1931 in literature

• January 10 – A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Other Poems and first editions of The Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick are stolen from New York Public Library by Samuel Dupree, on behalf of a crooked New York antiquarian book dealer, Harry Gold.[1]
• January 26 – The play Green Grow the Lilacs, by a Cherokee playwright, Lynn Riggs, opens on Broadway. It is later adapted as Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein.[2]
• March 27 – The English writer Arnold Bennett dies of typhoid in London, shortly after a visit to Paris, where he drank local water in an attempt to prove it was safe.[3]
• April – Gerald Brenan and Gamel Woolsey make a form of marriage in Rome.
• June 1 – The Near v. Minnesota case in the Supreme Court of the United States affirms the principle that prior restraint is unconstitutional.
• July 4 – James Joyce marries his long-time partner Nora Barnacle at Kensington register office in London.
• October 4 – The Dick Tracy comic strip first appears, created by cartoonist Chester Gould.[4]
• October 5 – The first U.K. performance of Oscar Wilde's tragedy Salome (1891) is given at the Savoy Theatre, London, with Nancy Price as producer and as Herodias, and her daughter Joan Maude in the title role.[5]

Uncertain dates

• Federico García Lorca is appointed by the leftist Second Spanish Republic as director of a touring theatre company, Teatro Universitario La Barraca (The Shack), charged with taking a portable stage into rural areas to introduce audiences to classical Spanish theatre without charge.
• The publisher Hamish Hamilton is founded by Jamie Hamilton in London.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is banned in Hunan, China, for anthropomorphism.[6]
• The Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 Journées de Sodome), written in 1785, has its first publication in a scholarly edition as a literary text.

• January 6
  • E. L. Doctorow, American author (died 2015)
  • P. J. Kavanagh, English poet, novelist, and broadcaster (died 2015)
• January 9 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction author (died 2008)
• January 10 – Peter Barnes, English playwright (died 2004)
• January 17 – Mark Brandis (Nikolai von Michalewsky), German journalist and science fiction author (died 2000)
• January 24 – Leonard Baker, American historian and Pulitzer-winning author (died 1984)
• January 27
  • Allan W. Eckert, American historian and novelist (died 2011)
  • Shirley Hazzard, Australian author (died 2016)
  • John Hopkins, English screenwriter (died 1998)
  • Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (died 2001)
• February 9 – Thomas Bernhard, Dutch-born Austrian author (died 1989)
• February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
• February 12 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American crime writer (died 2008)
• February 18
  • Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (died 2007)
  • Toni Morrison, American writer and Nobel Prize winner (died 2019)[8]
• February 19 – Robert Sobel, American business writer (died 1999)
• March 2 – Tom Wolfe, American novelist (died 2018)
• March 16 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theater director and writer (died 2009)
• March 22 – Leslie Thomas, Welsh novelist (died 2014)
• March 26 – Alison Prince, English-born Scottish children's writer and biographer (died 2019)
• April 1 – Rolf Hochhuth, German dramatist (died 2020)
• April 15 – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet and translator (died 2015)
• April 21 – Gabriel de Broglie, French historian
• April 29 – Robert Gottlieb, American editor
• May 2 – Ruth Fainlight, American-born poet, short story writer, translator and librettist
• June 12 – Robin Cook (Derek Raymond), English crime novelist (died 1994)
• June 21 – Patricia Goedicke, American poet (died 2006)
• July 4 – Sébastien Japrisot, French novelist and screenwriter (died 2003)
• July 7 – David Eddings, American novelist (died 2009)
• July 10
  • Nick Adams, American screenwriter (died 1968)
  • Julian May, American science fiction author
  • Alice Munro, Canadian short story writer
• July 15 – Clive Cussler, American thriller writer and underwater explorer (died 2020)
• August 2 – Karl Miller, British writer and literary editor (died 2014)
• August 12 – William Goldman, American novelist and screenwriter (died 2018)
• August 14 – Frederic Raphael, American-born English screenwriter, novelist and non-fiction author
• August 16 – Marion Patrick Jones, Trinidadian writer (d. 2016)
• September 14 – Ivan Klíma, Czech novelist and dramatist
• September 22
  • Ashokamitran (Jagadisa Thyagarajan), Indian fiction writer (died 2017)
  • Fay Weldon, English novelist
• October 8 – Dennis Silk, American-born English writer on literature and cricket, and first-class cricketer
• October 13 – Janice Elliott, English novelist and children's writer (died 1995)
• October 19 – John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell), English spy novelist
• November 3 – Arun Sarma, Assamese playwright and novelist (died 2017)
• November 18 – Nikoloz Janashia, Georgian historian (died 1982)
• November 28 – Tomi Ungerer, Alsatian illustrator and writer (died 2019)

• January 12 – Henry Gauthier-Villars, French writer (born 1859)
• January 26 – Graça Aranha, Brazilian diplomat and writer (born 1868)
• March 27 – Arnold Bennett, English novelist (born 1867)
• April 4 – André Michelin, French originator of Michelin Guides (born 1853)
• April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-born American poet (born 1883)
• June 29 – Nérée Beauchemin, French-Canadian poet (born 1850)
• July 2 – Harald Høffding, Danish philosopher (born 1843)
• August 1 – Bertha McNamara, German-born Australian pamphleteer and bookseller (born 1853)
• August 15 – Delfín Chamorro, Spanish poet and language teacher (born 1863)
• August 27 – Frank Harris, Irish-born American author and editor (born 1856)
• August 31 – Hall Caine, Manx novelist and dramatist (born 1853)
• September 9 – Matilda Cugler-Poni, Romanian poet (born 1851)
• October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish novelist (born 1868)
• October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian dramatist (born 1862)
• November 3 – Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Uruguayan epic poet (born 1855)
• November 5 – Ole Edvart Rolvaag, Norwegian American writer (born 1876)
• November 19 – Xu Zhimo (徐志摩), Chinese poet (air accident, born 1897)
• December 10 – Enrico Corradini, Italian novelist, essayist and journalist (born 1865)
• December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American inventor of library classification system (born 1851)
• December 27 – Alfred Perceval Graves, Irish author and collector of songs and ballads (born 1846)
• December 31 – Ieronim Yasinsky, Russian writer, poet and essayist (born 1850

• Chancellor's Gold Medal: Robert Gittings
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Kate O'Brien, Without My Cloak
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: J. Y. R. Greig, David Hume
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Cat Who Went to Heaven
• Nobel Prize in literature – Erik Axel Karlfeldt
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Susan Glaspell, Alison's House
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost, Collected Poems
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Ayer Barnes, Years of Grace