1977 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1977.

Events

February 20 – An episode of Doctor on the Go, co-written by Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman, marks the beginning of Adams' career as a writer for BBC radio.^[1]
March 4 – Andrés Caicedo commits suicide by overdose, aged 25, about a month after the publication of his novel ¡Que viva la música! ("Let Music Live!", translated as Liveforever) in his home town of Cali, Colombia.^[2]
April 27 – Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Argentine comic book writer born 1919), is kidnapped by the military authorities; he is believed to have died in detention a few months later.^[3]
July 11 – The English magazine Gay News is found guilty of blasphemous libel for publishing a homoerotic poem, "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name" by James Kirkup, in a case (Whitehouse v Lemon) at the Old Bailey in London, on behalf of Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association. John Mortimer appears for the defence. It is the first such prosecution since 1921 and will be the last before the offense is abolished in 2008.^[4]^[5]
September 15 – Christopher Tolkien, with Guy Gavriel Kay, completes and publishes his late father's work, The Silmarillion.
Fall – Philosophy and Literature appears as an academic journal founded at Johns Hopkins University. It explores connections between literary and philosophical studies, presenting ideas on the aesthetics of literature, critical theory, and the philosophical interpretation of literature.
October – Norman Mailer punches Gore Vidal in the face at a New York City party.^[6]
December 31 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii are detained in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, Kenya, six weeks after the première of their political Kikuyu language play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) at the open-air Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre. While imprisoned, Ngũgĩ will write the first modern novel in Kikuyu, Devil on the Cross (Caitaani mũtharaba-Inĩ), on prison-issue toilet paper.^[7]

New books

Births

February 21 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
March 4 – Dan Wells, American horror and science fiction author
May 2 – Alessandro D'Avenia, Italian writer^[27]
July 18 – Alfian Sa'at, Singaporean writer, poet and playwright
August 24 – John Green, American author and YouTube vlogger^[28]
October 16 – Laura Wade, English playwright
September 5 – Tena Štivičić, Croatian playwright
September 15 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist
November 12 – Richelle Mead, American young-adult novelist

Deaths

January 5 – Artur Adson, Estonian poet, writer and theatre critic (b. 1889)^[29]
January 14 – Anaïs Nin, French-Cuban erotic novelist and diarist (born 1903)^[30]
January 18 – Carl Zuckmayer, German playwright (born 1896)^[31]
January 26 – William Glynne-Jones, Welsh novelist and children's writer (born 1907)
February 19 – Anthony Crosland, British author and politician (born 1918)^[32]
February 27 – John Dickson Carr, American crime novelist (born 1906)^[33]
March 4
- Andrés Caicedo, Colombian novelist and cinéaste (suicide, born 1951)^[2]
- Mihai Gafița, Romanian editor, literary historian and children's novelist (killed in earthquake, born 1923)
- Alexandru Ivasiuc, Romanian novelist (killed in earthquake, born 1933)
March 15 – Hubert Aquin, French Canadian novelist, essayist and political activist (suicide, born 1929))
April 7 – Jim Thompson, American fiction writer (born 1906)
April 11 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (born 1900)^[34]
May 9 – James Jones, American novelist (heart failure, born 1921)
July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian/American novelist (born 1899)
July 15 – Konstantin Fedin, Russian writer (born 1892)
July 20 – Friedrich Georg Jünger, German writer (born 1898)
August 13 – Henry Williamson, English naturalist and novelist (born 1895)^[35]
August 20 – Gurbaksh Singh, Punjabi novelist (born 1914)^[36]
August 26 – H. A. Rey, German-born American children's writer and illustrator (born 1898)
September 1 – Ștefan Tita, Romanian polygraph and journalist activist (born 1905)
September 4 – E. F. Schumacher, German-born economist (born 1911)
September 12 – Robert Lowell, American poet (heart attack, born 1917)^[37]
October 27 – James M. Cain, American novelist and newspaperman (born 1892)
November 10 – Dennis Wheatley, English occult novelist (born 1897)^[38]
November 30
- Miloš Crnjanski, Serbian poet and novelist (born 1893)
- Terence Rattigan, English dramatist (bone cancer, born 1911)
December 9 – Clarice Lispector, Brazilian novelist (ovarian cancer, born 1920)
December 22 – Frank Thiess, German novelist (born 1890)