# 1937 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1937.

## Events

* January 9 – The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
* January 19 – BBC Television broadcasts The Underground Murder Mystery by J. Bissell Thomas from London, the first play to be written for television.
* February 6 – John Steinbeck's novella of the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men, appears in the United States.
* April – The Irish writers Elizabeth Bowen and Seán Ó Faoláin first meet, in London.
* May 14 – BBC Television broadcasts a 30-minute excerpt of Twelfth Night, the first known television broadcast of a Shakespeare piece. The cast includes Peggy Ashcroft and Greer Garson.
* May 21 – Penguin Books in the U.K. launches Pelican Books, a sixpenny paperback non-fiction imprint, with a two-volume edition of George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.
* June
** The British science fiction magazine Tales of Wonder first appears.
** John Cowper Powys visits Sycharth, birthplace of Owain Glyndŵr, which inspires his 1940 novel Owen Glendower.
* June 30 – The New England Quarterly prints poems by a colonial American pastor, Edward Taylor (died 1729), discovered by Thomas H. Johnson.
* Summer – American-born writer Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets German-born novelist Klaus Mann in Europe and they start a relationship.
* July
** Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany is established around the Goethe Oak.
** Rex Ingamells and other poets initiate the Jindyworobak Movement in Australian literature, in the magazine Venture.
** The American academic librarian Randolph Greenfield Adams writes a controversial Library Quarterly essay, "Librarians as Enemies of Books", complaining of librarians downgrading books and scholarship in favor of other tasks.
* July 4 – The Lost Colony a historical drama by Paul Green, is first performed at an outdoor theater in the place where it is set: Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
* July 31 – Stephen Vincent Benét's post-apocalyptic short story By the Waters of Babylon, inspired by April's Bombing of Guernica, is published in the U.S. The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods".
* September 10 – The Soviet playwright Sergei Tretyakov commits suicide while under sentence of death at Butyrka prison in Moscow as part of the Great Purge.
* September 21 – J. R. R. Tolkien's juvenile fantasy novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is published in England by George Allen & Unwin on the recommendation of young Rayner Unwin.
* September 29 – The French playwright Antonin Artaud is expelled from Ireland.
* October 6 – The fictional Mrs. Miniver appears in a column on domestic life by Jan Struther for The Times, London.
* November 11 (Armistice Day)
** BBC Television broadcasts Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff, 1928, set on the Western Front (World War I) in 1918, as the first full-length television adaptation of a stage play. Reginald Tate plays the lead, having long performed it in the theatre.
** Caesar, Orson Welles's modern-dress bare-stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, premieres as the first production of the Mercury Theatre in New York City.
* December 21 – Dr. Seuss's first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is published by Vanguard Press.
* unknown dates
** The National Library of Iran is inaugurated in Tehran.
** The future novelist Angus Wilson becomes a book cataloguer at the British Museum Library in London.

## New books
### Fiction

* Felix Aderca – Orașele înecate (Sunken Cities)
* Shakib al-Jabiri – al-Naham (Greed)
* Eric Ambler – Uncommon Danger
* Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay – Chander Pahar (চাঁদের পাহড়, Mountain of the Moon)
* Vicki Baum – Love and Death in Bali (Liebe und Tod auf Bali)
* Anthony Berkeley – Trial and Error
* Georges Bernanos – Mouchette
* Ion Biberi – Oameni în ceață (People in the Fog)
* Karen Blixen – Out of Africa (published in US as by Isak Dinesen; published in Denmark as Den afrikanske farm)
* Phyllis Bottome – The Mortal Storm
* John Bude – The Cheltenham Square Murder
* Morley Callaghan – More Joy in Heaven
* John Dickson Carr (as Carter Dickson) – The Ten Teacups
* Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot stories
** Death on the Nile
** Dumb Witness
** Murder in the Mews
* Stuart Cloete – Turning Wheels
* J. J. Connington – A Minor Operation
* Murray Constantine – Swastika Night
* Freeman Wills Crofts – Found Floating
* A. J. Cronin – The Citadel
* James Curtis – There Ain't No Justice
* Ludovic Dauș – O jumătate de om (Half a Man)
* Cecil Day-Lewis – There's Trouble Brewing
* Pierre Drieu La Rochelle – Rêveuse bourgeoisie
* Lawrence Durrell (as Charles Norden) – Panic Spring
* Hans Fallada – Wolf Among Wolves (Wolf unter Wölfen)
* Max Frisch – An Answer from the Silence (Antwort aus der Stille)
* Zona Gale – Light Woman
* Anthony Gilbert
** The Man Who Wasn't There
** Murder Has No Tongue
* Witold Gombrowicz – Ferdydurke
* Cyril Hare – Tenant for Death
* Sadegh Hedayat – The Blind Owl (بوف کور, Boof-e koor)
* Ernest Hemingway – To Have and Have Not
* Robert Hichens – Daniel Airlie
* Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock – The Far-Distant Oxus
* Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God
* Michael Innes – Hamlet, Revenge!
* Margaret Irwin – The Stranger Prince
* Franz Kafka (posthumously translated by Willa and Edwin Muir) – The Trial (first English translation of Der Process)
* Irmgard Keun – After Midnight (Nach Mitternacht)
* Ronald Knox – Double Cross Purposes
* Kalki Krishnamurthy – Kalvaninn Kaadhali
* Halldór Laxness – Ljós heimsins (The Light of the World) – Part I, Heimsljós (World Light)
* Alexander Lernet-Holenia
** Der Mann im Hut
** Mona Lisa
* Meyer Levin – The Old Bunch
* E. C. R. Lorac
** Bats in the Belfry
** These Names Make Clues
* Ngaio Marsh – Vintage Murder
* A. E. W. Mason – The Drum
* Cameron McCabe – The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
* Compton Mackenzie – The East Wind of Love (first in The Four Winds of Love series of six books)
* W. Somerset Maugham – Theatre
* Oscar Millard – Uncensored
* Gladys Mitchell – Come Away, Death
* R. K. Narayan – The Bachelor of Arts
* Elliot Paul – Life and Death of a Spanish Town
* Robert Prechtl – Titanic
* Ellery Queen – The Door Between
* "Kurban Said" – Ali and Nino (Ali und Nino)
* Ruth Sawyer – Roller Skates
* Dorothy L. Sayers – Busman's Honeymoon
* Margery Sharp – The Nutmeg Tree
* Bruno Schulz – Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą)
* Naoya Shiga (志賀 直哉) – A Dark Night's Passing (暗夜行路, An'ya Kōro)
* "Siburapha" – Behind the Painting (ข้างหลังภาพ, Khang Lang Phap)
* Olaf Stapledon – Star Maker
* John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men
* Rex Stout – The Red Box
* Cecil Street
** Death at the Club
** Death in the Hopfields
** Death on the Board
** Murder in Crown Passage
** Proceed with Caution
* Antal Szerb – Journey by Moonlight (Utas és holdvilág)
* Phoebe Atwood Taylor
** Figure Away
** Octagon House
** Beginning with a Bash (as by Alice Tilton)
* Henry Wade – The High Sheriff
* Mika Waltari – A Stranger Came to the Farm (Vieras mies tuli taloon)
* Ethel Lina White – The Elephant Never Forgets
* Charles Williams – Descent into Hell
* Virginia Woolf – The Years
* Francis Brett Young
** Portrait of a Village
** They Seek a Country

### Children and young people

* Enid Blyton – The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair
* C. S. Forester – The Happy Return (also as Beat to Quarters)
* Eve Garnett – The Family from One End Street
* Hergé – The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée)
* Kornel Makuszyński – Argument About Basia (Awantura o Basię)
* Carola Oman – Robin Hood
* Arthur Ransome – We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
* Kate Seredy – The White Stag
* Dr. Seuss – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
* J. R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit
* Laura Ingalls Wilder – On the Banks of Plum Creek
* Henry Winterfeld (as Manfred Michael) – Timpetill – Die Stadt ohne Eltern (Timpetill – Parentless City, translated 1963 as Trouble at Timpetill)

### Drama

* Anthony Armstrong – Mile Away Murder
* Bertolt Brecht with Margarete Steffin – Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar (adapted from J. M. Synge's Señora Carrar's Rifles)
* Karel Čapek – The White Disease (Bílá nemoc)
* Paul Vincent Carroll – Shadow and Substance
* Jeffrey Dell – Blondie White
* Reginald Denham and Edward Percy Smith
* The Last Straw
* Suspect
* Ian Hay – The Gusher
* Margaret Kennedy – Autumn
* Arthur Kober – "Having Wonderful Time"
* Richard Llewellyn – Poison Pen
* W.P. Lipscomb – Thank You, Mr. Pepys!
* Robert McLellan – Jamie the Saxt
* Robert Morley – Goodness, How Sad
* J. B. Priestley – Time and the Conways
* Walter Charles Roberts – Red Harvest
* Gerald Savory – George and Margaret
* Dodie Smith – Bonnet Over the Windmill
* John Van Druten – Gertie Maude
* Louis Verneuil – The Train for Venice
* Hella Wuolijoki writing as Juhani Tervapää – Juurakon Hulda
* John Ferguson, editor – Seven Famous One-Act Plays (published)

### Poetry

* David Jones – In Parenthesis (part prose)
* Isaac Rosenberg (killed in action 1918) – Collected Works

### Non-fiction

* Hilaire Belloc – The Crusades: the World's Debate
* Alf K. Berle and L. Sprague de Camp – Inventions and Their Management
* Robert Byron – The Road to Oxiana
* Jean Giono – Les Vraies Richesses
* Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich
* Carl Jung – Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process
* Walter Lippmann – The Good Society
* John Neal – American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824–1825) (edited by Fred Lewis Pattee)
* Manuel Chaves Nogales – A sangre y fuego: Héroes, bestias y mártires de España (Fire and sword: heroes, beasts and martyrs of Spain)
* George Orwell – The Road to Wigan Pier
* Eric Partridge – A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
* N. Porsenna – Regenerarea neamului românesc (Regeneration of the Romanian People)
* A. L. Zissu – Logos, Israel, Biserica (Logos, Israel, The Church)

## Births

* January 1 – John Fuller, English poet
* January 7 – Ian La Frenais, English television comedy writer
* January 8 – Leon Forrest, African-American novelist and essayist (died 1997)
* January 9 – Judith Krantz, American novelist (died 2019)
* January 13 – Jean D'Costa, Jamaican children's novelist
* January 14 – J. Bernlef, born Hendrik Jan Marsman, Dutch poet, novelist and translator (died 2012)
* January 22 – Joseph Wambaugh, American mystery novelist and non-fiction writer (died 2025)
* January 23 – Juan Radrigán, Chilean playwright (died 2016)
* February 11 – Maryse Condé, Guadeloupe historical fiction writer (died 2024)
* February 20 – George Leonardos, Greek journalist and novelist
* February 21 – Jilly Cooper, English novelist and journalist
* February 27 – Peter Hamm, German poet, author, journalist, editor and literary critic (died 2019)
* March 14 – Jan Karon (Janice Wilson), American novelist and children's writer
* March 15 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (died 2015)
* March 20 – Lois Lowry, American children's and young-adult writer
* April 10 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (died 2010)
* April 29 – Jill Paton Walsh (Gillian Bliss), English novelist (died 2020)
* May 8 – Thomas Pynchon, American novelist
* May 13
** Roch Carrier, Canadian novelist and short-story writer
** Roger Zelazny, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (died 1995)
* May 20 – Maria Teresa Horta, Portuguese feminist poet, novelist, journalist and activist (died 2025)
* June 1 – Colleen McCullough, Australian novelist (died 2015)
* June 16 – Erich Segal, American novelist (died 2010)
* July 3 – Tom Stoppard (Tomáš Straussler), Czech-born English dramatist
* July 6 – Bessie Head, South African-born Botswanan fiction writer (died 1986)
* August 3 – Peter van Gestel, Dutch writer (died 2019)
* August 5 – Carla Lane (Romana Barrack), English comedy writer (died 2016)
* August 19
** Richard Ingrams, English editor
** Alexander Vampilov, Russian dramatist (drowned 1972)
* September 5 – Dick Clement, English television comedy writer
* September 23 – Jacques Poulin, Canadian novelist
* September 26 – Marina Colasanti, Brazilian writer (died 2025)
* October 4 – Jackie Collins, English-born romance novelist (died 2015)
* October 7 – Christopher Booker, English journalist and editor (died 2019)
* November 9
** Roger McGough, English poet
** S. Abdul Rahman, Tamil poet (died 2017)
* November 17 – Peter Cook, English comedian, satirist and writer (died 1995)
* December 11 – Jim Harrison, American novelist and poet (died 2016)
* December 22
** David F. Case, American novelist and short story writer
** Charlotte Lamb (Sheila Holland, Sheila Coates, etc.), English romantic novelist (died 2000)
* unknown date – Parijat (Bishnu Kumari Waiba), Nepalese novelist and poet (died 1993)

## Deaths

* January 5 – Alberto de Oliveira, Brazilian poet (born 1857)
* January 11 – Emma A. Cranmer, American author, reformer, suffragist (born 1858)
* February 19
** Edward Garnett, English critic (born 1868)
** Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan short story writer (suicide, born 1878)
* March 7 – Tomas O'Crohan, Irish Gaelic writer and fisherman (born 1856)
* March 8 – Albert Verwey, Dutch poet (born 1865)
* March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, American horror writer (intestinal cancer, born 1890)
* March 25 – John Drinkwater, English poet and dramatist (born 1882)
* May 20 – Frederic Taber Cooper, American editor and writer (born 1864)
* June 4 – W. F. Harvey, English horror-story writer (born 1885)
* June 13 – William F. Lloyd, English-born Newfoundland journalist and prime minister (born 1864)
* June 19 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (born 1860)
* June 22 – Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Malagasy poet (suicide, born 1901 or 1903)
* July 18 – Julian Bell, English poet (killed in Spanish Civil War, born 1908)
* July 29 — Ella Maria Ballou, American writer (born 1852)
* August 11 – Edith Wharton (Edith Newbold Jones), American novelist and short-story writer (born 1862)
* August 14 – H. C. McNeile (Sapper), English novelist and soldier (born 1888)
* September 13 – Ellis Parker Butler, American humorist, novelist and essayist (born 1869)
* October 13 – Dmitrii Milev, Soviet Moldovan shorty story writer and critic (shot, born 1887)
* October 15 – Samuil Lehtțir, Soviet Moldovan poet, critic and literary theorist (shot, born 1901)
* October 16 – Jean de Brunhoff, French children's author and illustrator (born 1899)
* November 3 – Mykola Kulish, Ukrainian writer (shot with many other Ukrainian intellectuals at Sandarmokh, born 1892)
* November 3 – Mykola Zerov, Ukrainian poet, translator, classical and literary scholar and critic (shot at Sandarmokh, born 1890)
* November 3 – Valerian Pidmohylny, Ukrainian writer, (shot at Sandarmokh, born 1901)
* November 3 – Hryhorii Epik, Ukrainian writer and journalist (shot at Sandarmokh, born 1901)
* November 3 – Myroslav Irchan, Ukrainian storywriter and playwright (shot at Sandarmokh, born 1897)
* October 17 – Florence Dugdale, English children's writer, widow of Thomas Hardy (cancer, born 1879)
* October 22 – Chūya Nakahara (中原 中也), Japanese poet (meningitis, born 1907)
* October 31 – Ralph Connor, Canadian novelist (born 1860)
* c. December – Filimon Săteanu, Soviet Moldovan poet (shot, born 1907)
* December 9 – Frances Nimmo Greene, American novelist, short story writer, children's writer, playwright (born 1867)
* December 24 – Elizabeth Haldane, Scottish author, philosopher and suffragist (born 1862)
* December 26
   * Ivor Gurney, English war poet and composer (tuberculosis, born 1890)
   * Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller, American novelist (born 1850)
* December 29 – Don Marquis, American poet (stroke, born 1878)
* unknown date — Clara H. Hazelrigg, American author, educator and reformer (born 1859)

## Awards

* Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Eve Garnett, The Family From One End Street
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Neil M. Gunn, Highland River
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ruth Sawyer, Roller Skates
* Nobel Prize in Literature: Roger Martin du Gard
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It with You
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost, A Further Range
* Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
* King's Gold Medal for Poetry: W. H. Auden