1956 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1956.

Events

• c. January – First book in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct police procedural series, Cop Hater, is published in the United States under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym.
• February 2 – Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical drama Long Day's Journey into Night (completed 1942) receives its posthumous world première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in Swedish (as Lång dags färd mot natt) in a production directed by Bengt Ekerot and starring Lars Hanson. The play's Broadway debut takes place at the Helen Hayes Theatre on November 7, shortly after its American premiere at the Shubert Theatre (New Haven).^[1]
• February 27 – English poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath meet in Cambridge, England.^[2]
• March 11 – U.S. release of Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III simultaneously on NBC network television and as afternoon matinée screenings in movie theaters, giving it a television audience estimated at between 25 and 40 million,^[3] almost certainly the largest up to this date for a Shakespearean production.
• March 19 – Widowed English author Aldous Huxley marries Italian American film-maker and author Laura Archera at a drive-in wedding chapel in Yuma, Arizona.^[4]
• April 23 – C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham make a civil marriage at Oxford register office.^[5]
• May 8 – First performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in London.^[6][7] Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The theatre's press release describes the dramatist as among the angry young men of the time, a plural phrase which appears on July 26 in a Daily Express headline.
• June 16 – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at St George the Martyr, Holborn in the London Borough of Camden.
• June 26 and August 23 – Books published by discredited psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich are burned in the United States under court injunction.
• June – Nineteen-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested as an accessory to robbery.
• June 29 – Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe in White Plains, New York.
• July – Following pleas by Israeli diplomats,^[8] the Romanian communist regime releases A. L. Zissu, formally sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954. Zissu emigrates to Israel, where he dies on September 6.^[9]
• July 4 – The National Library of Scotland's first purpose-built premises are opened in Edinburgh.^[10]
• July 8 – The drama series Armchair Theatre, produced by ABC Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom, begins its run (1956–1968).
• August 14 – Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley at Oxford register office.
• September 14 – Harold Pinter marries Vivien Merchant in a civil ceremony at Bournemouth, after they met while touring in repertory theatre.
• October – The Ladder becomes the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the United States.
• November 1 – Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems, a signal work of the Beat Generation, is published by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
• December
  • J. G. Ballard's first professional publications, the science fiction short stories "Escapement" and "Prima Belladonna", are published in this month's issues of New Worlds and Science Fantasy magazines respectively.^[11]
  • Martin Gardner begins his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.
• December 3 – Writing under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, author Romain Gary becomes the only person ever to win the Prix Goncourt twice, this time for Les Racines du ciel.
• Finished in 1952, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street), is first published.
• Sixteen-year-old Michael Moorcock becomes editor of Tarzan Adventures.
• Jorge Luis Borges becomes a professor of English and American literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

New books

Births

• January 2 – Storm Constantine, British science fiction and fantasy author
• January 8 – Jack Womack, American novelist
• January 10 – Antonio Muñoz Molina, Spanish novelist
• March 7 – Andrea Levy, English novelist
• March 12 – Ruth Ozeki, American novelist and filmmaker
• March 23 – Steven Saylor, American historical novelist
• May 4 – David Guterson, American journalist and novelist
• May 18 – John Godber, English dramatist
• May 20 – Boris Akunin, Russian novelist and essayist
• June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American crime novelist
• July 4 – Éric Neuhoff, French novelist
• July 11 – Amitav Ghosh, Bengali Indian novelist
• October 9 – Robert Reed, American science fiction author
• October 13 – Chris Carter, American screenwriter
• November 11 – Tim Pears, English novelist
• November 20 – Elena Gremina, Russian dramatist (died 2018)
• November 26 – John McCarthy, English journalist and hostage
• Unknown dates
  • James Belich, New Zealand historian
  • Percival Everett, American writer and novelist
  • Amy Gerstler, American poet
  • Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist

Deaths

• January 13 – Wickham Steed, English journalist, editor and historian (born 1871)
• January 14 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English novelist (born 1887)
• January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and English language scholar (born 1880)
• January 31 – A. A. Milne, English children's author, novelist and dramatist (born 1882)
• March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English novelist and inventor of the clerihew (born 1875)
• May 20 – Max Beerbohm, English humorist (born 1872)
• May 22 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist (born 1902)
• June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet (born 1873)
• June 24 – Nicos Nicolaides, Greek writer (born 1884)
• July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet and novelist (born 1881)
• August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German dramatist (born 1898)
• September 6
  • Michael Ventris, English linguistic scholar (born 1922)
  • A. L. Zissu, Romanian novelist and Zionist leader (born 1888)
• October 30 – Pío Baroja, Spanish novelist (born 1872)
• December 6 - Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Constitution of India (born 1891)
• December 13 – Arthur Grimble, Hong Kong-born English travel writer (born 1888)
• December 25 – Robert Walser, Swiss novelist and poet writing in German (born 1878)

Awards

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
• Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis (first award): Roger Duvoisin and Louise Fatio, Happy Lion (Der glückliche Löwe); Astrid Lindgren, Mio, My Son; and Kurt Lütgen, Kein Winter für Wölfe ("Two Against the Arctic: Story of a Restless Life between Greenland and Alaska")
• Duff Cooper Prize: Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Lee Latham, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
• Nobel Prize for literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez
• Premio Nadal: José Luis Martín Descalzo, La frontera de Dios
• Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary for The Roots of Heaven
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: MacKinlay Kantor – Andersonville
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems – North & South
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden

References