This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1938.
Children and young people
Claire Huchet Bishop – The Five Chinese Brothers
Enid Blyton – The Secret Island
C. S. Forester
A Ship of the Line
Flying Colours
Eleanor Graham – The Children Who Lived in a Barn
Joan Kahn – "Ladies and Gentlemen," said the Ringmaster
Eric Knight – Lassie Come-Home
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – The Yearling
Kate Seredy – The White Stag
Noel Streatfeild – The Circus Is Coming
T. H. White – The Sword in the Stone
John F. C. Westerman – John Wentley Takes Charge (first in the John Wentley series of three books)
Ursula Moray Williams – Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse
Jean Anouilh – Thieves' Carnival (Le Bal des Voleurs)
Robert Ardrey – Casey Jones
Patrick Hamilton – Gas Light
Esther McCracken – Quiet Wedding
Kaj Munk – Han sidder ved Smeltediglen
J. B. Priestley – When We Are Married
Robert E. Sherwood – Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Dodie Smith – Dear Octopus
Rodolfo Usigli – El gesticulador
Theodore Ward – Big White Fog
Thornton Wilder – Our Town
Emlyn Williams – The Corn is Green
Alfred Kreymborg – The Planets: A Modern Allegory (radio play in verse)
Hall Caine (died 1931) – Life of Christ
Cyril Connolly – Enemies of Promise
Geoffrey Faber – The Romance of a Bookshop 1904–1938
Edgar Innes Fripp (died 1931) – Shakespeare, Man and Artist
Elie Halévy – The Era of Tyrannies
Jomo Kenyatta – Facing Mount Kenya
Anne Morrow Lindbergh – Listen! The Wind
Robert McAlmon – Being Geniuses Together, 1920–1930
Thomas Mann – The Coming Victory of Democracy
George Orwell – Homage to Catalonia
Virginia Woolf – Three Guineas
January 5 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (also known as James Ngigi), Kenyan novelist
January 20 – Liz Calder, English publisher and editor
February 9 – Jovette Marchessault, French Canadian writer and artist (died 2012)
February 12
Judy Blume, American children's author
Tor Obrestad, Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer
February 22 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, essayist and novelist
March 1 – Michael Kurland, American author of sci-fi and detective fiction
March 14 – Eleanor Bron, English humorous writer and actress
March 24 – Ian Hamilton, English critic, biographer and poet (died 2001)
April 29 – Larry Niven, American sci-fi author
May 13 – Norma Klein, American author (died 1989)
May 25
Raymond Carver, American short-story writer and poet (died 1988)
Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer (died 2016)
May 26 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian novelist and playwright
June 16 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist
June 24 – Lawrence Block, American crime writer
July 19
Nicholas Bethell, English historian and politician (died 2007)
Dom Moraes, Indian poet and columnist (died 2004)
Tom Raworth, English poet
August 21 – Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Australian novelist
September 3 – Caryl Churchill, English dramatist
September 15 – Charles L. Mee, American dramatist
October 12 – Anne Perry (Juliet Marion Hulme), English historical novelist
October 13 – Hugo Young, English journalist (died 2003)
October 17 – Les Murray, Australian poet
October 19 – Allan Massie, Singapore-born Scottish writer
December 9 – Willi Glasauer, German artist and illustrator
December 14 – Leonardo Boff (Genézio Darci Boff), Brazilian philosopher and theologian
December 31 – Basudeb Dasgupta, Bengali novelist (died 2005)
Unknown dates
M. K. Wren (Martha Kay Renfroe), American novelist
Gabriel Ruhumbika, Tanzanian novelist
Hansjörg Schneider, Swiss novelist
January 4 – Paola Drigo, Italian writer (born 1876)
January 16 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Sarat Chandra Chattergee), Bengali novelist (born 1876)
January 19 – Branislav Nušić, Serbian novelist and dramatist (born 1864)
January 29 – Armando Palacio Valdés, Spanish novelist and critic (born 1853)
February 13 – Momčilo Nastasijević, Serbian poet, novelist and dramatist (born 1894)
March 1 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian poet and novelist (born 1863)
April 19 – Sir Henry Newbolt, English poet (born 1862)
April 21 – Lady Ottoline Morrell, English literary hostess (born 1873)
May 26 – James Forbes, Canadian American dramatist and screenwriter (born 1871)
June 9 – Ovid Densusianu, Romanian poet, philologist, and literary historian (born 1873)
June 26
James Weldon Johnson, American politician, poet and activist (born 1871)
E. V. Lucas, English essayist and biographer, 70
August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre director (born 1863)
August 26 – Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Albanian poet and writer (tuberculosis, born 1911)
September 15 – Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (tuberculosis, born 1900)
October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and literary critic (born 1881)
December 23 – Robert Herrick, American realist novelist (born 1868)
December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech science fiction author and dramatist (pneumonia, born 1890)
December 27 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet and essayist (in detention, born 1891)
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Noel Streatfeild, The Circus Is Coming
Hawthornden Prize – David Jones for In Parenthesis
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Kate Seredy, The White Stag
Newdigate prize: Michael Thwaites
Nobel Prize for literature: Pearl S. Buck
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marya Zaturenska: Cold Morning Sky
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Phillips Marquand – The Late George Apley
1938 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
