1954 in literature

The year 1954 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

*Jack Kerouac reads Dwight Goddard's "A Buddhist Bible", which will influence him greatly.
*John Updike graduates from Harvard with a thesis on George Herbert.
*Lawrence Quincy Mumford becomes Librarian of Congress.

New books

*Kingsley Amis - "Lucky Jim"
*Poul Anderson - "The Broken Sword"
*Isaac Asimov - "The Caves of Steel"
*Hamilton Basso - "The View from Pompey's Head"
*Simone de Beauvoir - "The Mandarins"
*Pierre Boulle - "The Bridge on the River Kwai" ("Le pont de la rivière Kwai")
*Taylor Caldwell - "Never Victorious, Never Defeated"
*Robertson Davies - "Leaven of Malice"
*Daphne du Maurier - "Mary Anne"
*Ian Fleming - "Live and Let Die"
*William Golding - "Lord of the Flies"
*Hergé - "Explorers on the Moon"
*Mac Hyman - "No Time for Sergeants"
*Frances Parkinson Keyes - "The Royal Box"
*C. S. Lewis - "The Horse and His Boy"
*Astrid Lindgren - "Mio, my Mio"
*Kamala Markandaya - "Nectar in a Sieve"
*Richard Matheson - "I Am Legend"
*John Metcalfe - "The Feasting Dead"
*James A. Michener - "Sayonara"
*Alberto Moravia - "Il disprezzo" ("A Ghost at Noon")
*Iris Murdoch - "Under the Net"
*J. B. Priestley - "The Magicians"
*Marcel Proust - "Jean Sauteuil" (posthumously published)
*Ellery Queen - "The Glass Village"
*Pauline Réage - "Histoire d'O" ("Story of O")
*Mordecai Richler - "The Acrobats"
*Anya Seton - "Katherine"
*Dr. Seuss - "Horton Hears a Who!"
*John Steinbeck - "Sweet Thursday"
*Irving Stone - "Love Is Eternal"
*Rex Stout - "Three Men Out"
*Rex Stout - "The Black Mountain"
*Edward Streeter - "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation"
*Morton Thompson - "Not as a Stranger"
*J. R. R. Tolkien
**"The Lord of the Rings" : "The Fellowship of the Ring"
**"The Lord of the Rings" : "The Two Towers"
*Frank Yerby - "Benton's Row"

New drama

*Brendan Behan - "The Quare Fellow"
*Terence Rattigan - "Separate Tables"
*Dylan Thomas - "Under Milk Wood"
*Thornton Wilder - "The Matchmaker"

Non-fiction

*L. Sprague de Camp - "Lost Continents"
*Albert Einstein - "Ideas and Opinions"
*Aldous Huxley - "The Doors of Perception"
*Arthur Koestler - ""
*Mervyn Peake - "Figures of Speech"

Births

*January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, actress, talk show host, producer, publisher
*June 28 - A. A. Gill, journalist and critic
*November - Christopher Pike, children's author
* Esther Delisle, Quebec author & historian

Deaths

*January 1 - Duff Cooper (1st Viscount Norwich), poet, biographer and politician
*January 25 - M. N. Roy, philosopher and politician
*March 28 - Francis Brett Young, novelist and poet
*April 8
**Juan Álvarez, historian
**Winnifred Eaton, Canadian author
*April 19 - Russell Davenport, journalist and publisher
*May 3 - Earnest Hooton, popular writer on anthropology
*August 3 - Colette, French novelist
*September 19 - Miles Franklin, novelist
*September 29 - W. J. Gruffydd, editor of "Y Llenor (Literature)"
*December 6 - Lucien Tesnière, grammarian

Awards

* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: C. P. Snow, "The New Men" and "The Masters"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Keith Feiling, "Warren Hastings"
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Joseph Krumgold, "...And Now Miguel"
* Nobel Prize for Literature: Ernest Miller Hemingway
* Premio Nadal: Francisco Alcántara, "La muerte sienta bien a Villalobos"
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick, "The Teahouse of the August Moon"
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: "no award given"
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: "TheWaking"
* King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ralph Hodgson