1936 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1936.

Events

January 8 â Jewish booksellers throughout Nazi Germany are deprived of their Reich Publications Chamber membership cards, without which no one can sell books.^[2]
May â The Greek poet and Communist activist Yiannis Ritsos is inspired to write his poem Epitaphios by a photograph of a dead protester at a massive tobacco workers' demonstration in Thessaloniki. It is published soon after. In August, the right-wing dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas comes to power in Greece and copies are burned publicly at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.^[3]
May 16â17 â About 30 left-wing writers of the Second Polish Republic gather at the Lviv Anti-Fascist Congress of Cultural Workers.
August 3 â George Heywood Hill establishes the Heywood Hill bookshop in London's Mayfair.
August 18 â The 38-year-old Spanish dramatist, Federico GarcÃa Lorca, is arrested by Francoist militia during the White Terror and never seen alive again. His brother-in-law, Manuel FernÃ¡ndez-Montesinos, the leftist mayor of Granada, is shot on the same day.^[4]^[5] Lorca's play The House of Bernarda Alba (La casa de Bernarda Alba), completed on June 19, will not be performed until 1945.
November 6 â After United States publication in 1934, the U.K. authorities decide they will not prosecute or seize copies of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.^[6]
November 23 â Life magazine begins to appear as a weekly news magazine in the United States, under the management of Henry Luce.
unknown dates
- The New Theatre, Sydney, in Australia, attempts to stage Clifford Odets' anti-Nazi drama Till the Day I Die; the German Consul General in the country complains to the Commonwealth Government and the play is banned; but the theatre stages the play in private premises.^[7]
- The first lighthearted crime novel by Scottish-born university teacher of English literature J. I. M. Stewart, writing as Michael Innes, is published: Death at the President's Lodging, set in Oxford. It introduces his long-running character Detective Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard.^[8]
- The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is inaugurated by the Library Association in the United Kingdom. The first winner is Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post.^[9]

New books

Poetry

W. H. Auden â Look, Stranger!^[13]
Gottfried Benn â AusgewÃ¤hlte Gedichte (Selected Poems)
T. S. Eliot â Collected Poems 1909â35^[13] including "Burnt Norton", first of the Four Quartets
Patrick Kavanagh â Ploughman, and Other Poems
Michael Roberts (ed.) â The Faber Book of Modern Verse
Dylan Thomas â Twenty-five Poems^[13]
W. B. Yeats (ed.) â The Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892â1935

Non-fiction

A. J. Ayer â Language, Truth, and Logic
John Dickson Carr â The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey
Victor Hugo Green â The Negro Motorist Green Book (1st edn)
Graham Greene â Journey Without Maps
Richard Foster Jones â Ancients and Moderns: A Study of the Background of The Battle of the Books
Carl Gustav Jung â The Idea of Redemption in Alchemy (Die ErlÃ¶sungsvorstellungen in der Alchemie)
John Maynard Keynes â The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Osbert Lancaster â Progress at Pelvis Bay
F. R. Leavis â Revaluation: Tradition and Development in English Poetry
C. S. Lewis â The Allegory of Love
Karl Mannheim â Ideology and Utopia
Edwin Muir â Scott and Scotland
George Orwell â "Bookshop Memories"
Olavi Paavolainen â Kolmannen valtakunnan vieraana (Guest of the Third Reich)
J. R. R. Tolkien â "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (version of a lecture)

Births

January 5 â Florence King, American writer (died 2016)
January 10 â Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian (died 2002)
January 28 â Ismail Kadare, Albanian novelist and poet (died 2024)
February 12 â Shawkat Ali, Bangladeshi writer (died 2018)
February 18 â Jean M. Auel, American historical novelist
March 2 â Gondoo U Thein Naing, Burmese writer (died 2025)
March 7 â Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker and essayist (died 1982)
March 28
- Peter Mayer, English-born publisher (died 2018)
- Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer, politician, journalist and essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate (died 2025)
March 29 â Judith Guest, American novelist and screenwriter
March 31 â Marge Piercy, American poet and activist
April 13 â Choi In-hun, South Korean writer (died 2018)
April 30 â Viktor Likhonosov, Soviet Russian writer and editor (died 2021)
May 10 â Anthea Bell, English translator (died 2018)
May 23 â Ian Kennedy Martin, English scriptwriter and novelist
May 27 â Ivo BreÅ¡an, Croatian playwright, novelist, screenwriter and satirist (died 2016)
June 3
- Duff Hart-Davis, English biographer and journalist
- Larry McMurtry, American novelist, essayist and screenwriter (died 2021)
June 9 â Nell Dunn, English playwright and author
June 18 â Dick Wimmer, American novelist (died 2011)
June 23 â Richard Bach, American novelist and non-fiction writer
June 24 â J. H. Prynne, English poet (died 2026)
June 29 â David Rudkin, English playwright
July 5 â Valerie Flint, English medieval historian (died 2009)
July 6 â Abidullah Ghazi, Indian-American author, educator and poet (died 2021)
August 8 â Jan PieÅkowski, Polish-born British children's writer and illustrator (died 2022)
August 24 â A. S. Byatt, English novelist (died 2023)
August 27 â Philippe Labro, French writer, journalist and film director (died 2025)
September 1 â Roderick Thorp, American novelist (died 1999)
September 2 â KÃ¡roly KrajczÃ¡r, Hungarian Slovene teacher, writer and collector (died 2018)
September 10 â Peter Lovesey, English crime fiction and short story writer (died 2025)
September 20 â Andrew Davies, Welsh novelist and screenwriter
September 26 â Victor Watson, English children's writer and academic
October 1 â Kailayar Sellanainar Sivakumaran, Sri Lankan writer, art and literary critic, journalist and radio and TV personality
October 5 â VÃ¡clav Havel, Czech dramatist and first president of Czech Republic (died 2011)
November 4 â C. K. Williams, American poet (died 2015)
November 17 â John Wells, English satirical writer and actor (died 1998)
November 18 â Suzette Haden Elgin, American science fiction writer (died 2015)^[14]
November 20 â Don DeLillo, American novelist
November 25 â William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet (died 2015)
November 27 â Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (died 2005)
December 1 â Ma VÄn KhÃ¡ng, Vietnamese writer
December 2 â Hebe Uhart, Argentine writer (died 2018)
December 5
- James Lee Burke, American writer
- Lewis Nkosi, Zulu writer (died 2010)
December 11 â Ingvar Moe, Norwegian poet, novelist and children's writer (died 1993)
December 17 â Frank Martinus Arion, CuraÃ§aoan novelist and poet (died 2015)

Deaths

January 4 â James Churchward, British writer (born 1851)
January 5 â RamÃ³n del Valle-InclÃ¡n, Spanish dramatist and novelist (born 1866)
January 17 â Mateiu Caragiale, Romanian novelist and poet (stroke, born 1885)
January 18 â Rudyard Kipling, English writer and Nobel laureate (born 1865)
February 7 â Elizabeth Robins Pennell, American biographer and critic based in London (born 1855)
February 8 â Rahel Sanzara, German dancer, actress and novelist (cancer, born 1894)
February 23 â Lidia Veselitskaya (V. Mikulich), Russian novelist, memoirist and translator (born 1857)
March 1 â Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian poet, musician and novelist (born 1872)
March 9 â A. de Herz, Romanian playwright and journalist (hemoptysis, born 1887)
March 16 â Marguerite Durand, French actress and journalist (born 1864)
April 30 â A. E. Housman, English poet (born 1859)
June 11 â Robert E. Howard, American fantasy writer (suicide, born 1906)
June 12:
- M. R. James, English ghost story writer and scholar (born 1862)
- Karl Kraus, Austrian writer and journalist (born 1874)
June 14 â G. K. Chesterton, English novelist, poet and Catholic apologist (born 1874)
June 18 â Maxim Gorky, Russian dramatist (born 1868)
July 25 â Donald Maxwell, English travel writer and illustrator (born 1877)
July 26 â F. J. Harvey Darton English children's literature historian and publisher (born 1878)
August 8 â Mourning Dove, Native American writer (born 1884)
August 15 â Grazia Deledda, Sardinian-born novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1871)
August 19 â Federico GarcÃa Lorca, Spanish dramatist and poet (shot, born 1898)
August 26 â Juliette Adam, French author (born 1836)^[15]
October 5 â J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (born 1898)
October 9 â Harriette A. Keyser, American industrial reformer (born 1841)
November 12 â Stefan GrabiÅski, Polish horror writer (born 1887)
December â Emma Sheridan Fry, American actor, playwright, and drama teacher (born 1864)
December 10 â Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist and novelist (born 1867)
December 24 â Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley, English horticulturist and garden writer (born 1872)
December 27 â KristÃna RoyovÃ¡, Slovak novelist, religious writer and poet (born 1860)
December 28 â John Cornford, English poet (killed in action, born 1915)^[16]
December 31 â Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish novelist, poet and scholar (born 1864)
date unknown â Bertha M. Wilson, American playwright, critic and actress (born 1874)

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Winifred Holtby, South Riding
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn
Nobel Prize in Literature: Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
Prix Goncourt: Maxence Van Der Meersch, L'Empreinte de Dieu^[17]
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Strange Holiness
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Harold L. Davis, Honey in the Horn

1936 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References

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