1969 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1969.

Events

• February 8 – After 147 years, the last issue of The Saturday Evening Post in its original form appears in the United States.
• March 23 – German-born writer Assia Wevill, a mistress of the English poet Ted Hughes and ex-wife of the Canadian poet David Wevill, gasses herself and their daughter at her London home. ^[1]
• April 22 – The first Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction is awarded to P. H. Newby for Something to Answer For . ^[2]
• August – "Penelope Ashe", purported author of a bestselling novel, Naked Came the Stranger , is revealed as a group of Newsday journalists. ^[3]
• unknown date – The Times Literary Supplement begins using the abbreviation "TLS" on its title page. ^[4]

New books

Fiction

• Eva Alexanderson – Kontradans (Counter-dance) ^[5]
• Eric Ambler – The Intercom Conspiracy
• Jorge Amado – Tenda dos Milagres (Tent of Miracles)
• Kingsley Amis – The Green Man
• William H. Armstrong – Sounder
• Penelope Ashe – Naked Came the Stranger
• Margaret Atwood – The Edible Woman
• René Barjavel – Les Chemins de Katmandou ^[6]
• Ray Bradbury – I Sing the Body Electric
• Melvyn Bragg – The Hired Man
• Christianna Brand – Court of Foxes
• William S. Burroughs – The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
• Victor Canning – Queen's Pawn ^[7]
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Rigadoon ^[8]
• Agatha Christie – Hallowe'en Party
• Michael Crichton – The Andromeda Strain ^[9]
• John Cheever – Bullet Park
• A. J. Cronin – A Pocketful of Rye ^[10]
• Henry de Montherlant – Les Garçons (The Boys)
• L. Sprague de Camp – The Golden Wind ^[11]
• Philip K. Dick – Ubik
• Marion Eames – Y Stafell Ddirgel (The Secret Room) ^[12]
• John Fowles – The French Lieutenant's Woman ^[13]
• George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman ^[14]
• Paul Gallico – The Poseidon Adventure
• Rumer Godden – In This House of Brede
• Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt ^[15]
• Sam Greenlee – The Spook Who Sat by the Door
• Günter Grass – Local Anaesthetic (Örtlich betäubt)
• Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah
• Raymond Hitchcock – Percy ^[16]
• Richard Horn – Encyclopedia ^[17]
• 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
• Derek Lambert
  • Angels in the Snow
  • The Kites of War
• 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
• 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! ^[18]
• Rex Stout – Death of a Dude
• 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
• Keith Waterhouse – Everything Must Go
• Colin Wilson – The Philosopher's Stone
• Roger Zelazny
  • Creatures of Light and Darkness
  • Damnation Alley
  • Isle of the Dead

Children and young people

• Rev. W. Awdry – Oliver the Western Engine (twenty-fourth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
• Eric Carle – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Frances Carpenter – South American Wonder Tales
• Penelope Farmer – Charlotte Sometimes
• Rumer Godden – Operation Sippacik
• Gary Paulsen – Mr. Tucket (first in Mr. Tucket series)
• Barbara Sleigh – The Snowball
• William Steig – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
• John Rowe Townsend – The Intruder
• 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)

Drama

• Leilah Assunção – Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito (Speak Quietly or I’ll Scream)
• Aimé Césaire – Une Tempête
• Dario Fo – Mistero Buffo ^[19]
• Athol Fugard – Boesman and Lena ^[20]
• Joe Orton – What the Butler Saw (posthumously premiered and published) ^[21]
• Michael Pertwee – She's Done It Again
• Dennis Potter – Son of Man (television) ^[22]
• Dalmiro Sáenz – Quién yo? (Who me?)
• David Storey – In Celebration
• Paul Zindel – Let Me Hear You Whisper

Poetry

Main article: 1969 in 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
• Fernand Braudel – Ecrits sur l'Histoire (translated as On History, 1980)
• 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
• Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen – The Little Red Schoolbook (Den Lille Røde Bog For Skoleelever)
• Pauline Kael – Going Steady
• Anton LaVey – The Satanic Bible
• Laurie Lee – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning ^[23]
• Dwight Macdonald – On Movies
• 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 ^[24]
• David Reuben – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)

Births

• January – Adrian Goldsworthy, Welsh military historian and novelist ^[25]
• January 12 – David Mitchell, English novelist ^[26]
• 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 6 – John Scalzi, American science-fiction author
• May 28 – Muriel Barbery, French novelist ^[27]
• May 29 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Korean-born novelist (suicide 1995)
• June 13 – Virginie Despentes, French writer ^[28]
• July 5 – Armin Kõomägi, Estonian author and screenwriter
• August 4 – Jojo Moyes, English journalist and romantic novelist
• September 12 – James Frey, American writer
• September 30 – Julianna Baggott, American novelist, essayist, and poet
• October 15 – Nora Ikstena, Latvian writer (died 2026) ^[29]
• 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 ^[30]
• November 30 – David Auburn, American dramatist
• December 12 – Sophie Kinsella, English novelist (died 2025)
• unknown dates
  • John Harris, English writer, journalist and critic ^[31]
  • Tom McCarthy, English novelist

Deaths

• January 11 – Richmal Crompton, English children's writer (born 1890) ^[32]
• January 21 – Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (born 1895)
• March 9 – Charles Brackett, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1892)
• March 11 – John Wyndham, English science fiction novelist (born 1903) ^[33]
• March 24 – Margery Fish, English gardening writer (born 1892)
• March 25 – Max Eastman, American writer (born 1883) ^[34]
• March 26 – John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (suicide, born 1937) ^[35]
• March 27 – B. Traven, presumed German-born novelist (unknown year of birth) ^[36]
• April 6 – Gabriel Chevallier, French writer (born 1895)
• April 7 – Rómulo Gallegos, Venezuelan novelist and politician, 48th President of Venezuela (born 1884) ^[37]
• May 4 – Osbert Sitwell, English novelist and poet (born 1892) ^[38]
• July 24 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish playwright and novelist (born 1904) ^[39]
• July 27 – Vivian de Sola Pinto, English poet and memoirist (born 1895) ^[40]
• August 10 – Maurine Dallas Watkins, American journalist/play and screenwriter (born 1896)
• August 14 – Leonard Woolf, English political theorist (born 1880) ^[41]
• August 27 – Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (born 1884) ^[42]
• September 6 – Gavin Maxwell, Scottish naturalist and author (cancer, born 1914) ^[43]
• September 17 – Greye La Spina, American dramatist and short story writer (born 1880)
• September 20 – Elinor Brent-Dyer, English children's writer (born 1894) ^[44]
• September 22 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (born 1869)
• October 14 – August Sang, Estonian poet and literary translator (born 1914)
• October 21 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet (internal hemorrhage, born 1922) ^[45]
• November 6 – Susan Taubes, Hungarian American writer and Jewish intellectual (suicide, born 1928)
• November 15 – Ignacio Aldecoa, Spanish writer (born 1925)

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Samuel Beckett ^[46]

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 ^[47]
• 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 ^[48]

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

• Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Alexander Mitscherlich
• 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

1. "Diary of a Pilgrimage: Marking the Gravesite of Assia and Shura Wevill". Literary Hub. 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
2. Who was who. St. Martin's Press. 1996. p. 426. ISBN   978-0-312-29366-6.
3. "Penelope Ashe". Open Road Integrated Media. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
4. May, Derwent (2001). Critical Times: The History of the "Times Literary Supplement". Harper Collins. ISBN   0-00-711449-4.
5. Björklund, Jenny (2014). Lesbianism in Swedish Literature: An Ambiguous Affair. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 71–73. ISBN   978-1-137-36496-8.
6. Contemporary Authors. Gale. 1998. p. 24. ISBN   9780787619978.
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10. Ross McKibbin (2019). Democracy and Political Culture: Studies in Modern British History. Oxford University Press. p. 73. ISBN   9780198834205.
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13. Warburton, Eileen (Spring 1996). "Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall down: Ourika, Cinderella, and The French Lieutenant's Woman". Twentieth Century Literature. 42 (1): 165–186. doi:10.2307/441682. JSTOR   441682.
14. Glanville, Brian (26 October 1969). "Flashman: From the Flashman Papers 1839-1842. By George Macdonald Fraser. 256 pp. New York: NAL-World Publishing Company. $5.95". The New York Times. p. BR62.
15. Richard Boston (25 January 1970). "Travels with My Aunt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
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33. Seed, David (9 June 2008). A Companion to Science Fiction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 387. ISBN   978-0-470-79701-3.
34. "Max Eastman Dies: Author and Radical" (obituary). The New York Times. March 26, 1969. p. 1.
35. René Pol Nevils; Deborah George Hardy (2001). Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 168–9. ISBN   0-8071-3059-1
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38. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 1969. p. 159.
39. Ziarek, Ewa Płonowska (January 1995), The Rhetoric of Failure: Deconstruction of Skepticism, Reinvention of Modernism, p. 235, ISBN   9780791427118
40. W. Rubinstein; Michael A. Jolles (27 January 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 758. ISBN   978-0-230-30466-6.
41. Glendinning, Victoria (2006). Leonard Woolf : a biography. New York: Free Press. p. 435. ISBN   9780743289184.
42. J. Bhagyalakshmi (1986). Ivy Compton-Burnett and Her Art. Mittal Publications. p. 5.
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44. McClelland, Helen (6 January 2011). "Dyer, Elinor Mary Brent- (1894–1969), children's writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press . Retrieved 31 January 2018.
45. Larson, Jordan. "What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
46. "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1969". Nobel Prize. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
47. "Awards — K M Peyton". kmpeyton.co.uk. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
48. "Stevie Smith". www.poetryarchive.org. Retrieved 28 December 2016.