# 1951 in literature

   If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1951.

## Events

* January 12 – Janie Moore, C. S. Lewis' so-called adoptive mother, dies.
* March – The American writer Flannery O'Connor leaves hospital after being diagnosed with lupus at the age of 25.
* March 12 – Hank Ketcham's U.S. Dennis the Menace appears for the first time in 16 United States newspapers.
* March 17 – The homonymous U.K. Dennis the Menace comic strip first appears in the children's comic The Beano.
* Spring – Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", which will form a basis for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and a subsequent novel, is published as "Sentinel of Eternity" in the only issue ever produced of the American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine 10 Story Fantasy.
* May – Joe Orton enters the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he meets his lover and ultimate murderer Kenneth Halliwell.
* June 18 – Frank Hardy is acquitted of criminal libel in the Australian state of Victoria over his self-published 1950 roman à clef on corruption in Melbourne political life, Power Without Glory.
* July 16 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown and Company in New York City.
* September 6 – William S. Burroughs shoots and kills his common-law wife Joan Vollmer, apparently by accident, in Mexico City.
* December 16 – Noël Coward leaves his home, White Cliffs, on the south coast of England, having sold it to Ian Fleming.
* unknown dates
** E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships. It is Cummings' second.
** Janet Frame's first book, The Lagoon and Other Stories, is published by the Caxton Press (New Zealand) (dated 1952) while the author is a patient in Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, Seacliff, New Zealand, scheduled for a lobotomy. It is awarded the Hubert Church Memorial Award, at the time one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary prizes. This results in the cancellation of Frame's operation.
** Béla Hamvas completes his epic novel Karnevál. He is banned from publication in Hungary at the time, so that it will appear only in 1985, 17 years after his death.
** A Question of Upbringing, the first book in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series A Dance to the Music of Time, is published by Heinemann in the U.K.
** The custom of performing medieval mystery plays is revived at York and Chester, England.
** The Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris is founded.

## New books
### Fiction

* Martha Albrand – Desperate Moment
* Eric Ambler – Judgment on Deltchev
* Charlotte Armstrong – The Black-Eyed Stranger
* Sholem Asch – Moses
* Isaac Asimov
** Foundation
** The Stars Like Dust
* Nigel Balchin – A Way Through the Wood
* Samuel Beckett – Molloy
* Peter Blackmore – The Blue Goose
* Ray Bradbury
** The Illustrated Man
** "The Last Night of the World" (short story)
* John Brophy – Turn the Key Softly
* Gill Hunt – Galactic Storm
* Gerald Butler – Choice of Two Women
* Taylor Caldwell – The Balance Wheel
* Morley Callaghan – The Loved and the Lost
* Truman Capote – The Grass Harp
* L. Sprague de Camp
** Rogue Queen
** The Undesired Princess
* John Dickson Carr – The Devil in Velvet
* Henry Cecil – The Painswick Line
* Camilo José Cela – The Hive (La Colmena)
* James Hadley Chase – But a Short Time to Live
* Peter Cheyney – Ladies Won't Wait
* Agatha Christie
** The Under Dog and Other Stories
** They Came to Baghdad
* Arthur C. Clarke – Prelude to Space
* Beverly Cleary – Ellen Tebbits
* Howard Clewes – The Long Memory
* Claud Cockburn – Beat the Devil
* Julio Cortázar – Bestiario
* Freeman Wills Crofts – French Strikes Oil
* Edmund Crispin – The Long Divorce
* Robertson Davies – Tempest-Tost
* August Derleth – The Memoirs of Solar Pons
* Heimito von Doderer – Die Strudlhofstiege, oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre (The Strudelhof Steps)
* Owen Dodson – Boy at the Window
* Daphne du Maurier – My Cousin Rachel
* Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Suspicion
* Howard Fast – Spartacus
* Per Anders Fogelström – Sommaren med Monika
* Anthony Gilbert – Lady Killer
* Michael Gilbert – Death Has Deep Roots
* Julien Gracq – Le Rivage des Syrtes (The Opposing Shore)
* Graham Greene – The End of the Affair
* Henri René Guieu – Le Pionnier de l'atome
* Cyril Hare – An English Murder
* John Hawkes – The Beetle Leg
* Robert A. Heinlein – The Puppet Masters
* A. P. Herbert – Number Nine
* James Hilton – Morning Journey
* Anne Hocking – Mediterranean Murder
* Elizabeth Jane Howard and Robert Aickman – We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories
* Laurence Hyde – Southern Cross (wordless novel)
* Hammond Innes – Air Bridge
* Michael Innes – Operation Pax
* James Jones – From Here to Eternity
* Margaret Kennedy – Lucy Carmichael
* A. M. Klein – The Second Scroll
* Wolfgang Koeppen – Tauben im Gras (Pigeons on the Grass)
* Kalki Krishnamurthy
** Poiman Karadu
** Ponniyin Selvan (பொன்னியின் செல்வன், The Son of Ponni; publication begins)
* Louis L'Amour – The Rustlers of the West Fork
* Eric Linklater – Laxdale Hall
* E. C. R. Lorac – Murder of a Martinet
* Anita Loos – A Mouse Is Born
* Ross Macdonald – The Way Some People Die
* Olivia Manning – School for Love
* Ngaio Marsh – Opening Night
* John Masters – Nightrunners of Bengal
* François Mauriac – Le Sagouin (The Marmoset)
* James A. Michener – Return to Paradise
* Nancy Mitford – The Blessing
* Gladys Mitchell – The Devil's Elbow
* Nicholas Monsarrat – The Cruel Sea
* Alberto Moravia – The Conformist (Il conformista)
* Robert Pinget – Entre Fantoine et Agapa
* Anthony Powell – A Question of Upbringing
* J. B. Priestley – Festival at Farbridge
* Ernest Raymond – A Chorus Ending
* John Rhode – Doctor Goodwood's Locum
* Sax Rohmer – Sumuru
* J. D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
* Ernst von Salomon – The Questionnaire (Der Fragebogen)
* Ooka Shohei (大岡 昇平) – Fires on the Plain (野火, Nobi)
* Vern Schneider – The Teahouse of the August Moon
* Georges Simenon
** Maigret and the Burglar's Wife
** Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters
* Margit Söderholm – Meeting in Vienna
* Cardinal Spellman – The Foundling
* Howard Spring – The Houses in Between
* John Steinbeck – The Log from the Sea of Cortez
* Rex Stout
** Curtains for Three
** Murder by the Book
* Cecil Street
** Beware Your Neighbour
** The Secret Meeting
* William Styron – Lie Down in Darkness
* Elizabeth Taylor – A Game of Hide and Seek
* Phoebe Atwood Taylor – Diplomatic Corpse
* Josephine Tey – The Daughter of Time
* Jerrard Tickell – Appointment with Venus
* Anne de Tourville – Jabadao
* Henry Wade – Diplomat’s Folly
* P. G. Wodehouse – The Old Reliable
* Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
* John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids
* Frank Yerby – A Woman Called Fancy
* Marguerite Yourcenar – Memoirs of Hadrian (Mémoires d'Hadrien)
* Juan Eduardo Zúñiga – Inútiles totales (Totally useless)

### Children and young people

* M. E. Atkinson – Castaway Camp (first in the Fricka series of five books)
* Rev. W. Awdry – Henry the Green Engine (sixth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
* Viola Bayley – The Dark Lantern
* Margaret Biggs – The Blakes Come to Melling
* Anne de Vries – Into the Darkness (De Duisternis in, first in the Journey Through the Night – Reis door de nacht – series of four books)
* Eleanor Estes – Ginger Pye
* Rumer Godden – The Mousewife
* Cynthia Harnett – The Wool-Pack
* C. S. Lewis – Prince Caspian
* Elinor Lyon – We Daren't Go A'Hunting
* Gianni Rodari – l romanzo di Cipollino (The Adventures of the Little Onion)
* Sydney Taylor – All-of-a-Kind Family

### Drama

* Muriel Box and Sydney Box – The Seventh Veil
* Agatha Christie – The Hollow
* Ian Hay – The White Sheep of the Family
* Kenneth Horne – And This Was Odd
* Michael Clayton Hutton – The Happy Family
* Eugène Ionesco – The Lesson (La Leçon)
* Ronald Jeans – Count Your Blessings
* Maryat Lee – Dope!
* A. A. Milne – Before the Flood
* Lawrence Riley – Kin Hubbard
* Jean-Paul Sartre – The Devil and the Good Lord (Le Diable et le Bon Dieu)
* Peter Ustinov
** The Love of Four Colonels
** The Moment of Truth
* John Van Druten – I Am a Camera
* John Whiting
** A Penny for a Song
** Saint's Day (first performance)
* Tennessee Williams – The Rose Tattoo

### Poetry

* Clark Ashton Smith – The Dark Chateau
* Frank O'Hara – A City Winter and Other Poems
* Iona and Peter Opie – The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes

### Non-fiction

* Nelson Algren – Chicago: City on the Make (essay)
* Lou Andreas-Salomé (died 1937) – Lebensrückblick (Looking Back)
* Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism
* Albert Camus – The Rebel (L'Homme révolté)
* Rachel Carson – The Sea Around Us
* Nirad C. Chaudhuri – The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
* Wolfgang Clemen – The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery
* Thomas B. Costain – The Magnificent Century (second book in the Plantagenet or Pageant of England series)
* Daphne du Maurier (ed.) – The Young George du Maurier: a selection of his letters 1860–67
* James A. Frost – Life On The Upper Susquehanna 1783-1860
* Jacquetta Hawkes
** A Land
** A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales
* Eric Hoffer – The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements
* Karl Huber (executed 1943) – Leibniz
* Dumas Malone – Jefferson and the Rights of Man
* C. Wright Mills – White Collar: The American Middle Classes
* Vladimir Nabokov – Speak, Memory
* J. A. Schumpeter – Imperialism and Social Classes
* Tran Duc Thao – Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique

## Births

* January 1 – Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
* January 13 – Nigel Cox, New Zealand novelist
* January 22 – Steve J. Spears, Australian actor, singer, and playwright (died 2007)
* February 13 – Katja Lange-Müller, German novelist
* February 15 – Linda Grant, English novelist and journalist
* February 17 – Jagadish Mohanty, Indian novelist (died 2013)
* March 4 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, South Korean-born novelist and artist (died 1982)
* March 12 – Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's writer
* March 17 - Lian Tanner, Australian children's writer
* April 5 – Guy Vanderhaeghe, Canadian author
* April 16 – Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian novelist and essayist
* April 19 – Pierre Lemaitre, French suspense novelist
* May 3 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian novelist, essayist and TV presenter
* May 9
** Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet
** Joy Harjo, Native American poet
* May 15 – David Almond, English writer for children and young adults
* May 20 – Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist, writer and broadcaster (died 2020)
* May 21 – Al Franken, American comedian, actor, writer and politician
* June 5 – Suze Orman, American financial advisor, writer and television personality
* June 15 – Amir Barghashi, Iranian-born Swedish actor and dramatist
* June 22 – Rosario Murillo, Nicaraguan poet and political activist
* June 29 – Don Rosa, American writer and artist of Disney comics
* August 20 – Greg Bear, American science fiction writer
* August 24 – Orson Scott Card, American science fiction writer
* September 14 – Volodymyr Melnykov, Ukrainian poet, writer, songwriter and composer
* September 15 – Jared Taylor, American author and journalist
* September 20 – Javier Marías, Spanish novelist
* September 29 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian novelist and cinema critic (suicide 1977)
* October 3 – Bernard Cooper, American writer
* October 11 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian (died 2016)
* October 12 – Peter Flannery, English dramatist
* October 17 – Clark Parent, Haitian novelist, musician and politician
* November 18 - Dennis Foon, Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist
* December 6 – Tomson Highway, Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist and children's author
* December 8 – Bill Bryson, American travel writer
* December 20 – Peter May, Scottish novelist and television dramatist
* December 22 – Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician
* Unknown dates
** Mohammed Achaari, Moroccan writer
** Carol Birch, English novelist

## Deaths

* January 6 – Maila Talvio, Finnish writer, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1871)
* January 7 – René Guénon, French philosophical writer (born 1886)
* January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist (born 1885)
* January 29 – James Bridie, Scottish dramatist (born 1888)
* February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (born 1877)
* February 16 – Henri-René Lenormand, French dramatist (born 1882)
* February 19 – André Gide, French author (born 1869)
* February 28 – Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Russian dramatist and screenwriter (born 1900)
* March 11 – János Zsupánek, Prekmurje Slovene poet and author (born 1861)
* March 25 – Oscar Micheaux, African American author, film director and producer (born 1884)
* April 3 – Henrik Visnapuu, Estonian poet and dramatist (born 1890)
* April 9 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist (born 1903; suicide)
* April 12 - Henry De Vere Stacpoole. Irish author (born 1863)
* April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (born 1889)
* May 2 – Alphonse de Châteaubriant, French writer (born 1877)
* May 25 – Paula von Preradović, Austrian poet and writer (born 1887)
* May 30 – Hermann Broch, Austrian writer (born 1886)
* June 10 – Håkon Evjenth, Norwegian children's writer (born 1894)
* June 11 – W. C. Sellar, Scottish humorist (born 1898)
* August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper tycoon (born 1863)
* August 18 – Richard Malden, English editor, classical and Biblical scholar, and ghost story writer (born 1879)
* August 31 – Abraham Cahan, American Jewish journalist and novelist (born 1860)
* September 2 – Antoine Bibesco, Romanian dramatist (born 1878)
* September 7 – F. G. Loring, English writer and naval officer (born 1869)
* September 28 – Petre P. Negulescu, Romanian philosopher (born 1870)
* November 5 – I. C. Vissarion, Romanian novelist, dramatist, poet and science writer (born 1879)
* November 27 – Timrava (Božena Slančíková), Slovak novelist, short story writer and playwright (born 1867)
* December 4 – Pedro Salinas, Spanish poet (born 1891)
* December 10 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist and journalist (born 1869)

## Awards

* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Harnett, The Wool-Pack
* Frost Medal: Wallace Stevens
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen
* Newbery Medal: Elizabeth Yates, Amos Fortune, Free Man
* Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist
* Premio Nadal: Luis Romero, La noria
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Town
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems