This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1950.
Children and young people
Mabel Esther Allan
Over the Sea to School
A School in Danger
Leila Berg – The Adventures of Chunky (first in the Chunky series)
Joan Mary Wayne Brown as Mary Gervaise
A Pony of Your Own
Ponies and Holidays (first two in the Georgie series of ten books)
Anthony Buckeridge – Jennings Goes to School
Beverley Clearly – Henry Huggins
C. S. Forester – Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
C. S. Lewis – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (best known of seven novels in the Chronicles of Narnia series)
Elinor Lyon – The House in Hiding (first novel in the Ian and Sovra series)
Katherine Milhous – The Egg Tree
Anne Parrish – The Story of Appleby Capple
Richard Scarry – First Book Ever
James Thurber – The 13 Clocks
Bertolt Brecht – The Tutor (Der Hofmeister, adapted from Lenz)
Emilio Carballido – Rosalba y los Llaveros
Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Romulus the Great (Romulus der Große)
Christopher Fry – Venus Observed
Kermit Hunter – Unto These Hills
William Inge – Come Back, Little Sheba
Eugène Ionesco – The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice chauve)
Terence Rattigan – Who Is Sylvia?
John Steinbeck – Burning Bright
Leah Bodine Drake – A Hornbook for Witches
Pablo Neruda – Canto General
Stevie Smith – Not Waving But Drowning
Roland Bainton – Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
Elizabeth David – Mediterranean Cooking
Ernst Gombrich – The Story of Art
Thor Heyerdahl – Kon-Tiki
Octavio Paz – The Labyrinth of Solitude
Lionel Trilling – The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society
Raymond Williams – Reading and Criticism
Cecil Woodham-Smith – Florence Nightingale
Desmond Young – Rommel: The Desert Fox
January 17 – Luis López Nieves, Puerto Rican writer
January 20 – Edward Hirsch, American poet
January 22 – Paul Bew, Irish historian and academic
January 24 – Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadorian author and scholar
January 25 – Gloria Naylor, African-American novelist and academic
February 11 – Mauri Kunnas, Finnish children’s author
March 23 – Ahdaf Soueif, Egyptian novelist
April 20 – Steve Erickson, American novelist
June 21 – Anne Carson, Canadian poet and scholar
June 25 – Barbara Gowdy, Canadian novelist
July 3 – Zhang Kangkang (张抗抗), Chinese writer
July 22 – Susan Eloise Hinton, American novelist
August 9 – Nicole Tourneur, French novelist (died 2011)
August 26 – Carl Deuker, American author
September 7 – Peggy Noonan, American columnist, political writer
September 16 – Henry Louis Gates, American literary critic
September 20 – James Blaylock, American fantasy author
October 10 – Nora Roberts, American novelist
October 12 – Edward Bloor, American novelist
October 17 – David Adams Richards, Canadian author
October 18 – Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright (died 2006)
October 27 – Fran Lebowitz, American writer
November 3 – Massimo Mongai, Italian author
November 4 – Charles Frazier, American novelist
December 18 – Leonard Maltin, American film critic and historian
December 20 – Sheenagh Pugh, English-born poet and novelist
December 30 – Timothy Mo, Hong Kong British novelist
Unknown – Bandi, North Korean fiction writer
January 5 – Basil Williams, English historian (born 1867)
January 21 – George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), English novelist (tuberculosis, born 1903)
February 7 – D. K. Broster, English historical novelist (born 1877)
February 13 – Rafael Sabatini, Italian-born English-language novelist (born 1875)
February 24 – Irving Bacheller, American journalist and novelist (born 1859)
March 5 – Edgar Lee Masters, American poet (born 1868)
March 11 – Heinrich Mann, German novelist (born 1871)
March 19 – Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (born 1875)
March 22 – Emmanuel Mounier, French philosopher, journalist and theologian (born 1905)
April 1 – F. O. Matthiessen, American historian and literary critic (born 1902)
April 8 – Albert Ehrenstein, Austrian Expressionist poet (born 1886)
April 27 – H. Bonciu, Romanian novelist, poet and translator (cancer, born 1893)
May 6 – Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer (born 1892)
May 10 – Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian (born 1883)
May 11 – Alfred O. Andersson, English-born American journalist and newspaper publisher (born 1874)
June 4 – George Cecil Ives, German-born English poet, writer and reformer (born 1867)
August 27 – Cesare Pavese, Italian poet and novelist (born 1908)
September 6 – Olaf Stapledon, English philosopher and science fiction writer (heart attack, born 1886)
September 18 – Henrik Rytter, Norwegian dramatist, lyricist and translator (born 1887)
October 9 – Nicolai Hartmann, German-Latvian philosopher (born 1882)
October 19 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (heart attack, born 1892)
October 31 – Herbert Kelly, religious writer and cleric (born 1860)
November 2 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist, critic and activist (born 1856)
November 25 – Johannes V. Jensen, Danish author (born 1873)
December 28 – Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Soviet short-story writer (born 1887)
December 31 – Xavier Villaurrutia, Mexican poet and dramatist (born 1903)
Unknown dates
Cezaro Rossetti, Scottish-born Esperanto writer (born 1901)
Helen Rowland, American journalist and humorist (born 1875)
Cuthbert Whitaker, English yearbook editor (born 1873)
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Elfrida Vipont, The Lark on the Wing
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Robert Henriques, Through the Valley
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale
Mystery Writer Of Japan – Kazuo Shimada, Shakai-bu Kisha ("City Reporter")
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Marguerite de Angeli, The Door in the Wall
Newdigate prize: John Bayley
Nobel Prize for Literature: Bertrand Russell
Premio Nadal: Elena Quiroga, Viento del norte
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Joshua Logan, South Pacific
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: A. B. Guthrie, Jr., The Way West
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen (first African American winner)
1950 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
