 the year 1961 in literature involved some significant events and new works. ==events== *january 24 - american dramatist arthur miller and film star marilyn monroe are granted a divorce in mexico, on the grounds of "incompatibility". *february - sylvia plath suffers a miscarriage. several of her poems, including "parliament hill fields", address this event. *march 15 - hugh wheeler's comedy big fish, little fish opens at the anta theatre in new york city. directed by sir john gielgud, it is one of the first broadway plays to explore frankly the issue of male homosexuality. *march 20 - shakespeare memorial theatre, stratford-upon-avon, becomes the royal shakespeare theatre and its company the royal shakespeare company (peter hall (director)). *may - grove press publishes henry miller's tropic of cancer in the united states 27 years after its original publication in france. the book leads to one of many obscenity trials (grove press, inc., v. gerstein) that test american laws on pornography in the 1960s. *september 14 - novelist william golding, having resigned his post at bishop wordsworth's school in salisbury, sets off from england to spend the academic year 1961/62 teaching at hollins college, virginia, usa. *richard booth opens a second-hand bookshop in hay-on-wye on the english border with wales. *first english production of bertolt brecht's the resistible rise of arturo ui. *british bookseller whsmith closes the last of its in-store circulating library branches. *michael halliday publishes h
1961_books Years_in_literature