1956 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1956.

Events

c. January – The first book in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct police procedural series, Cop Hater, is published in the United States under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym.
February 2 – Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night receives a posthumous world première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in Swedish, directed by Bengt Ekerot and starring Lars Hanson. Its Broadway debut at the Helen Hayes Theatre on November 7 follows an American première at the Shubert Theatre (New Haven).
February 25 – The English poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath meet in Cambridge, England.
March 11 – The U.S. release of Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III plays simultaneously on NBC network television and as afternoon matinée screenings in movie theaters. Its TV audience is put at 25–40 million – almost certainly the largest to date for a Shakespeare production.
March 19 – The widowed English author Aldous Huxley marries the Italian-American film-maker and author Laura Archera at a drive-in wedding chapel in Yuma, Arizona.
April 23 – The British author C. S. Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham have a civil marriage at Oxford register office.
May 8 – The first performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger is given by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The press release describes Osborne as one of the angry young men of the time, a phrase used on July 26 in a Daily Express headline.
June 16 – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at St George the Martyr, Holborn in the London Borough of Camden.
June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
June 26 and August 23 – Books published by the discredited psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich are burned in the United States under a court injunction.
June – Nineteen-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested as an accessory to robbery.
June 29 – Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe in White Plains, New York.
July – After pleas by Israeli diplomats, the Romanian communist regime releases A. L. Zissu, formally sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954. Zissu emigrates to Israel, where he dies on September 6.
July 4 – The National Library of Scotland's first purpose-built premises open in Edinburgh.
July 8 – The drama series Armchair Theatre, produced by ABC Weekend TV for the ITV network in the United Kingdom, begins a twelve-year run.
August 14 – Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley at Oxford register office.
September 14 – Harold Pinter marries Vivien Merchant in a civil ceremony at Bournemouth, after they meet while touring in repertory theatre.
October – The Ladder becomes the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the United States.
November 1 – Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems, a signal work of the Beat Generation, is published by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
December
*J. G. Ballard's first professional publications, the science fiction short stories "Escapement" and "Prima Belladonna", appear in this month's issues of New Worlds and Science Fantasy respectively.
*Martin Gardner begins his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.
December 3 – The author Romain Gary wins the Prix Goncourt for Les Racines du ciel. He would later become the only person to win the prize twice, publishing La Vie devant soi under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975.
unknown dates
*Finished in 1952, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, is first published.
*Sixteen-year-old Michael Moorcock becomes editor of Tarzan Adventures.
*Jorge Luis Borges becomes a professor of English and American literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

New books

Non-fiction

Peter Frederick Anson – The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion
John G. Bennett – Dramatic Universe
Peter M. Blau – Bureaucracy in Modern Society
Gerald Durrell – My Family and Other Animals
Margery Fish – We Made a Garden
Georges Friedmann – Le travail en miettes
Erving Goffman – The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Carl Gustav Jung – Mysterium Coniunctionis
A. J. Liebling – The Sweet Science
Norman Mailer – The White Negro
Karl Mannheim – Essays on the Sociology of Culture
C. Wright Mills – The Power Elite
Alva Myrdal and Viola Klein – Women's Two Roles: Home and Work
Octavio Paz – El arco y la lira
Lobsang Rampa – The Third Eye
Irving Stone – Men to Match My Mountains
John Strachey – ''Contemporary Capitalism''

Births

January 2 – Storm Constantine, British science fiction and fantasy author
January 4 – Sarojini Sahoo, Indian journalist, author, and poet
January 8 – Jack Womack, American novelist
January 10 – Antonio Muñoz Molina, Spanish novelist
January 21 – Ian McMillan, English poet
January 14 – Ronan Bennett, Northern Irish novelist
February 20 – François Bréda, Romanian essayist, poet, literary critic, literary historian, translator and theatrologist
February 26 – Michel Houellebecq, French novelist
March 3 – Frank Giroud, French comics writer
March 7 – Andrea Levy, English novelist
March 12 – Ruth Ozeki, American novelist and filmmaker
March 20
* Minken Fosheim, Norwegian actress and author
* Win Lyovarin, Thai novelist and short story writer
March 23 – Steven Saylor, American historical novelist
April 7 – Christopher Darden, African-American attorney, author, actor and lecturer
April 12 – Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese novelist and politician
April 29 – Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist
May 4 – David Guterson, American journalist and novelist
May 9 – Cindy Lovell, American educator and writer
May 18 – John Godber, English dramatist
May 20
* Boris Akunin, Russian novelist and essayist
* Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian writer
June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American crime novelist
June 25 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef, writer and television personality
June 26 – Davide Ferrario, Italian film director, screenwriter and author
June 29 – Richard Summerbell, Canadian mycologist, author and songwriter
July 2 – Cynthia Kadohata, Japanese-American children's writer
July 4 – Éric Neuhoff, French novelist
July 11 – Amitav Ghosh, Bengali Indian novelist
September 6 – Mai Yamani, Saudi Arabian independent scholar, author and anthropologist
October 9 – Robert Reed, American science fiction author
October 13 – Chris Carter, American screenwriter
October 16 - Meg Rosoff, American-British children's and young-adult writer
October 18 – Lucy Ellmann, Anglo-American novelist
October 21 – Carrie Fisher, American actress and novelist
November 11 – Tim Pears, English novelist
November 20 – Elena Gremina, Russian dramatist
November 26 – John McCarthy, English journalist and hostage
December 22 – Percival Everett, American writer and novelist
unknown dates
*James Aboud, Trinidad poet and judge
*James Belich, New Zealand historian
*Amy Gerstler, American poet

Deaths

January 13 – Wickham Steed, English journalist, editor and historian
January 14 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English novelist
January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and English language scholar
January 31 – A. A. Milne, English children's author, novelist and dramatist
March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English novelist and inventor of the clerihew
April 22 – Otto Roth, Hungarian Romanian politician, journalist, and literary promoter
May 15 – Arthur Talmage Abernethy, American theologian and poet
May 20 – Max Beerbohm, English humorist
May 22 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist
June 7 – Julien Benda, French philosopher and novelist
June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet
June 24 – Nicos Nicolaides, Greek writer
July 7 – Gottfried Benn, German poet and essayist
July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet and novelist
August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German dramatist
September 6
*Michael Ventris, English linguistic scholar
*A. L. Zissu, Romanian novelist and Zionist leader
September 12 – Hans Carossa, German novelist and poet
October 30 – Pío Baroja, Spanish novelist
December 6 - Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution of India
December 13 – Arthur Grimble, Hong Kong-born English travel writer
December 25 – Robert Walser, Swiss novelist and poet writing in German

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis : Roger Duvoisin and Louise Fatio, Happy Lion ; Astrid Lindgren, Mio, My Son; and Kurt Lütgen, Kein Winter für Wölfe
Duff Cooper Prize: Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Reinhold Schneider
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw
Madan Puraskar : Satya Mohan Joshi, Hamro Lok Sanskriti; Chittaranjan Nepali, Janaral Bhimsen Thapa Ra Tatkalin Nepal; and Bala Ram Joshi, Adhikbibhav Sthirbidhoot Utpadhak
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Lee Latham, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Nobel Prize in Literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez
Premio Nadal: José Luis Martín Descalzo, La frontera de Dios
Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary for The Roots of Heaven
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop, Poems – North & South
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden

1956 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards