1971 in literature

The year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

*"The Destiny Waltz" by Gerda Charles wins the UK's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.

New books

*Hiroshi Aramata - "Teito Monogatari"
*Denys Val Baker - "The Face in the Mirror"
*William Peter Blatty - "The Exorcist"
*Richard Brautigan - "Revenge of the Lawn"
*Albert Camus - "A Happy Death" ("La Mort heureuse")
*Brian Cleeve - "Cry of Morning"
*Gwen Davis - "Touching"
*L. Sprague de Camp - "The Clocks of Iraz"
*L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter - "Conan the Buccaneer"
*Walter de la Mare - "Eight Tales"
*August Derleth, editor - "Dark Things"
*E. L. Doctorow - "The Book of Daniel"
*Frederick Forsyth - "The Day of the Jackal"
*Dick Francis - "Bonecrack"
*Ernest J. Gaines - "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman"
*George Garrett - "Death of the Fox"
*John Gardner - "Grendel"
*William Golding - "The Scorpion God"
*Arthur Hailey - "Wheels"
*Anna Kavan - "A Scarcity of Love"
*Jerzy Kosinski - "Being There"
*John le Carré - "The Naive and Sentimental Lover"
*Ursula K. Le Guin - "The Lathe of Heaven"
*Stanisław Lem - "Dzienniki gwiazdowe"
*Brian Lumley - "The Caller of the Black"
*Antonine Maillet - "La Sagouine"
*Ruth Manning-Sanders - "A Choice of Magic"
*James A. Michener - "The Drifters"
*Nicholas Mosley - "Natalie Natalia"
*Alice Munro - "Lives of Girls and Women"
*V. S. Naipaul - "In a Free State"
*William F. Nolan - "Space for Hire"
*Rosamunde Pilcher - "The End of Summer"
*Anthony Powell - "Books Do Furnish a Room"
*Terry Pratchett - "The Carpet People"
*John Rawls - "A Theory of Justice"
*Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro - "Sergeant Getulio"
*Mordecai Richler - "St. Urbain's Horseman"
*Harold Robbins - "The Betsy"
*Leonardo Sciascia - "Il contesto"
*Hubert Selby Jr. - "The Room"
*Wallace Stegner - "Angle of Repose"
*Irving Stone - "The Passions of the Mind"
*Gay Talese - "Honor Thy Father"
*Tom Tryon - "The Other"
*John Updike - "Rabbit Redux"
*Herman Wouk - "The Winds of War"
*Roger Zelazny
**"The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories"
**"Jack of Shadows"

New drama

*Peter Handke - "Der Ritt über den Bodensee ("The Ride Across Lake Constance")"
*John Mortimer - "A Voyage Round My Father"

Poetry

*Maya Angelou - "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die"
*Donald S. Fryer - "Songs and Sonnets Atlantean"
*Ted Hughes - "Crow"
*Alan Llwyd - "Y March Hud ("The Magic Horse")"
*Clark Ashton Smith - "Selected Poems"

Non-fiction

*Pierre Berton – "The Last Spike"
*Robert Coles
**"Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers", vol 2 of "Children of Crisis" – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
**"The South Goes North", vol 3 of "Children of Crisis" – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
*Brian J. Ford – "Nonscience"
*Robert Foster – "The Complete Guide to Middle-earth"
*Joan Garrity – "The Sensuous Woman"
*Xaviera Hollander – ""
*H. P. Lovecraft – "Selected Letters III (1929-1931)"
*Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel – ""
*Alison Plowden - "Young Elizabeth"
*B. F. Skinner – "Beyond Freedom and Dignity"
*Pierre Vallières – "White Niggers of America" (translation)

Births

* January 16 - Helen Darville, writer
* March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, poet, creative writer, author
*May 28 - Richard Gunn, journalist and motoring writer
* July 17 - Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer
* December 19 - Tristan Egolf, novelist (d. 2005)

Deaths

* March 5 - Allan Nevins, journalist
* March 7 - Stevie Smith, poet
* April 10 - André Billy, French author
* May 19 - Ogden Nash, poet and humorist
* May 20 - Waldo Williams, Welsh language poet
* June 1 - Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian
* June 4 - Georg Lukács, philosopher and critic
* June 6 - Edward Andrade, poet and physicist
* July 4 - August Derleth, anthologist
* July 7 - Claude Gauvreau, poet and dramatist
* August 30 - Peter Fleming, travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming
* October 25 - Philip Gordon Wylie, novelist
* November 10 - Walter Van Tilburg Clark, novelist (The Ox-Bow Incident)
* December 22 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch writer
* December 25 - S. Foster Damon, critic and poet
* "date unknown"
**Clifford Dyment, poet
**St. John Greer Ervine, dramatist
**Jacques Lusseyran, blind author

Awards

* Nobel Prize for Literature: Pablo Neruda

France

* Prix Goncourt: Jacques Laurent, "Les Bêtises"
* Prix Médicis: Pascal Lainé, "L'Irrévolution"

United Kingdom

* Booker Prize: V. S. Naipaul, "In a Free State"
* Cholmondeley Award: Charles Causley, Gavin Ewart, Hugo Williams
* Eric Gregory Award: Martin Booth, Florence Bull, John Pook, D. M. Warman, John Welch
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Nadine Gordimer, "A Guest of Honour"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Julia Namier, "Lewis Namier"
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Stephen Spender

United States

* Frost Medal: Melville Cane
* See 1971 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
* Hugo Award: Larry Niven, "Ringworld"
* Nebula Award: Robert Silverberg, "A Time of Changes"
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Betsy Byars, "Summer of the Swans"
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paul Zindel, "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: "no award given"
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William S. Merwin, "The Carrier of Ladders"

Elsewhere

* Akutagawa Prize: Azuma Mineo, "Okinawan Boy"
*Premio Nadal: José María Requena ("El cuajarón"
* Viareggio Prize: Ugo Attardi, "L'erede selvaggio"