1926 in literature

• February 8 – Seán O'Casey's play The Plough and the Stars opens at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The February 11 performance is marred by ugly scenes in the audience: one man strikes an actress.
• February 12 – The Irish Free State Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints a Committee on Evil Literature.
• February 26 – The future English novelist Graham Greene is received into the Catholic Church.
• April 1 – Hugo Gernsback launches his pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories in the United States.
• May 11 – C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien first meet in Oxford.[1]
• October 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The White Guard (Белая гвардия), partly serialized in Rossiya before the magazine's suppression earlier in the year, opens as a dramatic adaptation, The Days of the Turbins, at the Moscow Art Theatre. It is enjoyed by Stalin.
• October 14 – The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne first appears, published by Methuen in London.
• December 3 – The English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey. On December 14 she is found at a Harrogate hotel by the journalist Ritchie Calder, staying under her husband's mistress's surname.
• December – Thomas Mann begins writing Die Geschichten Jaakobs in Munich, first of the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder), on which he will work until January 1943.

Uncertain dates

• Antonin Artaud and Roger Vitrac establish the Théatre Alfred-Jarry in Paris to produce surrealist drama.
• The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont.
• Vsevolod Meyerhold stages an expressionistic production of Gogol's satirical comedy The Government Inspector (Ревизор, 1836) in Moscow.
• Margaret Mitchell begins the novel Gone with the Wind, which will appear 1936.
• The remains of the English poet Isaac Rosenberg (killed in battle in 1918) are re-interred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, Plot V, St. Laurent-Blangy, Pas de Calais, France.
• S. S. Van Dine publishes the first Philo Vance mystery novel, The Benson Murder Case.
• Peter Llewelyn Davies establishes the London publishing house Peter Davies Ltd.

• January 5 – W. D. Snodgrass, American poet (died 2009)
• January 12 – Shumon Miura, Japanese novelist (died 2017)
• January 13 – Michael Bond, English fiction writer and creator of Paddington Bear (died 2017)[2]
• January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (died 1991)
• February 3 – Richard Yates, American novelist (died 1992)
• February 20 – Richard Matheson, American science fiction writer (died 2013)
• March 3 – James Merrill, American poet (died 1995)
• March 24 – Dario Fo, Italian dramatist and actor (died 2016)
• March 27 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (died 1966)
• March 31 – John Fowles, English novelist (died 2005)
• April 3 – Luís de Sttau Monteiro, Portuguese novelist and dramatist (died 1993)
• April 13 – Egon Wolff, Chilean dramatist (died 2016)
• April 23
  • J. P. Donleavy, Irish American novelist (died 2017)
  • Éva Janikovszky, Hungarian novelist and children's writer (died 2003)
• April 28 – Harper Lee, American novelist (died 2016)[3]
• May 15 – English twins
  • Anthony Shaffer, dramatist and screenwriter (died 2001)
  • Peter Shaffer, dramatist (died 2016)
• May 21 – Robert Creeley, American author (died 2005)
• June 3 – Allen Ginsberg, American Beat Generation poet (died 1997)
• June 13
  • Kanam EJ, Malayalam novelist and lyricist (died 1982)
  • Dalmiro Sáenz, Argentinian writer (died 2016)
• June 19 – Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Italian publisher (died 1972)
• July 7 – Spencer Holst, American writer and storyteller (died 2001)
• July 11 – Frederick Buechner, American author and minister
• July 18 – Elizabeth Jennings, English poet (died 2001)
• August 12 – Wallace Markfield, American comic novelist (died 2002)
• August 14
  • Alice Adams, American short story writer (died 1999)
  • René Goscinny, French writer and co-creator of Astérix (died 1977)
• September 6 – Clancy Sigal, American writer (died 2017)
• September 14 – Michel Butor, French writer (died 2016)
• October 2 – Jan Morris, born James Morris, Welsh historian and travel writer
• October 15 – Evan Hunter, American author and screenwriter (died 2005)
• November 5 – John Berger, English art critic and novelist (died 2017)[4]
• November 11
  • José Manuel Caballero, Spanish novelist and poet
  • Harold Perkin, English social historian (died 2004)
• November 19 – Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright (died 2011)
• November 20 – John Gardner, English thriller writer (died 2007)
• November 25 – Poul Anderson, American science fiction writer (died 2001)
• December 23 – Robert Bly, American writer

• January 14
  • René Boylesve, French author (born 1867)
  • August Sedláček, Czech historian (born 1843)
• January 26 – Bucura Dumbravă, Romanian novelist and spiritualist (malaria, born 1868)
• February 1 – Ishibashi Ningetsu (石橋 忍月), Japanese author and critic (born 1865)
• February 6 – Wolf Wilhelm Friedrich von Baudissin, German theologian (born 1847)
• February 12 – Radu Rosetti, Romanian politician, historical novelist and memoirist (born 1853)
• March 3 – Sir Sidney Lee, English biographer (born 1859)
• May 9 – J. M. Dent, English publisher (born 1849)
• May 21 – Ronald Firbank, English novelist (born 1886)
• May 26 – Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian Expressionist poet (meningitis, born 1904)
• July 8 – Karel Václav Rais, Czech realist novelist (born 1859)
• July 11 – Fran Detela, Slovenian academic and writer (born 1850)
• July 19 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (born 1844)
• August 1 – Israel Zangwill, English poet (born 1864)
• October 5 – Javier de Viana, Uruguayan writer (born 1868)
• October 9 – Helena Nyblom, Danish-born poet and writer of fairy tales (born 1843)
• October 11 – Albert Robida, French illustrator and novelist (born 1848)
• November 10 – Lyubov Dostoyevskaya, Russian memoirist (born 1869)
• December 8 – Sarah Doudney, English novelist, children's writer and hymnist (born 1841)
• December 12 – Jean Richepin, French poet, dramatist and novelist (born 1849)
• December 29 – Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet (born 1875)

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Radclyffe Hall, Adam's Breed
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Herbert Brook Workman, John Wyclif: A Study of the English Medieval Church
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Arthur Bowie Chrisman, Shen of the Sea
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Grazia Deledda
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: George Kelly, Craig's Wife
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Amy Lowell, What's O'Clock
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith
• Blindman International Poetry Prize: Ruth Manning-Sanders, The City