Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

1969 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1969.

Contents

Events

  • February 8 – The last issue of The Saturday Evening Post in its original form hits magazine stands in the United States after 147 years.
  • March 23 – German-born writer Assia Wevill, a mistress of English poet Ted Hughes (and ex-wife of Canadian poet David Wevill), gasses herself and their daughter at her London home.
  • August – "Penelope Ashe", purported author of a bestselling novel, Naked Came the Stranger, is revealed to be a group of Newsday journalists who each took a turn writing a chapter, intending to show that sex-filled trash sells.
  • The first Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction is awarded to P. H. Newby for Something to Answer For.
  • Pramoedya Ananta Toer begins ten years' imprisonment for his political beliefs on island prison colonies in Indonesia, during which he composes, orally, his Buru Quartet of novels.
  • The Times Literary Supplement begins using the abbreviation "TLS" on its title page.

    • Fiction

  • Eva Alexanderson – Kontradans (Counter-dance)
  • Jorge Amado – Tenda dos Milagres (Tent of Miracles)
  • Kingsley Amis – The Green Man
  • Poul Anderson – Satan's World
  • William H. Armstrong – Sounder
  • Penelope Ashe – Naked Came the Stranger
  • Margaret Atwood – The Edible Woman
  • René Barjavel – Les Chemins de Katmandou
  • Ray Bradbury – I Sing the Body Electric
  • Melvyn Bragg – The Hired Man
  • William S. Burroughs – The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
  • Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Rigadoon
  • Agatha Christie – Hallowe'en Party
  • Michael Crichton – The Andromeda Strain
  • John Cheever – Bullet Park
  • A. J. Cronin – A Pocketful of Rye
  • L. Sprague de Camp – The Golden Wind
  • Marion Eames – Y Stafell Ddirgel (The Secret Room)
  • John Fowles – The French Lieutenant's Woman
  • George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman
  • Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt
  • Sam Greenlee – The Spook Who Sat By the Door
  • Günter Grass – Local Anaesthetic (Örtlich betäubt)
  • Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah
  • 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
  • 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
  • V. S. Naipaul – A House for Mr Biswas
  • 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
  • I milanesi ammazzano al sabato
  • Milano calibro 9
  • Irwin Shaw – Rich Man, Poor Man
  • Dag Solstad – Irr! Grønt!
  • Rex Stout – Death of a Dude
  • Edward Streeter – Ham Martin, Class of '17
  • Jacqueline Susann – The Love Machine
  • Theodore Taylor – The Cay
  • Colin Thiele – Blue Fin
  • Jack Vance
  • The Dirdir
  • Emphyrio
  • Servants of the Wankh
  • Mario Vargas Llosa – Conversation in the Cathedral
  • Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five
  • Charity Waciuma – Daughter of Mumbi
  • Irving Wallace – The Seven Minutes
  • Colin Wilson – The Philosopher's Stone
  • Roger Zelazny
  • Creatures of Light and Darkness
  • Damnation Alley
  • Isle of the Dead

    • Children and young people

  • Eric Carle – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  • Frances Carpenter – South American Wonder Tales
  • Penelope Farmer – Charlotte Sometimes
  • Paul Gallico – The Poseidon Adventure
  • Rumer Godden – Operation Sippacik
  • Ruth Park – The Muddle-Headed Wombat on a Rainy Day
  • Gary Paulsen – Mr. Tucket (first in Mr. Tucket series)
  • William Steig – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
  • 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)
  • Bill Peet – Fly Homer Fly

    • Drama

  • Leilah Assunção – Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito (Speak Quietly or I’ll Scream)
  • Aimé Césaire – Une Tempête
  • Dario Fo – Mistero Buffo
  • Athol Fugard – Boesman and Lena
  • Joe Orton – What the Butler Saw (posthumously premiered and published)
  • Dennis Potter – Son of Man (television)
  • Dalmiro Sáenz – Quién yo? (Who me?)
  • David Storey – In Celebration

    • 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
  • 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
  • Peter Geach – God and the Soul
  • Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen – The Little Red Schoolbook (Den Lille Røde Bog For Skoleelever)
  • Anton LaVey – The Satanic Bible
  • Laurie Lee – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
  • Peter Maas – The Valachi Papers
  • 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
  • David Reuben – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)

    • Births

  • January 12 – David Mitchell, English novelist
  • 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 28 – Muriel Barbery, French novelist
  • May 29 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Korean-born novelist (suicide 1995)
  • July 5 – Armin Kõomägi, Estonian author and screenwriter
  • August 4 – Jojo Moyes, English journalist and romantic novelist
  • 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
  • November 30 – David Auburn, American dramatist
  • Unknown dates
  • Adrian Goldsworthy, British military historian and novelist
  • John Harris, English writer, journalist and critic
  • Tom McCarthy, English novelist

    • Deaths

  • January 11 – Richmal Crompton, English children's writer (born 1890)
  • January 21 – Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (born 1895)
  • March 11 – John Wyndham, English science fiction novelist (born 1903)
  • March 24 – Margery Fish, English gardening writer (born 1892)
  • March 26 – John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (suicide, born 1937)
  • March 27 – B. Traven, presumed German-born novelist (unknown year of birth)
  • May 4 – Osbert Sitwell, English novelist and poet (born 1892)
  • July 24 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish playwright and novelist (born 1904)
  • July 27 – Vivian de Sola Pinto, English poet and memoirist (born 1895)
  • August 14 – Leonard Woolf, English political theorist (born 1880)
  • August 27 – Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (born 1884)
  • September 6 – Gavin Maxwell, Scottish naturalist and author (cancer, born 1914)
  • September 17 – Greye La Spina, American dramatist and short story writer (born 1880)
  • September 20 – Elinor Brent-Dyer, English children's writer (born 1894)
  • October 21 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet (internal hemorrhage, born 1922)
  • Unknown date – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (born 1869)

    • Awards

  • Nobel Prize for Literature: Samuel Beckett

    • Canada

  • See 1969 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

    • France

  • Prix Goncourt: Félicien Marceau, Creezy
  • Prix Médicis: Hélène Cixous, Dedans

    • United Kingdom

  • Booker Prize: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
  • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: K. M. Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
  • Cholmondeley Award: Derek Walcott, Tony Harrison
  • Eric Gregory Award: Gavin Bantock, Jeremy Hooker, Jenny King, Neil Powell, Landeg E. White
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots
  • Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Stevie Smith

    • United States

  • American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Tennessee Williams
  • Hugo Award: John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar
  • Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
  • Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lloyd Alexander, The High King
  • Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Howard Sackler, The Great White Hope
  • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: N. Scott Momaday – House Made of Dawn
  • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: George Oppen: Of Being Numerous

    • Elsewhere

  • Miles Franklin Award: George Johnston, Clean Straw for Nothing
  • Premio Nadal: Francisco García Pavón Las hermanas coloradas
  • Viareggio Prize: Fulvio Tomizza, L'albero dei sogni

    • References

    1969 in literature Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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