1929 in literature

• January 10 – The Adventures of Tintin begin with the first appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets), serialized in the children's newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième.
• February–August – Voltaire's Candide (1759) is held to be obscene by the United States Customs Service in Boston.
• February – The first of Margery Allingham's crime novels to feature Albert Campion, The Crime at Black Dudley (U.S. title: The Black Dudley Murder), appears in England.
• March – Norah C. James's first novel, Sleeveless Errand, is held to be obscene on publication in London, for its portrayal of the city's bohemian life.[1] An edition appears later in Paris from Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press.[2]
• April 1 – The Faber and Faber publishing company is founded in London by Geoffrey Faber, with T. S. Eliot as its literary editor.
• c. June – The first of Gladys Mitchell's crime novels appears in England. Entitled Speedy Death, it introduces a psychologist detective character, Mrs Bradley.
• July – British publisher William Collins, Sons launches its Detective Story Club imprint with Edgar Wallace's novelization of The Terror.
• July 5 – Scotland Yard seizes 13 paintings of male and female nudes by D. H. Lawrence from a Mayfair, London, gallery on grounds of indecency, citing the Vagrancy Act 1838.[3]
• August – The Censorship of Publications Act sets up the Censorship of Publications Board in the Irish Free State.
• August 15 – The first Ellery Queen mystery novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, is published in New York City.
• Mid year – Serialization begins of one of the first Thai novels – the first by a woman, M. L. Bubpha Kunjara Nimmanhemin writing as Dokmai Sot – entitled Sattru Khǫng Čhaolon (Her Enemy). Soon after comes the semi-autobiographical Lakhǫn Haeng Chiwit (The Circus of Life) of Prince Arkartdam-keung Rapheephat, writing as M. C. Akat. Several Thai writers join Kulap Saipradit in the Suphapburut literary group.[4]
• October – Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir become a couple, having met while he studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Twenty-one-year-old De Beauvoir becomes the youngest person ever to obtain an agrégation in philosophy, and comes second in the final examination, beaten only by Sartre.
• October 11 – Seán O'Casey's play The Silver Tassie, set in World War I, receives its première at the Apollo Theatre, London, directed by Raymond Massey. It stars Charles Laughton and Barry Fitzgerald, and has a set design by Augustus John.[5] Rejected the year before by W. B. Yeats for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, it will not open in Ireland until 1935.
• October 29 – Released in the U.S. is the first sound film adaptation of a Shakespeare play: The Taming of the Shrew, starring Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks.
• December – George Orwell returns to England after a period living in Paris.

Uncertain dates

• Hugo Gernsback first uses the term "science fiction" in its modern sense, for his pulp magazine Amazing Stories.
• Father Ronald Knox codifies the "rules" for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in a "Decalogue" introducing The Best Detective Stories of 1928–1929.
• Samuel Roth publishes a pirated edition of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses in New York – the first complete edition printed in the U.S. He serves two prison terms for publishing an obscene work.[6]
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is banned in the Soviet Union due to the interest its author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, shows in the occult.
• Foyles bookshop in London moves to larger premises in the Foyles Building, Charing Cross Road.
• Monotype introduces Stanley Morison's revival of the Bembo typeface for book printing.

• January 9
  • Brian Friel, Irish dramatist (died 2015)
  • Heiner Müller, German dramatist (died 1995)
• January 26 – Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist and writer
• February 6 – Keith Waterhouse, English journalist and novelist (died 2009)
• February 16 – Peter Porter, Australian-born English poet and educator (died 2010)
• February 17 – Chaim Potok, American author (died 2002)
• February 18 – Len Deighton, English novelist
• March 1 – Thuppettan, Malayalam-language Keralan playwright (died 2019)
• March 7 – Dan Jacobson, South African novelist (died 2014)
• March 19 – Miquel Martí i Pol, Catalan poet (died 2003)
• April 1 – Milan Kundera, Czech-French novelist
• April 9 – Paule Marshall, born Valenza Pauline Burke, American novelist (died 2019)
• April 23 – George Steiner, French-born literary critic and philosopher (died 2020)
• May 14 – George Selden, American author (died 1989)
• May 16 – Adrienne Rich, American poet and essayist (died 2012)
• June 2 – Norton Juster, American children's writer and academic
• June 11 – George Garrett, American poet and novelist (died 2008)
• June 12
  • Brigid Brophy, English novelist and critic (died 1995)
  • Anne Frank (Annelies Marie Frank), German-born Dutch child diarist (died 1945)
• June 18 – Grigorijus Kanovičius, Jewish Lithuanian writer
• June 20 – Anne Weale, English writer (died 2007)
• June 25 – Eric Carle, American children's writer and illustrator
• July 8
  • Shirley Ann Grau, American short story writer
  • A. T. Q. Stewart, Northern Irish historian and academic (died 2010)
• July 22 – U. A. Fanthorpe, English poet (died 2009)
• July 31 – Lynne Reid Banks, English novelist
• August 5 – Al Alvarez, English writer and poetry editor (died 2019)
• August 14 – Thomas Meehan, American screenwriter (died 2017)
• August 18 – Anatoly Kuznetsov, Russian dissident novelist (died 1979)
• August 21 – X. J. Kennedy, American poet and translator
• August 27 – Ira Levin, American novelist and playwright (died 2007)
• August 29 – Thom Gunn, Anglo-American poet (died 2004)
• October 7 – Robert Westall, English novelist and children's writer (died 1993)
• October 21 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American science fiction and fantasy author (died 2018)
• October 23 – Shamsur Rahman, Bengali poet (died 2006)
• November 7 – Steve Carter, American playwright
• November 13 – Theo Aronson, South African-born British biographer (died 2003)
• December 12 – John Osborne, English playwright and screenwriter (died 1994)
• December 16 – James Moore, English author (died 2017)
• December 17 – William Safire, born Safir, American columnist (died 2009)
• December 19 – Howard Sackler, American dramatist and screenwriter (died 1982)
• December 23 – Monique Watteau (Monique Dubois), Belgian fantasy novelist and artist
• December 31 – Robert B. Silvers, American literary editor (died 2017)

• January 15 – Leonard Cline, American novelist, poet and journalist (heart failure, born 1893)[8]
• January 29 – Hans Prutz, German historian (born 1843)
• February 6 – Charlotte Carmichael Stopes, Scottish writer and women's rights activist (born 1840)
• March 7 – Auguste Groner, Austrian detective fiction writer (born 1850)
• March 26 – Katharine Lee Bates, American lyricist (born 1859)
• March 31 – Santeri Nuorteva, Soviet journalist and politician (born 1881)
• April 12 – Flora Annie Steel, English writer (born 1847)
• April 16 – Sir John Morris-Jones, Welsh grammarian and poet (born 1864)
• April 21 – Lucy Clifford (Mrs. W. K. Clifford), English novelist, dramatist and screenwriter (born 1846)
• May 19 – Mary E. Mann, English novelist and short story writer (born 1848)
• June 8 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (born 1861)
• June 18 – Vedam Venkataraya Sastry, Sanskrit and Telugu poet, critic and dramatist (born 1853)
• June 22
  • Alfred Brunswig, German philosopher (born 1877)
  • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, English writer of romances and children's books (born 1860)
• June 25 – Georges Courteline, French dramatist and novelist (born 1858)
• June 28 – Edward Carpenter, English socialist poet and philosopher (born 1844)
• July 15 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian novelist and poet (born 1874)
• July 31 – José de Castro, Portuguese journalist (born 1868)
• August – Mary MacLane, Canadian feminist writer (born 1881)
• September 12 – Rainis, Latvian poet and playwright (born 1865)
• September 19 – Francis Darwin, English botanist and academic (born 1848)
• October 8 – Max Lehmann, German historian (born 1845)
• October 19 – Alexandru Davila, Romanian dramatist and diplomat (born 1862)
• November 3 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet and teacher (born 1883)
• December 10 – Harry Crosby, American publisher and poet (suicide, born 1898)

Unknown dates

• Grace Rhys, Irish novelist and poet (born 1865)
• Dallas Lore Sharp, American nature writer (born 1870)
• Evelyn Whitaker, English children's writer (born 1844)

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lord David Cecil, The Stricken Deer: or The Life of Cowper
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eric P. Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow
• Newdigate prize: Phyllis Hartnoll
• Nobel Prize in literature: Thomas Mann
• O. Henry Award: Dorothy Parker, "Big Blonde" (short story)
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Elmer L. Rice, Street Scene
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stephen Vincent Benét, John Brown's Body
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Julia Peterkin, Scarlet Sister Mary