1969 in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| List of years in literature |
|---|
| (table) |
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1969.
- February 8 – After 147 years, the last issue of The Saturday Evening Post in its original form appears in the United States.[1]
- March 23 – German-born writer Assia Wevill, a mistress of the English poet Ted Hughes and ex-wife of the Canadian poet David Wevill, gasses herself and their daughter at her London home.[2]
- April 22 – The first Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction is awarded to P. H. Newby for Something to Answer For.[3]
- August – "Penelope Ashe", purported author of a bestselling novel, Naked Came the Stranger, is revealed as a group of Newsday journalists.[4]
- unknown date – The Times Literary Supplement begins using the abbreviation "TLS" on its title page.[5]
New books
Fiction
- Eva Alexanderson – Kontradans (Counter-dance)[6]
- Eric Ambler – The Intercom Conspiracy
- Jorge Amado – Tenda dos Milagres (Tent of Miracles)
- Kingsley Amis – The Green Man
- William H. Armstrong – Sounder
- Penelope Ashe – Naked Came the Stranger
- Margaret Atwood – The Edible Woman
- René Barjavel – Les Chemins de Katmandou[7]
- Ray Bradbury – I Sing the Body Electric
- Melvyn Bragg – The Hired Man
- Christianna Brand – Court of Foxes
- William S. Burroughs – The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
- Victor Canning – Queen's Pawn[8]
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Rigadoon[9]
- Agatha Christie – Hallowe'en Party
- Michael Crichton – The Andromeda Strain[10]
- John Cheever – Bullet Park
- A. J. Cronin – A Pocketful of Rye[11]
- Henry de Montherlant – Les Garçons (The Boys)
- L. Sprague de Camp – The Golden Wind[12]
- Philip K. Dick – Ubik
- Marion Eames – Y Stafell Ddirgel (The Secret Room)[13]
- John Fowles – The French Lieutenant's Woman[14]
- George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman[15]
- Paul Gallico – The Poseidon Adventure
- Rumer Godden – In This House of Brede
- Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt[16]
- Sam Greenlee – The Spook Who Sat by the Door
- Günter Grass – Local Anaesthetic (Örtlich betäubt)
- Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah
- Raymond Hitchcock – Percy[17]
- Richard Horn – Encyclopedia[18]
- Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – Conan of Cimmeria
- B. S. Johnson – The Unfortunates
- David H. Keller – The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales
- Derek Lambert
- Ursula Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness
- Elmore Leonard – The Big Bounce
- Doris Lessing – The Four-Gated City
- H. P. Lovecraft and Others – Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
- John D. MacDonald – Dress Her in Indigo
- Félicien Marceau – Creezy
- Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) – Runaway Horses
- Michael Moorcock – Behold the Man
- C. L. Moore – Jirel of Joiry
- Vladimir Nabokov – Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
- M. T. Vasudevan Nair – Kaalam ("Time")
- Patrick O'Brian – Master and Commander
- Don Pendleton – War Against The Mafia
- Chaim Potok – The Promise
- Manuel Puig – Little Painted Mouths
- Mario Puzo – The Godfather
- Ellery Queen – The Campus Murders
- Pauline Réage – Retour à Roissy
- Mordecai Richler – The Street
- Harold Robbins – The Inheritors
- Philip Roth – Portnoy's Complaint
- Gabriel Ruhumbika – Village in Uhuru
- Giorgio Scerbanenco
- Irwin Shaw – Rich Man, Poor Man
- Dag Solstad – Irr! Grønt![19]
- Rex Stout – Death of a Dude
- Jacqueline Susann – The Love Machine
- Theodore Taylor – The Cay
- Colin Thiele – Blue Fin
- Jack Vance
- Mario Vargas Llosa – Conversation in The Cathedral
- Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five
- Charity Waciuma – Daughter of Mumbi
- Irving Wallace – The Seven Minutes
- Keith Waterhouse – Everything Must Go
- Colin Wilson – The Philosopher's Stone
- Roger Zelazny
Children and young people
- Rev. W. Awdry – Oliver the Western Engine (twenty-fourth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
- Eric Carle – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Frances Carpenter – South American Wonder Tales
- Penelope Farmer – Charlotte Sometimes
- Rumer Godden – Operation Sippacik
- Gary Paulsen – Mr. Tucket (first in Mr. Tucket series)
- Barbara Sleigh – The Snowball
- William Steig – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
- John Rowe Townsend – The Intruder
- Elfrida Vipont with Raymond Briggs – The Elephant and the Bad Baby
- Anne de Vries – Into the Darkness (first in the Reis door de nacht series of five books)
Drama
- Leilah Assunção – Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito (Speak Quietly or I’ll Scream)
- Aimé Césaire – Une Tempête
- Dario Fo – Mistero Buffo[20]
- Athol Fugard – Boesman and Lena[21]
- Joe Orton – What the Butler Saw (posthumously premiered and published)[22]
- Michael Pertwee – She's Done It Again
- Dennis Potter – Son of Man (television)[23]
- Dalmiro Sáenz – Quién yo? (Who me?)
- David Storey – In Celebration
- Paul Zindel – Let Me Hear You Whisper
Poetry
- James Schuyler – Freely Espousing
Non-fiction
- Dean Acheson – Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
- Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- Fernand Braudel – Ecrits sur l'Histoire (translated as On History, 1980)
- H. Rap Brown – Die Nigger Die!
- Henri Charrière – Papillon
- L. Sprague de Camp and George H. Scithers (editors) – The Conan Swordbook
- Antonia Fraser – Mary Queen of Scots
- Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen – The Little Red Schoolbook (Den Lille Røde Bog For Skoleelever)
- Pauline Kael – Going Steady
- Anton LaVey – The Satanic Bible
- Laurie Lee – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning[24]
- Dwight Macdonald – On Movies
- Desmond Morris – The Human Zoo
- Harold Perkin – The Origins of Modern English Society 1780–1880
- Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull – The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong[25]
- David Reuben – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
Births
- January – Adrian Goldsworthy, Welsh military historian and novelist[26]
- January 12 – David Mitchell, English novelist[27]
- January 17 – Michael Moynihan, American journalist and publisher
- January 21 – M. K. Hobson, American speculative fiction author
- March – Jez Butterworth, English dramatist and screenwriter
- May 6 – Emmanuel Larcenet, French comics author
- May 6 – John Scalzi, American science-fiction author
- May 28 – Muriel Barbery, French novelist[28]
- May 29 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Korean-born novelist (suicide 1995)
- June 13 – Virginie Despentes, French writer[29]
- July 5 – Armin Kõomägi, Estonian author and screenwriter
- August 4 – Jojo Moyes, English journalist and romantic novelist
- September 12 – James Frey, American writer
- September 30 – Julianna Baggott, American novelist, essayist, and poet
- October 15 – Nora Ikstena, Latvian writer (died 2026)[30]
- October 24 – Emma Donoghue, Irish-born Canadian novelist, dramatist, and academic
- November 13 – John Belluso, American dramatist (died 2006)
- November 28 – Hanne Ørstavik, Norwegian novelist[31]
- November 30 – David Auburn, American dramatist
- December 12 – Sophie Kinsella, English novelist (died 2025)
- unknown dates
- John Harris, English writer, journalist and critic[32]
- Tom McCarthy, English novelist