1968 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1968.
Events
- January 1 – Cecil Day-Lewis is announced as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.
- April – The American edition of Andrew Garve's thriller The Long Short Cut becomes the first book printed completely by electronic composition.
- May – The Action Theater in Munich is disbanded after its building is wrecked by one of its founders, jealous of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's growing power in the group.
- June 17 – Tom Stoppard's parodic comedy The Real Inspector Hound opens at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, starring Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker.
- July 28 – Last Exit to Brooklyn is cleared of obscenity in the English appeal court. John Mortimer appears for the defence.
- September 26 – Theatres Act 1968 ends censorship of the theatre in the United Kingdom.
- November – The English novelist Anthony Burgess and his new wife Liana settle in Lija on Malta.
- unknown dates
- *The first translations and book-length discussion of the Sumerian Enheduanna's work is published.
- *Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest, is published by Ace Books in the United States.
- *The Arvon Foundation is established by young poets John Fairfax and John Moat in the UK to promote creative writing.
New books
Fiction
- Ayi Kwei Armah – The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
- Elizabeth Bowen – Eva Trout
- Anthony Burgess – Enderby Outside
- Victor Canning – The Melting Man
- Cormac McCarthy – Outer Dark
- Per Anders Fogelström – Stad i världen
- Michael Innes – Appleby at Allington
- John Irving – Setting Free the Bears
- Halldór Laxness – Kristnihald undir jökli
- John le Carré – A Small Town in Germany
- Helen MacInnes – The Salzburg Connection
- Ngaio Marsh – Clutch of Constables
- N. Scott Momaday – House Made of Dawn
- Brian Moore – I Am Mary Dunne
- Fănuș Neagu – Îngerul a strigat
- Anthony Powell – The Military Philosophers
- Giorgio Scerbanenco – I ragazzi del massacro
- Robert Silverberg – The Masks of Time
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Cancer Ward
- Muriel Spark – ''The Public Image''
Children and young people
- Lloyd Alexander – The High King
- Joan Aiken – The Whispering Mountain
- Don Freeman – Corduroy
- Russell Hoban – The Mouse and His Child
- Ted Hughes – The Iron Man
- Judith Kerr – The Tiger Who Came to Tea
- Alexander Key – Escape to Witch Mountain
- David McKee – Elmer the Patchwork Elephant
- Robert C. O'Brien – The Silver Crown
- Jill Tomlinson – The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
- Paul Zindel – ''The Pigman''
Drama
Non-fiction
- Eldridge Cleaver – Soul on Ice
- Joan Didion – Slouching Towards Bethlehem
- Esther Hautzig – The Endless Steppe
- Bevis Hillier – Art Deco of the 20s and 30s
- Pauline Kael – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- Gershon Legman – Rationale of the Dirty Joke
- Peter Maas – The Valachi Papers
- Erich von Däniken – Chariots of the Gods?
- Gwyn Thomas – A Few Selected Exits
- James D. Watson – ''The Double Helix''
Births
- October 7 – Rachel Kushner, American writer
- unknown dates
- * Brock Clarke, American writer
- * Fatou Diome, French-Senegalese writer
- * K. V. Johansen, Canadian children's author
- * Park Min-gyu, South Korean writer
Deaths
- January 21 – Will Lang, Jr., American journalist
- March 23 – Edwin O'Connor, American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator
- April 4 - Muhammad Taha al-Huwayzi, Iranian-Iraqi Ja'fari jurist, religious teacher and poet
- April 16 – Edna Ferber, American novelist, short story writer and playwright
- April 27 – Vasily Azhayev, Soviet writer
- April 29 – Anthony Boucher, American author, critic, and editor
- May 1 – Sir Harold Nicolson, British biographer
- May 30 – Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, Romanian anthropologist, ethnographer and children's writer
- May 31 – Abel Bonnard, French poet, novelist and politician
- June 1 – Helen Keller, deaf-blind American author, activist and lecturer
- August 21 - Germaine Guèvremont, Canadian writer
- November 17 – Mervyn Peake, English novelist
- November 25 – Upton Sinclair, American novelist and politician
- November 28 – Enid Blyton, English author and poet
- December 5 – Anna Kavan, British novelist, short story writer and painter
- December 20 – John Steinbeck, American novelist
- December 24 – D. Gwenallt Jones, Welsh poet