# 1957 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1957.

## Events

* January 10 – T. S. Eliot marries his secretary Valerie Fletcher, 30 years his junior, in a private church ceremony in London. His first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, died in 1947.
* January 15 – The film Throne of Blood, a reworking of Macbeth by Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明), is released in Japan.
* March – The Cat in the Hat, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel as 'Dr. Seuss' as a more entertaining alternative to traditional literacy primers for children, is first published in a trade edition in the United States, initially selling an average of 12,000 copies a month, a figure which rises rapidly.
* March 13 – A 1950 Japanese translation of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover by Sei Itō (伊藤整) is found on appeal to be obscene.
* March 15 – Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature) is first published in Hungary as a literary magazine.
* March 21 – C. S. Lewis marries Joy Gresham in a Christian ceremony at her bedside in the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, England.
* March 25 – Copies of Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems (first published 1 November 1956) printed in England are seized by United States Customs Service officials in San Francisco on grounds of obscenity. On October 3, in People v. Ferlinghetti, a subsequent prosecution of publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the city, the work is ruled not to be obscene.
* April – John Updike moves to Ipswich, Massachusetts, the model for the fictional New England town of Tarbox in his 1968 novel Couples.
* June 2 – Joe Orton submits The Last Days of Sodom, a novel jointly written with Kenneth Halliwell, to a publisher; it is rejected within three days and they give up working in partnership.
* July 1 – The opening performance is held at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival's Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, with its thrust stage designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch.
* July 19 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh is published.
* August 7 – Italo Calvino's letter of resignation from the Italian Communist Party appears in l'Unità.
* October – The first American Beat Generation (poets Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky) stay at the "Beat Hotel" (Hotel Rachou) in Paris.
* November 22 – Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago is first published, in Italian translation, by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan, having been rejected for publication in the Soviet Union.
* unknown dates
** Justine, the first novel in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet, is published. The last will be published in 1960.
** Dorothy Parker begins writing book reviews for Esquire.
** E. E. Cummings gains a special citation from the National Book Award Committee in the United States for his Poems, 1923–1954.
** Malcolm Muggeridge is replaced by Bernard Hollowood as editor of the British Punch magazine.
** The Harry Ransom Center for research in the humanities is founded in the University of Texas at Austin by Harry Ransom.
** John Sandoe opens a bookshop in Chelsea, London.
** Noh is inscribed as an Intangible Cultural Property (Japan).
** Three neo-Grotesque sans-serif typefaces are released: Folio (designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum), Neue Haas Grotesk (Max Miedinger) and Univers (Adrian Frutiger), will influence the International Typographic Style of graphic design.

## New books
### Fiction

* Caridad Bravo Adams – Corazón salvaje
* James Agee – A Death in the Family
* Lars Ahlin – Natt i marknadstältet (Night in the Market Tent)
* Isaac Asimov
** Earth Is Room Enough
** The Naked Sun
* John Bingham – Murder Off the Record
* Ray Bradbury – Dandelion Wine
* John Braine – Room at the Top
* Fredric Brown – Rogue in Space
* Pearl S. Buck – Letter from Peking
* Michel Butor – La Modification
* John Dickson Carr – Fire, Burn!
* Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Castle to Castle (D'un château l'autre)
* John Cheever – The Wapshot Chronicle
* Agatha Christie – 4.50 from Paddington
* Mark Clifton and Frank Riley – They'd Rather Be Right
* Ivy Compton-Burnett – A Father and His Fate
* Thomas B. Costain – Below the Salt
* James Gould Cozzens – By Love Possessed
* L. Sprague de Camp – Solomon's Stone
* Freeman Wills Crofts – Anything to Declare?
* Cecil Day-Lewis – End of Chapter
* Daphne du Maurier – The Scapegoat
* Lawrence Durrell – Justine
* Shusaku Endo (遠藤 周作) – The Sea and Poison (海と毒薬)
* Ian Fleming
** The Diamond Smugglers
** From Russia, with Love
* Janet Frame – Owls Do Cry
* Sarah Gainham
** The Cold Dark Night
** The Mythmaker
* Jean Giono – The Straw Man (Le Bonheur fou)
* José Giovanni – The Break (Le Trou)
* Martyn Goff – The Plaster Fabric
* Richard Gordon – Doctor in Love
* Winston Graham – Greek Fire
* L.P. Hartley – The Hireling
* Bill Hopkins – The Divine and the Decay
* Aldous Huxley – Collected Short Stories
* James Jones – Some Came Running
* Anna Kavan – Eagle's Nest
* Jack Kerouac – On the Road
* Frances Parkinson Keyes – Blue Camellia
* Christopher Landon – Ice Cold in Alex
* Halldór Laxness – The Fish Can Sing (Brekkukotsannáll)
* Chin Yang Lee – The Flower Drum Song
* Meyer Levin – Compulsion
* H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth – The Survivor and Others
* Compton Mackenzie – Rockets Galore
* Józef Mackiewicz – Kontra
* Alistair MacLean
** The Guns of Navarone
** South by Java Head
* Naguib Mahfouz – Sugar Street
* Bernard Malamud – The Assistant
* Richard Mason – The World of Suzie Wong
* James A. Michener – Rascals in Paradise
* Gladys Mitchell – The Twenty-Third Man
* Nancy Mitford – Voltaire in Love
* C. L. Moore – Doomsday Morning
* Elsa Morante – L'isola di Arturo
* Sławomir Mrożek – Słoń (The Elephant, short stories)
* Iris Murdoch – The Sandcastle
* Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
* Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp – The Return of Conan
* Marcel Pagnol – Le Château de ma mère
* Boris Pasternak – Doctor Zhivago
* Anthony Powell – At Lady Molly's
* Maurice Procter – The Midnight Plumber
* Qu Bo (曲波) – Tracks in the Snowy Forest (林海雪原)
* Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged
* Robert Randall (pseudonym of Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett) – The Shrouded Planet
* Alain Robbe-Grillet – La Jalousie
* Douglas Rutherford – The Long Echo
* Nevil Shute – On the Beach
* Robert Paul Smith – Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing
* Muriel Spark – The Comforters
* Howard Spring – Time and the Hour
* John Steinbeck – The Short Reign of Pippin IV
* Rex Stout
** Three for the Chair
** If Death Ever Slept
* Julian Symons – The Colour of Murder
* Elizabeth Taylor – Angel
* Kay Thompson – Eloise in Paris
* Roger Vailland – La Loi
* Jack Vance – Big Planet
* Arved Viirlaid – Seitse kohtupäeva (Seven Days of Trial)
* Henry Wade – The Litmore Snatch
* Evelyn Waugh – The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
* Patrick White – Voss
* Angus Wilson – A Bit Off the Map
* John Wyndham – The Midwich Cuckoos
* Ivan Yefremov – Andromeda Nebula
* Frank Yerby – Fairoaks

### Children and young people

* Mabel Esther Allan – Ballet for Drina
* Gillian Avery – The Warden's Niece
* Rev. W. Awdry – The Eight Famous Engines (twelfth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
* Narain Dixit – Khar Khar Mahadev (serialized)
* Aileen Fisher – A Lantern in the Window
* Edward Gorey – The Doubtful Guest
* Éva Janikovszky – Csip-csup (Piffling)
* Tove Jansson – Moominland Midwinter (Trollvinter)
* Harold Keith – Rifles for Watie
* Elinor Lyon – Daughters of Aradale
* William Mayne – A Grass Rope
* Otfried Preußler – Die kleine Hexe (The Little Witch)
* Dr. Seuss
** The Cat in the Hat
** How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
* Pat Smythe – Jacqueline Rides for a Fall (first of the Three Jays series of seven books)
* Elizabeth George Speare – Calico Captive
* Tomi Ungerer – The Mellops Go Flying
* Dare Wright – The Lonely Doll

### Drama

* Samuel Beckett – Endgame and Act Without Words I (first performed); All That Fall and From an Abandoned Work (first broadcast of both)
* Emilio Carballido – El censo
* William Douglas Home – The Iron Duchess
* Christopher Fry – The Dark is Light Enough
* Jean Genet – The Balcony (Le Balcon)
* Günter Grass – Flood (Hochwasser)
* Graham Greene – The Potting Shed
* Michael Clayton Hutton – Silver Wedding
* William Inge – The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
* Errol John – Moon on a Rainbow Shawl
* Bernard Kops – The Hamlet of Stepney Green
* John Osborne
** The Entertainer
** Epitaph for George Dillon
* Harold Pinter – The Dumb Waiter (written)
* N. F. Simpson – A Resounding Tinkle
* Wole Soyinka – The Invention
* Boris Vian – Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (The Empire Builders)
* Tennessee Williams
** Baby Doll
** Orpheus Descending

### Poetry

* Robert E. Howard – Always Comes Evening
* Ted Hughes – The Hawk in the Rain
* Pier Paolo Pasolini – Le ceneri di Gramsci
* Octavio Paz – Piedra de Sol
* Jibanananda Das – Rupasi Bangla
* Robert Penn Warren – Promises: Poems, 1954–1956. Won National Book Award for Poetry – Won 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

### Non-fiction

* Abdelmajid Benjelloun – Fī l-Ṭufūla
* B. R. Ambedkar (died 1956) – The Buddha and His Dhamma
* G. E. M. Anscombe – Intention
* Catherine Drinker Bowen – The Lion and the Throne: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634). Wins 1958 National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Gerald Brenan – South from Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village
* M. Đilas – The New Class
* Will Durant – The Reformation. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Elisabeth Elliot – Through Gates of Splendor
* Charles Evans – Kangchenjunga: The Untrodden Peak
* Douglas Southall Freeman – George Washington: A Biography. Wins 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography; nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Northrop Frye – Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays
* Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd – Plats du jour, illustrated by David Gentleman
* Louis M. Hacker – Alexander Hamilton in the American. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Bray Hammond – Banks and Politics in America. Won 1958 Pulitzer Prize for History
* Gilbert Highet – Poets in a Landscape. Nominated for 1958 National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Richard Hoggart – The Uses of Literacy
* Eric John Holmyard – Alchemy
* Stuart Holroyd – Emergence from Chaos
* Ernst Kantorowicz – The King's Two Bodies
* Henry Kissinger – Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Primo Levi – If This Is a Man (Se Questo è un Uomo)
* Art Linkletter – Kids Say the Darndest Things
* Christopher Lloyd – The Mixed Border
* Mary McCarthy – Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Tom Maschler (ed.) – Declaration (anthology)
* Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley – The Untouchables
* Iris Origo – The Merchant of Prato (life and commercial career of Francesco di Marco Datini)
* Walt Whitman Rostow & Max F. Milliken – A Proposal: Key to an Effective Foreign Policy. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Jean-Paul Sartre – Search for a Method (Questions de méthode)
* David Schoenbrun – As France Goes. Nominated for National Book Award for Nonfiction
* Rodolfo Walsh – Operación Masacre
* Ian Watt – The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding
* Alan Watts – The Way of Zen
* K. A. Wittfogel – Oriental Despotism

## Births

* January 7 – Nicholson Baker, American novelist
* January 16 – Stella Tillyard, English writer and historian
* January 22 – Francis Wheen, English journalist and author
* January 27 – Frank Miller, American comic-book cartoonist and scriptwriter
* February 11 – Mitchell Symons, English writer and journalist
* February 15 – Shahriar Mandanipour, Iranian writer
* March 3 – Nicholas Shakespeare, English novelist and biographer
* March 7 – Robert Harris, English novelist and current-affairs writer
* March 20 – John Grogan, American journalist and non-fiction writer
* March 23 – Ananda Devi, Mauritian francophone fiction writer and poet
* March 26 – Paul Morley, English music journalist
* March 29 – Elizabeth Hand, American science fiction and fantasy writer
* April 3
** Rainer Karlsch, German historian
** Unni Lindell, Norwegian novelist
* May 13 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese author and screenwriter
* May 17 – Peter Høeg, Danish novelist
* May 23 – Craig Brown, English satirist
* June 8 – Scott Adams, American satirist
* July 12 – Pino Quartullo, Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright
* July 14 – Andrew Nicholls, English-born Canadian screenwriter
* July 29 – Liam Davison, Australian novelist (died 2014 in air crash)
* August 24 – Stephen Fry, English comedy performer, broadcast presenter and writer
* August 25 – Simon McBurney, British actor, writer and theatre director
* September 11 - James McBride, American writer and musician
* September 22 – Nick Cave, Australian author and musician
* October 9 – Herman Brusselmans, Belgian novelist, poet, playwright and columnist
* October 28 - Catherine Fisher, British poet and children's writer
* December 3 – Anne B. Ragde, Norwegian novelist
* December 11 – William Joyce, American children's author
* December 12 – Robert Lepage, Canadian playwright
* unknown dates
** Peter Armstrong, English poet and psychotherapist
** John Doyle, Irish-born Canadian critic
** Ana Santos Aramburo, Spanish national librarian
** Melanie Rae Thon, American author

## Deaths

* January 10 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (born 1889)
* January 13 – A. E. Coppard, English short story writer and poet (born 1878)
* January 19 – Barbu Lăzăreanu, Romanian literary historian, poet, and communist journalist (heart attack, born 1881)
* February 10 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (born 1867)
* March 7 – Wyndham Lewis, British novelist (born 1882)
* March 9 – Rhoda Power, English children's writer and broadcaster (born 1890)
* March 12 – John Middleton Murry, English critic (born 1889)
* March 28 – Christopher Morley, American journalist, novelist and poet (born 1890)
* March 29 – Joyce Cary, Irish novelist (born 1888)
* April 22 – Roy Campbell, South African poet and satirist (born 1901)
* June 17
** May Edginton, English popular novelist (born 1883)
** Dorothy Richardson, English novelist and journalist (born 1873)
* June 26
** Alfred Döblin, German novelist (born 1878)
** Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (born 1909)
* July 10
** Sholem Asch, Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist and essayist (born 1880)
** Julia Boynton Green, American author and poet (born 1861)
* July 19 – Curzio Malaparte, Italian novelist, playwright, and journalist (cancer, born 1898)
* July 21 – Kenneth Roberts, American historical novelist (born 1885)
* July 23 – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian novelist (born 1896)
* July 24 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-born French playwright, actor and director (b. 1885)
* August 1 – Rose Fyleman, English writer and poet (born 1877)
* August 21 – Mait Metsanurk, Estonian writer (born 1879)
* August 25 – Leo Perutz, Austrian-born novelist and mathematician (born 1882)
* September 2 – William Craigie, Scottish lexicographer (born 1867)
* September 12 – José Lins do Rego, Brazilian novelist (born 1901)
* September 22 – Oliver St. John Gogarty, Irish poet and memoirist (born 1878)
* October 25 – Edward Plunkett, Baron Dunsany, Irish author (born 1878)
* October 26 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek novelist (born 1883)
* November 8 – Ernest Elmore (John Bude), English crime writer and theatre director (born 1901)
* November 24 – Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, English historian and political scientist (born 1879)
* December 15 – Mulshankar Mulani, Gujarati playwright (born 1867)
* December 17 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English crime novelist (born 1893)
* December 24 – Arturo Barea, Spanish journalist, broadcaster and writer (born 1897)
* December 25 – Stanley Vestal, American writer, poet and historian (born 1877)

## Awards

* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: William Mayne, A Grass Rope
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Maurice Cranston, Life of John Locke
* Miles Franklin Award: Patrick White, Voss
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Virginia Sorenson, Miracles on Maple Hill
* Nobel Prize for Literature: Albert Camus
* Premio Nadal: Carmen Martín Gaite, Entre visillos
* Prix Goncourt: Roger Vailland, La Loi
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Wilbur: Things of This World
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Siegfried Sassoon