole Report.
May – The works of André Gide are placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books by Pope Pius XII.
July 10 – The first issue of Mad appears, edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by William M. Gaines' EC Comics.
August 12 – The Night of the Murdered Poets brings the execution of 13 Soviet Jews in Lubyanka Prison, Moscow, including several writers.
September 6 – The Universal Copyright Convention is adopted at Geneva.
October 17 – Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot is published in Paris as En attendant Godot by Les Éditions de Minuit.
October 28 – E. E. Cummings delivers the first of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University.
November 25 – Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London. It will still be running as of 2021, next door at St Martin's Theatre from 1974.
unknown dates
*The publisher Diogenes Verlag is founded in Zürich, Switzerland, by Daniel Keel.
*The National Library of Burma is established in Rangoon.

New books

Poetry

Paul Celan – Poppy and Memory
David Jones – The Anathemata: fragments of an attempted writing
Gabriela Mistral – Los sonetos de la muerte y otros poemas elegíacos
Sean O Riordain – ''Eireaball Spideoige''

Non-fiction

Roland Bainton – The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century
L. Sprague de Camp and Willy Ley – Lands Beyond
Dorothy Day – The Long Loneliness
Lawrence Gowing – Vermeer
Heinrich Harrer – Sieben Jahre in Tibet. Mein Leben am Hofe des Dalai Lama
Aldous Huxley
*The Devils of Loudun
*Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Shepherd Mead – How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Maurice Nicoll – Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky
Norman Vincent Peale – The Power of Positive Thinking
Gwen Raverat – Period Piece
P. R. Reid – The Colditz Story
Jean-Paul Sartre – Saint Genet, comédien et martyr
Pierre Schaeffer – In Search of a Concrete Music
F. Sherwood Taylor – The Alchemists
Paul Tillich – Courage To Be
Immanuel Velikovsky – Ages in Chaos
J. M. Wallace-Hadrill – The Barbarian West, 400–1000
Raymond Williams – ''Drama from Ibsen to Eliot''

Births

January 4 – Michele Wallace, American feminist author
January 12 – Walter Mosley, American novelist
January 21 – Louis Menand, American author and academic
February 10 – Gail Rebuck, English publisher
February 19
*Ryū Murakami, Japanese novelist, essayist and filmmaker
*Amy Tan, American novelist
February 29 – Tim Powers, American fantasy author
March 5 – Robin Hobb, American fantasy author
March 7 – William Boyd, Gold Coast-born Scottish novelist and screenwriter
March 11 – Douglas Adams, English science fiction author
March 13 – Ágnes Rapai, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
March 23 – Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction author
March 26 – T. A. Barron, American novelist
May 5 – Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Nigerian author and poet
May 31 – Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress
June 4 – Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwean writer
June 7 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate
June 20
*Vince Gotera, American poet and critic
*Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
June 29 – Breece D'J Pancake, American short story writer
July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, Indian-born Canadian novelist
July 6 – Hilary Mantel, English novelist
July 10 – Candice F. Ransom, American children's and young-adult author
July 18 – Per Petterson, Norwegian novelist
August 28 – Rita Dove, American poet
September 29 - Pete Hautman, American young-adult novelist
October 18 – Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese author
November 15 – Rick Atkinson, American journalist, historian and author
November 21 – Pedro Lemebel, Chilean novelist
December 19 – Sean O'Brien, English poet
December 22 – Mick Inkpen, English children's writer and illustrator
December 28 – Hemant Shesh, Indian Hindi writer

Deaths

January 22 – Roger Vitrac, French poet and dramatist
January 26 – Lodewijk van Deyssel, Dutch novelist
January 28 – Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Ottoman-born Romanian humorist, novelist, editor, and journalist
February 7 – Norman Douglas, Austrian-born Scottish novelist
February 13 – Josephine Tey, Scottish crime novelist
February 19 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureate
March 1
*Mariano Azuela, Mexican novelist, dramatist and critic
*Masao Kume, Japanese playwright, novelist and haiku poet
March 27 – Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Romanian short story writer and politician
April 1 – Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian dramatist and novelist
April 30 – Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș – Romanian art historian, ethnographer and journalist
May 17 – Paul Bujor, Romanian politician, zoologist and short story writer
May 26 – Eugene Jolas, American/French writer, literary translator and critic
June 1 – John Dewey, American philosopher and psychologist
July 1 – A. S. W. Rosenbach, American book collector
July 8 – August Alle, Estonian writer
August 9 – Jeffery Farnol, English historical novelist
August 22 – H. J. Massingham, English countryside writer
September 26 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist writing in English
October 4 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist
October 6 – Teffi, Russian humorist
November 3 – Louis Verneuil, French playwright
November 4 – Gilbert Frankau, English novelist
November 13 – Margaret Wise Brown, American children's author
November 16 – Charles Maurras, French poet and critic
November 18 – Paul Éluard, French surrealist poet
November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet
December 6 – Cicely Hamilton, English dramatist and suffragist

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mary Norton, The Borrowers
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Romano Guardini
Frost Medal: Carl Sandburg
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Evelyn Waugh, Men at Arms
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin
National Book Award: James Jones, From Here to Eternity.
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Estes, Ginger Pye
Newdigate prize: Donald Hall
Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac
Premio Nadal: María Medio Estrada, Nosotros, los Rivero
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Andrew Young
National Book Award for Fiction: James Jones – ''From Here to Eternity''

1952 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards