This article presents lists of literary events and publications in 1953.
Children and young people
Viola Bayley – White Holiday
C. S. Forester – Hornblower and the Atropos
Roger Lancelyn Green – King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
C. S. Lewis – The Silver Chair (fourth in The Chronicles of Narnia series of seven books)
Elinor Lyon – Run Away Home
Joan Phipson – Good Luck to the Rider
Joan G. Robinson – Teddy Robinson
Miriam Schlein – When Will the World Be Mine? (non-fiction)
Arthur Adamov – Professor Taranne (Le Professeur Taranne)
Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot (En attendant Godot)
Agatha Christie – Witness for the Prosecution
Max Frisch – The Fire Raisers (Biedermann und die Brandstifter, originally for radio)
Witold Gombrowicz – The Marriage (Ślub, Polish version published)
Arthur Miller – The Crucible
Erwin Strittmatter – Katzgraben
The Faber Book of Twentieth Century Verse edited by John Heath-Stubbs and David Wright
George Dangerfield – The Era of Good Feelings (Bancroft Prize)
L. Sprague de Camp – Science-Fiction Handbook
Gerald Durrell – The Overloaded Ark
Lawrence Durrell – Reflections on a Marine Venus
Geoffrey Elton – The Tudor Revolution in Government
Heinrich Harrer – Seven Years in Tibet
Nancy Mitford – Madame de Pompadour
Roger Peyrefitte – Les Clés de saint Pierre (The Keys of St Peter)
Sebastian Snow – My Amazon Adventure
R. W. Southern – The Making of the Middle Ages
John Summerson – Architecture in Britain: 1530–1830
Ludwig Wittgenstein – Philosophical Investigations
January 7 – Dionne Brand, Canadian poet
February 5 – Giannina Braschi, Puerto Rican-born poet and novelist
February 10 – John Shirley, American science fiction and horror writer
February 18 – Peter Robinson, English poet
March 12 – Carl Hiaasen, American journalist and novelist
March 25 – John Tierney, American journalist
April 3
Pieter Aspe (Pierre Aspelag), Belgian crime writer
Sandra Boynton, American humorist and children's writer
April 20 – Sebastian Faulks, English novelist
April 23 – Roberto Bolaño, Chilean-born fiction writer (died 2003)
May 10 – Christopher Paul Curtis, American children's writer
May 12 – Neil Astley, English author, poet, and academic
May 19 – Victoria Wood, English comedian and writer (died 2016)
July 29 – Frank McGuinness, Irish dramatist, poet and novelist
August 1 – Howard Kurtz, American journalist and author
August 10 – Mark Doty, American poet and memoirist
September 5 – Herman Koch, Dutch fiction writer and actor
September 10 – Pat Cadigan, American science fiction author
September 23 – Nicholas Witchell, English television journalist
November 5 – Joyce Maynard, American memoirist and fiction writer
Unknown date – George Dyson, American science historian
April 4 – Rachilde (Marguerite Vallette-Eymery), French author (born 1860)
April 6 – Idris Davies, Welsh poet in Welsh and English (abdominal cancer, born 1905)
April 9 – C. E. M. Joad, English philosopher and broadcaster (born 1891)
April 13 – Alice Milligan, Irish poet (born 1865)
April 24 – Alfred Vierkandt, German sociologist (born 1867)
June 5 – Moelona, Welsh-language novelist and translator (born 1877)
June 25 – Richard Jebb, English journalist (born 1874)
July 6 – Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rican poet in Spanish (pneumonia, born 1914)
July 16 – Hilaire Belloc, English humorous poet, essayist and travel writer (born 1870)
August 30 – Maurice Nicoll, English psychiatrist and writer on psychology (born 1884)
November 8
Ivan Bunin, Russian-born writer and Nobel laureate (born 1870)
John van Melle, South African author (born 1887)
November 9 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (pneumonia, born 1914)
November 27
Eugene O'Neill, American playwright (born 1888)
T. F. Powys, English novelist (born 1875)
November 30 – Francis Picabia, French poet and painter 1879)
December 8 – Claude Scudamore Jarvis, writer, Arabist and naturalist (born 1879)
Unknown dates
Mae Virginia Cowdery, African American poet (born 1909)
Gordon Hall Gerould, American philologist (born 1877)
Eirik Vandvik, Norwegian classicist and translator (born 1904)
Tan Khoen Swie, Indonesian publisher (year of birth uncertain)
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
Christopher Award: Marie Killilea, Karen
Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama: Douglas LePan, The Net and the Sword
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Margaret Kennedy, Troy Chimneys
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Carola Oman, Sir John Moore
National Book Award for Fiction: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ann Nolan Clark, Secret of the Andes
Nobel Prize for Literature: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Premio Nadal: Luisa Forrellad, Siempre en capilla
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Inge, Picnic
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems 1917-1952
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Arthur Waley
1953 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
