1953 in literature

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In poetry
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1953
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Events from the year 1953 in literature .

Events[]

  • January 5 – Waiting For Godot, a play by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, has its first public stage performance, in French as En attendant Godot, at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris.[1] Beckett's novel The Unnamable is also published in French this year.
  • January 22 – The Crucible, a historical drama by Arthur Miller written as an allegory of McCarthyism, opens on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre.
  • February 19 – The State of Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
  • April 13 – The face of popular literature changes with the publication of Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale, introducing the British spy character James Bond.
  • May – The semi-autobiographical Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin is published. In 2001, it will be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editors of the American Modern Library.[2]
  • June 17 – Bertolt Brecht continues uninterrupted with rehearsals for the first production of Erwin Strittmatter's Katzgraben: Szenen aus dem Bauernleben, with the Berliner Ensemble during the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany. The incident inspires Günter Grass's Die Plebejer proben den Aufstand ("The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising", 1966).
  • July 13 – The first Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada opens in Stratford, Ontario.
  • SeptemberFrench journalist Jean Borel's article "Zola a-t-il été assassiné?" in the September-October edition of Libération suggests that Émile Zola's death in 1902 was not accidental.[3][4]
  • September 9 – The Supreme Court decision in Rumely v. United States affirms that indirect lobbying in the United States by distribution of books intended to influence opinion is a public good and not subject to regulation by Congress.[5]
  • October – The literary magazine Encounter begins publication in London under the editorship of the American political journalist Irving Kristol and the English poet Stephen Spender, with covert sponsorship by the Central Intelligence Agency.
  • October 21 – Shortly after being knighted, the English actor Sir John Gielgud is convicted of "persistently importuning male persons for an immoral purpose" (cottaging) in Chelsea, London.[6]
  • November 5 – Dylan Thomas, on a poetry reading tour of the United States, is admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, Manhattan in a coma, which continues until his death on November 9. Early versions of his play for voices Under Milk Wood have been given in the United States this year, but it is not broadcast in its final form until 1954.
  • December – The American novelist Howard Fast is awarded the Stalin Peace Prize.[7]
  • unknown dates
    • Ronald Harwood joins Sir Donald Wolfit's theatre company, and becomes his dresser.[8]
    • John Dickson Carr's final Sir Henry Merrivale mystery novel, writing as Carter Dickson, is published.
    • After five years as an English teacher, Frederick Buechner moves to New York City to become a full-time writer.[9]
    • Federico García Lorca's Obras Completas (Complete Works) are published in Spain as a prohibition on his work is lifted there.
    • Brian O'Nolan is obliged to retire from a senior post in the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland on grounds of alcoholism and impoliteness to senior politicians.[10]
    • City Lights Bookstore is established in San Francisco by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin.

New books[]

Fiction[]

Children and young people[]

  • Viola Bayley – White Holiday
  • Bruce Carter – Speed Six!
  • 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)
  • Geoffrey Willans (illustrated by Ronald Searle) – Down with Skool! A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and their Parents (first in the Nigel Molesworth series of four books)

Drama[]

Poetry[]

Non-fiction[]

  • 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
  • Clarence C. Hulley – Alaska 1741–1953
  • Czesław Miłosz – The Captive Mind
  • Nancy Mitford – Madame de Pompadour
  • Roger Peyrefitte – Les Clés de saint Pierre (The Keys of St Peter)
  • K. M. Panikkar – Asia and Western Dominance
  • 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

Births[]

  • 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
  • March 26 – George Dyson, American science historian
  • 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
  • August 17 – Korrie Layun Rampan, Indonesian writer (died 2015)
  • 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
  • November 18 – Alan Moore, English comic-book and graphic-novel scriptwriter
  • December 15 – Doug Lucie, English dramatist
  • unknown date – Gary Taylor, American Shakespearean scholar[citation needed]

Deaths[]

  • 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 10 – Gordon Hall Gerould, American philologist (born 1877)[11]
  • 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)
  • June 30 – Elsa Beskow, Swedish children's author and illustrator (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 12 – J. H. M. Abbott, Australian novelist and poet (born 1874)
  • August 30 – Maurice Nicoll, English psychiatrist and writer on psychology (born 1884)
  • September 19 – Eirik Vandvik, Norwegian classicist and translator (born 1904)
  • 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
  • November 30 – Francis Picabia, French poet and painter 1879)
  • December 8 – Claude Scudamore Jarvis, English colonial governor, writer, Arabist and naturalist (born 1879)
  • probable – Tan Khoen Swie, Indonesian publisher[12]

Awards[]

References[]

  1. ^ Lawrence Graver (27 May 2004). Beckett: Waiting for Godot. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-521-54938-7.
  2. ^ Allen, Jamie (1999-05-06). "The Top 100? 100 best novels list draws heavy dose of criticism". CNN.
  3. ^ Mounier-Kuhn, Angélique (2014-08-08). "L'asphyxie d'Émile Zola". Le Temps. pp. 8–9.
  4. ^ Hugh McLeave (2001). A Moment of Truth: The Life of Zola. Bitingduck Press LLC. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-917990-32-8.
  5. ^ 345 U.S. 41 (1953).
  6. ^ "Fine For "Persistently Importuning"". The Times (52759). London. 22 October 1953. p. 5. Described on the charge sheet as a clerk
  7. ^ Stanley J. Kunitz (1955). Twentieth Century Authors. p. 315.
  8. ^ Ronald Harwood (2007). Ronald Harwood's Adaptations: From Other Works Into Films. Guerilla. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-9554943-0-7.
  9. ^ Frank Northen Magill (1989). Cyclopedia of World Authors II. Salem Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-89356-513-8.
  10. ^ O'Toole, Fintan (2011-01-01). "The Fantastic Flann O'Brien". The Irish Times. Dublin. Retrieved 2011-10-02. A combination of his gradually deepening alcoholism and his habit of making derogatory remarks about senior politicians in his newspaper columns led to his forced retirement from the civil service in 1953. (He departed, recalled a colleague, "in a final fanfare of f***s".)
  11. ^ Princeton University (1954). The President's Report. p. 40.
  12. ^ Tempo: Indonesia's Weekly News Magazine. Arsa Raya Perdana. 2006. p. 42.
  13. ^ "Cumulative List of Winners of the Governor General's Literary Awards", Canada Council. Web, February 10, 2011
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