1975 in literature

Last updated November 11, 2025

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1975.

Events

January 1 – English-born comic writer P. G. Wodehouse is awarded a knighthood,^[1] six weeks before he dies in the United States.
January – Colin Dexter's detective novel Last Bus to Woodstock introduces his Oxford police officer, Inspector Morse.^[2]
April 23
- Barbara Pym and Philip Larkin meet in person for the first time, at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford, after years of correspondence.^[3]
- Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land is premièred by the National Theatre at The Old Vic in London, directed by Peter Hall and starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.^[4]
April 28 – Harold Pinter leaves his first wife, the actress Vivien Merchant, having begun an affair with the married biographer Lady Antonia Fraser on January 8.^[5]
May 10 – Leftist Salvadoran poet, journalist and political activist Roque Dalton (born 1935) is assassinated by former colleagues in the People's Revolutionary Army (El Salvador).
August 12 – As the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death expires, sealed packets of 32 of the author's notebooks are opened in Zürich, Switzerland.
unknown dates
- Writing as Émile Ajar, the author Romain Gary becomes the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice.^[6]
- Radical Australian poet Dorothy Hewett publishes her collection Rapunzel in Suburbia, triggering a successful libel action by her ex-husband.^[7]^[8]
- Hearing Secret Harmonies , the twelfth and final novel in the A Dance to the Music of Time series begun in 1951 by Anthony Powell, is published.^[9]
- The French critic Hélène Cixous coins the term Écriture féminine in an article, "Le Rire de la méduse".^[10]
- Milan Kundera emigrates from Czechoslovakia to France, to take up an academic position at the University of Rennes.^[11]
- The Petrarca-Preis is founded by Hubert Burda.

New books

Poetry

Lin Carter – Dreams from R'lyeh
Leslie Norris – Mountains, Polecats, Pheasants and other Elegies

Non-fiction

Philip Agee – Inside the Company: CIA Diary
Kingsley Amis – Rudyard Kipling and His World
Robert Bresson – Notes on the Cinematographer (Notes sur le cinématographe)
Jacob Bronowski – The Ascent of Man
Mary Chamberlain – Fenwomen: a portrait of women in an English village
L. Sprague de Camp
S. M. Dubey – Social Mobility Among the Professions
Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison)
Paul Fussell – The Great War and Modern Memory
Paul Horgan – Lamy of Santa Fe
Frank Belknap Long – Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside
Philip Roth – Reading Myself and Others
Peter Singer – Animal Liberation
Paul Theroux – The Great Railway Bazaar

Births

January 13 – Daniel Kehlmann, German novelist
February 25 – Carrie Mac, Canadian young-adult fiction writer
February 27 – Cynan Jones, Welsh novelist
April 6 - Leigh Bardugo, American fantasy writer
April 11 – Walid Soliman, Tunisian author and translator
June 23
- Hugh Howey, American science-fiction writer
- Markus Zusak, Australian young-adult novelist
July 19 – Martina Montelius, Swedish playwright
August 20 – Matthew and Michael Dickman, American poets
October 13 - Robin Parrish, American speculative fiction writer
October 27 – Zadie Smith (Sadie Smith), English novelist
December 19 – Brandon Sanderson, American fiction writer
unknown dates
- Gavin Francis, Scottish medical writer and physician
- Shehan Karunatilaka, Sri Lankan English-language novelist

Deaths

January 15 – Sydney Goodsir Smith, Scottish poet, dramatist and novelist (heart attack; born 1915)^[26]
February 14
- Sir Julian Huxley, English biologist and author (born 1887)^[27]
- Sir P. G. Wodehouse, English-born comic novelist (born 1881)^[28]
February 20 – Ivan Sokolov-Mikitov, Russian author (born 1882)
March 3 – T. H. Parry-Williams, Welsh poet (born 1887)^[29]
March 7 – Kate Seredy, Hungarian-born American children's writer and illustrator (born 1899)^[30]
March 13 – Ivo Andrić, Yugoslav novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1892)^[31]
April 23 – Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, German poet (killed in hit-and-run-accident in London, born 1940)
May 21 – A. H. Dodd, Welsh historian (born 1891)^[32]
June 8 – Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins), American science fiction writer (born 1896)
July 10 – Peter Frederick Anson, English writer on religion and maritime matters (born 1889)
September 20 – Saint-John Perse (Alexis Leger), French poet and Nobel laureate (born 1887)
October 5 – Lady Constance Malleson, Irish actress and writer (born 1895)
October 22 – Arnold J. Toynbee, English historian (born 1889)
November 13 – R. C. Sherriff, English dramatist and novelist (born 1896)^[33]
November 19 – Elizabeth Taylor, English novelist (cancer; born 1912)^[34]
November 25 – Edward Hyams, English historian and novelist (born 1910)
November 27 – Ross McWhirter, English sports journalist and joint compiler of Guinness Book of Records (assassinated, born 1925)^[35]
December 4 – Hannah Arendt, German-American philosopher (born 1906)
December 7 – Thornton Wilder, American novelist and dramatist (born 1897)

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugenio Montale ^[36]

Canada

See 1975 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary as Emile Ajar – La vie devant soi ^[6]
Prix Médicis French: Jacques Almira, Le Voyage à Naucratis
Prix Médicis International: Steven Millhauser, La Vie trop brève d'Edwin Mulhouse – United States

Spain

Premio Nadal: Francisco Umbral, Las ninfas

United Kingdom

Booker Prize: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners
Cholmondeley Award: Jenny Joseph, Norman MacCaig, John Ormond
Duff Cooper Prize: Seamus Heaney, North
Eric Gregory Award: John Birtwhistle, Duncan Bush, Val Warner, Philip Holmes, Peter Cash, Alasdair Paterson
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Karl Miller, Cockburn's Millennium

Elsewhere

Miles Franklin Award: Xavier Herbert, Poor Fellow My Country
Viareggio Prize: Paolo Volponi, Il sipario ducale

References

↑ Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. "No. 46444". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1974-12-31. p. 8.
↑ Robin W. Winks; Maureen Corrigan (1998). Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. Scribner's Sons. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-684-80519-1.
↑ Dale Salwak (18 June 1989). Philip Larkin: The Man and his Work. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-349-09700-5.
↑ William Baker (2008). Harold Pinter. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 84. ISBN 9780826499714.
↑ Michael Billington (1996). The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. Faber and Faber. p. 253. ISBN 0571171036
1 2 K. K. Ruthven (30 April 2001). Faking Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-521-66965-8.
↑ Dimond, J.; Kirkpatrick, P. (2000). Literary Sydney: A walking guide. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-7022-3150-6.
↑ "Dorothy Hewett passes away". ABC radio (PM). 2002-08-26.
↑ Bart Moore-Gilbert (1 February 2013). The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural Closure. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-134-85837-8.
↑ "The Laugh of the Medusa". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society . 1 (4): 875–93. 1976.
↑ Thomas Riggs (1999). Reference Guide to Short Fiction. St. James Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-55862-222-7.
↑ A Study Guide for Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang". Gale, Cengage Learning. 2016. p. 1. ISBN 9781410352897.
↑ Encyclopedia of the Novel. Taylor & Francis. 2014. p. 1254. ISBN 9781135918262.
↑ Nick Bentley (2015). Martin Amis. Northcote. p. 21. ISBN 9780746311783.
↑ J. G. Ballard; James Goddard (1976). J. G. Ballard, the First Twenty Years. Bran's Head Books Limited. p. 89. ISBN 9780905220031.
↑ Jay Clayton (1993). The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780195359299.
↑ Douwe Wessel Fokkema; Johannes Willem Bertens, eds. (1997). International Postmodernism: Theory and Literary Practice. J. Benjamins. pp. 266–7. ISBN 9789027234452.
↑ Lodge, David (1992). The Art of Fiction. Penguin. pp. 117–120.
↑ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (June 10, 1975). "Books of The Times: A Flash Pull for a Fat Pogue". New York Times. p. 36.
↑ Knuckey, Marie (2 July 1978). "In Lighter Vein". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 9 March 2012.
↑ Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale. 2005. p. 131.
↑ Steve Greenhill. "Films and the Troubles". ThirdWay (July 1988): 18.
↑ Stanley Reynolds (6 June 2013). "Tom Sharpe obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
↑ Reference Guide to Russian Literature. Fitzroy Dearborn. 1998. p. 878. ISBN 9781884964107.
↑ International Board on Books for Young People (1976). Bookbird, volumes 14-15. One Man Edition. pp. 45–46.
↑ "Smith, Sydney Goodsir". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58855.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑ Addresses Delivered at a Memorial Ceremony for Julian Huxley Formerly Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1946-1948. Unesco House. 1975.
↑ McCrum, Robert (2004). Wodehouse: A Life. London: Viking. pp. 415–417. ISBN 978-0-670-89692-9.
↑ "PARRY-WILLIAMS, Sir Thomas (Herbert) (1887–1975)". Who Was Who (subscription access). A&C Black (Publishers) Ltd. January 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
↑ Charles Moritz (1976). Current biography yearbook: 1975. H.W. Weilson Company. p. 473.
↑ Hawkesworth, Celia (1984). Ivo Andrić: Bridge Between East and West. Athlone Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-84714-089-0.
↑ Archaeologia Cambrensis: The Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Association. W. Pickering. 1976. p. 137.
↑ "Robert Cedric Sherriff". The Antiquaries Journal. Oxford University Press: 363. 1976.
↑ Bailey, Paul (2004). "Taylor, Elizabeth (1912–1975)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑ Bernstein, Adam (2004-04-21). "Norris McWhirter Dies; 'Guinness Book' Co-Founder". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
↑ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1975". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 7 July 2021.

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[1] Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. "No. 46444". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1974-12-31. p. 8.

[2] Robin W. Winks; Maureen Corrigan (1998). Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage. Scribner's Sons. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-684-80519-1.

[3] Dale Salwak (18 June 1989). Philip Larkin: The Man and his Work. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-349-09700-5.

[4] William Baker (2008). Harold Pinter. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 84. ISBN 9780826499714.

[5] Michael Billington (1996). The Life and Work of Harold Pinter. Faber and Faber. p. 253. ISBN 0571171036

[Ruthven2001-6] 1 2 K. K. Ruthven (30 April 2001). Faking Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-521-66965-8.

[7] Dimond, J.; Kirkpatrick, P. (2000). Literary Sydney: A walking guide. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-7022-3150-6.

[8] "Dorothy Hewett passes away". ABC radio (PM). 2002-08-26.

[9] Bart Moore-Gilbert (1 February 2013). The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural Closure. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-134-85837-8.

[10] "The Laugh of the Medusa". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society . 1 (4): 875–93. 1976.

[11] Thomas Riggs (1999). Reference Guide to Short Fiction. St. James Press. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-55862-222-7.

[12] A Study Guide for Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang". Gale, Cengage Learning. 2016. p. 1. ISBN 9781410352897.

[13] Encyclopedia of the Novel. Taylor & Francis. 2014. p. 1254. ISBN 9781135918262.

[14] Nick Bentley (2015). Martin Amis. Northcote. p. 21. ISBN 9780746311783.

[15] J. G. Ballard; James Goddard (1976). J. G. Ballard, the First Twenty Years. Bran's Head Books Limited. p. 89. ISBN 9780905220031.

[16] Jay Clayton (1993). The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780195359299.

[17] Douwe Wessel Fokkema; Johannes Willem Bertens, eds. (1997). International Postmodernism: Theory and Literary Practice. J. Benjamins. pp. 266–7. ISBN 9789027234452.

[18] Lodge, David (1992). The Art of Fiction. Penguin. pp. 117–120.

[19] Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (June 10, 1975). "Books of The Times: A Flash Pull for a Fat Pogue". New York Times. p. 36.

[20] Knuckey, Marie (2 July 1978). "In Lighter Vein". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 9 March 2012.

[21] Contemporary Literary Criticism. Gale. 2005. p. 131.

[22] Steve Greenhill. "Films and the Troubles". ThirdWay (July 1988): 18.

[23] Stanley Reynolds (6 June 2013). "Tom Sharpe obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2024.

[24] Reference Guide to Russian Literature. Fitzroy Dearborn. 1998. p. 878. ISBN 9781884964107.

[25] International Board on Books for Young People (1976). Bookbird, volumes 14-15. One Man Edition. pp. 45–46.

[DNB-26] "Smith, Sydney Goodsir". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58855.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)

[27] Addresses Delivered at a Memorial Ceremony for Julian Huxley Formerly Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1946-1948. Unesco House. 1975.

[28] McCrum, Robert (2004). Wodehouse: A Life. London: Viking. pp. 415–417. ISBN 978-0-670-89692-9.

[29] "PARRY-WILLIAMS, Sir Thomas (Herbert) (1887–1975)". Who Was Who (subscription access). A&C Black (Publishers) Ltd. January 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-25.

[30] Charles Moritz (1976). Current biography yearbook: 1975. H.W. Weilson Company. p. 473.

[31] Hawkesworth, Celia (1984). Ivo Andrić: Bridge Between East and West. Athlone Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-84714-089-0.

[32] Archaeologia Cambrensis: The Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Association. W. Pickering. 1976. p. 137.

[33] "Robert Cedric Sherriff". The Antiquaries Journal. Oxford University Press: 363. 1976.

[34] Bailey, Paul (2004). "Taylor, Elizabeth (1912–1975)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 October 2017.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)

[NorrisObWash-35] Bernstein, Adam (2004-04-21). "Norris McWhirter Dies; 'Guinness Book' Co-Founder". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2008-12-16.

[36] "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1975". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 7 July 2021.

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