1974 in literature

List of years in literature       (table)
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The year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.

New books

• Richard Adams - Shardik
• Kingsley Amis - Ending Up
• Peter Benchley - Jaws
• Hal Bennett - Wait Until the Evening
• Heinrich Böll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
• Anthony Burgess - The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End
• Robert A. Caro - The Power Broker
• Agatha Christie - Poirot's Early Cases
• Robert Cormier - The Chocolate War
• Roald Dahl - Switch Bitch
• Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
• Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
• Lawrence Durrell - Monsieur
• Frederick Forsyth - The Dogs of War
• John Fowles - The Ebony Tower
• Donald Goines - Crime Partners
• John Hawkes - Death Sleep
• Joseph Heller - Something Happened
• Erica Jong - Fear of Flying
• Anna Kavan - Let Me Alone
• Stephen King - Carrie
• Margaret Laurence - The Diviners
• John le Carré - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
• Madeleine L'Engle - A Wind in the Door
• H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth - The Watchers Out of Time and Others
• Robert Ludlum - The Cry of the Halidon
• Brian Lumley - Beneath the Moors
• Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Book of Sorcerers and Spells
• James A. Michener - Centennial
• Meja Mwangi - Carcase for Hounds
• Vladimir Nabokov - Look at the Harlequins!
• Edith Pargeter - Sunrise in the West (first in the "Brothers of Gwynedd" quartet)
• Robert B. Parker - God Save the Child
• Ellen Raskin - Figgs & Phantoms
• Ishmael Reed - The Last Days of Louisiana Red
• Harold Robbins - The Pirate
• Leonardo Sciascia - Todo modo
• Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue
• Sidney Sheldon - The Other Side of Midnight
• C. P. Snow - In Their Wisdom
• Studs Terkel - Working
• Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman - Collected Ghost Stories

New drama

• Michael Cook - Jacob's Wake
• Dario Fo - Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
• Paavo Haavikko - The Knight
• Ira Levin - Veronica's Room
• Harold Pinter - No Man's Land
• Tom Stoppard - Travesties

Poetry

Main article: 1974 in poetry

• Duncan Bush, Tony Curtis, Nigel Jenkins - Three Young Anglo-Welsh Poets

Non-fiction

• Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward – All the President's Men
• Vincent Bugliosi - Helter Skelter
• Shelby Foote – The Civil War: A Narrative – Vol 3: Red River to Appomattox
• Jonathan Raban - Soft City
• Piers Paul Read - Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
• Lewis Thomas – The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
• Joseph Wambaugh - The Onion Field

Births

• January 6 - Romain Sardou, novelist
• April 13 — K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (d. 2005)
• August 7 - Faisal Tehrani, novelist
• August 23 - Serhiy Zhadan, poet, novelist and essayist
• November 4 — Carlos Be, Spanish playwright
• December 26 - Joshua John Miller, novelist and screenwriter
• date unknown
  • Naomi Alderman, novelist
  • Nicole Krauss, novelist
  • Joe Meno, novelist and journalist
  • Ryūsui Seiryōin, novelist
  • Owen Sheers, poet
  • Roger Williams, dramatist and screenwriter

Deaths

• January 20 - Edmund Blunden, poet and critic (born 1896)
• January 29 - H. E. Bates, novelist (born 1905)
• February 2 - Marieluise Fleißer, German dramatist (born 1901)
• February 24 - Martin Armstrong, poet and short story writer (born 1882)
• March 3 - Carl Jacob Burckhardt, historian (born 1891)
• March 24 - Olive Higgins Prouty, American novelist
• May 13 - Arthur J. Burks, American writer (born 1898)
• June 2 - Tom Kristensen, novelist and poet (born 1893)
• June 11 - Julius Evola, philosopher and author (born 1898)
• June 9 - Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Prize-winning novelist (born 1899)
• July 4 - Georgette Heyer, author (born 1902)
• September 21 - Jacqueline Susann, best-selling novelist (born 1918)
• October 4 - Anne Sexton, poet (born 1928)
• November 5 - William Gardner Smith, expatriate American novelist & journalist (born 1927)
• October 28 - David Jones, artist and poet (born 1895)
• December 14 - Walter Lippmann, writer (born 1889)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Evyind Johnson and Harry Martinson

Canada

• See 1974 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

• Prix Goncourt: Pascal Lainé, La Dentellière
• Prix Médicis French: Porporino ou les Mystèrs de Naples
• Prix Médicis International: Julio Cortázar, Libro de Manuel

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist and Stanley Middleton, Holiday.
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold
• Cholmondeley Award: D.J. Enright, Vernon Scannell, Alasdair Maclean
• Eric Gregory Award: Duncan Forbes, Roger Garfitt, Robin Hamilton, Frank Ormsby, Penelope Shuttle
• Newdigate prize: Alan Hollinghurst
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: John Wain, Samuel Johnson
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ted Hughes

United States

• Frost Medal: John Hall Wheelock
• Hugo Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
• Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Lowell, The Dolphin

Elsewhere

• Premio Nadal: Luis Gasulla, Culminación de Montoya
• Viareggio Prize: Clotilde Marghieri, Amati enigmi