1985 in literature

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Last updated June 24, 2025

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1985.

Events

February 25 – Sue Limb's parodic pastiche of the Lake Poets, The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere, begins broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 in the U.K.
March 1 – The GNU Manifesto by Richard Stallman is published for the first time, and becomes a fundamental philosophical source within the free software movement.^[1]
August 11 – A memorial to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid is unveiled near his home at Langholm, Scotland.
unknown dates – Three notable novels in English by female authors are published during the year: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale ,^[2] Jilly Cooper's Riders , the first of the Rutshire Chronicles, and Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit .

New books

Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy – Standing Female Nude

Non-fiction

Bill Bryson – The Palace under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries
Roger Caron – Bingo! The Horrifying Eyewitness Account of a Prison Riot
Allen Carr – The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Timothy J. Cooney - Telling Right From Wrong
Michael Denton – Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
Elaine Dundy – Elvis and Gladys
Julien Gracq – The Shape of a City
G. L. Harriss (editor) – Henry V: The Practice of Kingship
Ernest Hemingway – The Dangerous Summer
Pauline Kael – State of the Art
David Lowenthal – The Past Is a Foreign Country
Walter A. McDougall – ...The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
Tim O'Brien – The Nuclear Age
Priscilla Beaulieu Presley – Elvis and Me
David Robinson – Chaplin: His Life and Art
Oliver Sacks – The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Roger Scruton – Thinkers of the New Left
Gary Soto – Living Up the Street
Crawford Young and Thomas Turner – The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State

Births

February 7 - Justina Ireland, American science-fiction and fantasy author of young-adult fiction
April 24 – Alexander Zeldin, British playwright and director
September 24 – Eleanor Catton, New Zealand novelist^[3]
September 30 – Téa Obreht, Yugoslav-born American novelist writing in English

Deaths

January 1 – Sigerson Clifford, Irish poet, playwright, and civil servant (born 1913)
January 5 – Alexis Rannit, Estonian-born American poet and critic (born 1914)
February 6 – James Hadley Chase, English thriller novelist (born 1906)^[4]
February 19 – Carl Joachim Hambro, Norwegian novelist, essayist and philologist (born 1914)^[5]
March 15 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and philosopher (born 1921)
April 4 – Kate Roberts, Welsh writer (born 1891)
April 7 – Carl Schmitt, German political theorist (born 1888)
April 17
- Basil Bunting, English poet (born 1900)
- D. I. Suchianu, Romanian essayist, translator, social scientist and film theorist (born 1895)
April 25 – Uku Masing, Estonian religious philosopher, linguist and writer (born 1909)
May 1 – Denise Robins, English romantic novelist (born 1897)
May 12 – Josephine Miles, American poet and literary critic (born 1911)
May 18 – Hedley Bull, Australian economist (cancer, born 1932)^[6]
May 25 – Robert Nathan, American novelist and poet (born 1894)
June 8 – Hu Feng (胡风), Chinese novelist (born 1902)
June 16 – Ernst Orvil, Norwegian novelist, poet and playwright (born 1898)
July 16 – Heinrich Böll, German novelist, Nobel laureate (born 1917)
July 8 – Leslie Paul, Anglo-Irish novelist (born 1905)
July 29 – Judah Waten, Australian novelist (born 1911)^[7]
August 14 – Alfred Hayes, English-born American novelist, poet and screenwriter (born 1911)
August 30 – (Janet) Taylor Caldwell, English-born American novelist (born 1900)^[8]
September 1 – Saunders Lewis, Welsh writer and broadcaster (Plaid Cymru) (born 1893)^[9]
September 17 – Fran Ross, African American satirist (born 1935)
September 22 – D. J. Opperman, South African Afrikaans poet (born 1914)
September 27 – Leonard Gribble, English novelist (born 1908)
October 1 – E. B. White, American children's writer and writer on style (born 1899)^[10]
October 11 – Alex La Guma, South African novelist and political activist (born 1925)
October 24 – László Bíró, Hungarian journalist and inventor (born 1899)
October 31 – Nikos Engonopoulos, Greek poet (born 1903)
November 3 – J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, English historian (born 1916)
November 4 – Hilda Vaughan, Welsh novelist and short story writer (born 1892)
November 6 – Sara Woods, British crime fiction writer (born 1922)
November 11 – James Hanley, English-born novelist and dramatist of Irish extraction (born 1897)^[11]
November 25
- Geoffrey Grigson, English poet and critic (born 1905)
- Elsa Morante, Italian novelist (born 1912)^[12]
November 27 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (born 1902)
December 2 – Philip Larkin, English poet (born 1922)
December 5 – Mihail Celarianu, Romanian poet and novelist (born 1893)
December 7 – Robert Graves, English novelist, poet and critic (born 1895)

Awards

Nobel Prize for Literature: Claude Simon

Australia

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: no award given out this year
C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Kevin Hart, Your Shadow; Rosemary Dobson, The Three Fates
Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, Kevin Hart, Your Shadow
Mary Gilmore Prize: Doris Brett, The Truth about Unicorns
Miles Franklin Award: Christopher Koch, The Doubleman

Canada

See 1985 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

Prix Goncourt: Yann Queffélec, Les Noces barbares^[13]
Prix Médicis French: Michel Braudeau, Naissance d'une passion
Prix Médicis International: Joseph Heller, God Knows

Spain

Miguel de Cervantes Prize: Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

United Kingdom

Booker Prize: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm
Cholmondeley Award: Dannie Abse, Peter Redgrove, Brian Taylor
Eric Gregory Award: Graham Mort, Adam Thorpe, Pippa Little, James Harpur, Simon North, Julian May
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Robert Edric, Winter Garden
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: David Nokes, Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed
Newdigate Prize: Robert Twigger
Whitbread Best Book Award: Douglas Dunn, Elegies

United States

Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: Liz Rosenberg, The Fire Music
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, Robert Penn Warren
Frost Medal: Robert Penn Warren
Nebula Award: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: James Lapine for book; Stephen Sondheim for music and lyrics, Sunday in the Park With George
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Alison Lurie – Foreign Affairs
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carolyn Kizer: Yin
Whiting Awards (inaugural year):

Fiction: Raymond Abbott, Stuart Dybek, Wright Morris (fiction/nonfiction), Howard Norman, James Robison, Austin Wright (fiction/nonfiction)

Poetry: Douglas Crase, Jorie Graham, Linda Gregg, James Schuyler

Elsewhere

Premio Nadal: Pau Faner Coll – Flor de sal

References

↑ Bustillos, Maria (2015-03-17). "The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
1 2 Glenn Deer (1994). Postmodern Canadian Fiction and the Rhetoric of Authority. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7735-1159-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
↑ Nicholas Birns (1 December 2015). Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead. Sydney University Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-74332-436-3. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
↑ The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. 1988. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-912289-82-3. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
↑ Hambro, Johan (1984). C. J. Hambro: Liv og drøm (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 67. ISBN 82-03-11347-8.
↑ Robert Ayson (24 September 2012). Hedley Bull and the Accommodation of Power. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-230-36389-2.
↑ "Waten, Judah Papers (National Library of Aus.) – Biographical Note". National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 2022-10-31.
↑ John Arthur Garraty; Mark Christopher Carnes (1999). American National Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-19-512783-6. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
↑ World Book, Inc. Staff (February 1986). The World Book Year Book. World Book, Incorporated. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-7166-0486-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
↑ Jill C. Wheeler (1 January 2013). E. B. White. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-61480-938-8. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
↑ Gibbs, Linneae (1980). James Hanley: A Bibliography.
↑ Santo, Aricò L. (1990). Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
↑ Douglas W. Alden; Peter C. Hoy; Christine M. Zunz (September 1989). French XX Bibliography: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of French Literature Since 1885. Susquehanna University Press. p. 11458. ISBN 978-0-941664-99-8. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-03.

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[1] Bustillos, Maria (2015-03-17). "The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2019-10-07.

[Deer1994-2] 1 2 Glenn Deer (1994). Postmodern Canadian Fiction and the Rhetoric of Authority. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7735-1159-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-03.

[3] Nicholas Birns (1 December 2015). Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead. Sydney University Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-74332-436-3. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2021.

[4] The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. 1988. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-912289-82-3. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-12.

[5] Hambro, Johan (1984). C. J. Hambro: Liv og drøm (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 67. ISBN 82-03-11347-8.

[6] Robert Ayson (24 September 2012). Hedley Bull and the Accommodation of Power. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-230-36389-2.

[7] "Waten, Judah Papers (National Library of Aus.) – Biographical Note". National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 2022-10-31.

[8] John Arthur Garraty; Mark Christopher Carnes (1999). American National Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-19-512783-6. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-03-27.

[9] World Book, Inc. Staff (February 1986). The World Book Year Book. World Book, Incorporated. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-7166-0486-0. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-03-27.

[10] Jill C. Wheeler (1 January 2013). E. B. White. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-61480-938-8. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

[11] Gibbs, Linneae (1980). James Hanley: A Bibliography.

[12] Santo, Aricò L. (1990). Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

[13] Douglas W. Alden; Peter C. Hoy; Christine M. Zunz (September 1989). French XX Bibliography: Critical and Biographical References for the Study of French Literature Since 1885. Susquehanna University Press. p. 11458. ISBN 978-0-941664-99-8. Archived from the original on 2023-04-15. Retrieved 2021-01-03.

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