1935 in literature

• March – The London publisher Boriswood pleads guilty and is fined in the north of England for publishing an "obscene" book, a 1934 cheap edition of James Hanley's 1931 novel Boy.
• May 13 – T. E. Lawrence, having left the British Royal Air Force in March), has an accident with his Brough Superior motorcycle while returning to his cottage at Clouds Hill, England, after posting books to a friend, A. E. "Jock" Chambers, and sending a telegram inviting the novelist Henry Williamson to lunch.[1][2] He dies six days later. On July 29 his Seven Pillars of Wisdom is first published in an edition for general circulation.
• June 15
  • W. H. Auden concludes a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.[3]
  • T. S. Eliot's verse drama Murder in the Cathedral is first played at Canterbury Cathedral in England.
• July 30 – Allen Lane founds Penguin Books, as the first mass-market paperbacks in Britain.[4][5]
• August – Open-air reading room established by New York Public Library in Bryant Park.
• August 27 – The Federal Theatre Project is established in the United States.
• September 5 – Michael Joseph is founded as a publisher in London.[6]
• November 2 – The Scottish-born thriller writer John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, is sworn in as Governor General of Canada.
• November 7 – The British and Foreign Blind Association introduces a library of talking books for the visually impaired.
• November 26 – Scrooge, the first feature-length talking film version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) is released in Britain. Sir Seymour Hicks reprises the title rôle, which he has performed for decades on stage.

Uncertain dates

• The library journal Die Bucherei in Nazi Germany publishes guidelines for books to be removed from library shelves and destroyed: all those by Jewish authors, Marxist and pacifist literature, and anything critical of the state.
• The Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 journées de Sodome), written in 1785, concludes its first publication in a scholarly edition as a literary text.
• Fredric Warburg and Roger Senhouse retrieves the London publishers Martin Secker from receivership, as Secker & Warburg.

• January 2 – David McKee, English children's writer and illustrator
• January 14 – Labhshankar Thakar, Indian Gujarati language poet, playwright and story writer (died 2016)
• January 18 – Jon Stallworthy, English poet and literary critic (died 2014)
• January 27 – D. M. Thomas, English novelist, poet and translator
• January 28 – David Lodge, English novelist and academic
• January 30 – Richard Brautigan, American writer and poet (died 1984)
• January 31 – Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎), Japanese novelist and essayist
• February 18 – Janette Oke, Canadian author
• February 23 – Tom Murphy, Irish playwright (died 2018)
• March 13
  • Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian poet and writer (killed 2013)
  • David Nobbs, English comedy writer (died 2015)
• March 23 – Barry Cryer, English comedy writer
• March 27 – Abelardo Castillo, Argentinian writer (died 2017)
• March 31 – Judith Rossner, American novelist (died 2005)
• April 4 – Michael Horovitz, German-born English poet and translator
• April 6 – John Pepper Clark, Nigerian poet and playwright
• April 14 – Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer on paranormal
• April 15 – Alan Plater, English playwright and screenwriter (died 2010)
• May 1 – Julian Mitchell, English playwright and screenwriter
• May 2 – Lynda Lee-Potter, English columnist (died 2004)
• May 29 – André Brink, South African novelist (died 2015)
• June 4 – Shiao Yi, Taiwanese-American wuxia novelist (d. 2018)[7]
• June 7 – Harry Crews, American author and playwright (died 2012)
• June 25
  • Larry Kramer, American playwright, author, film producer and LGBT activist (died 2020)
  • Fran Ross, African American satirist (died 1985)
• July 13 – Earl Lovelace, Trinidadian novelist and playwright
• August 15 – Régine Deforges, French dramatist, novelist and publisher (died 2014)
• August 22 – E. Annie Proulx, American novelist
• September 10 – Mary Oliver, American poet (died 2018)
• September 16 – Esther Vilar, German-Argentinian writer
• September 17 – Ken Kesey, American novelist (died 2001)
• October 7 – Thomas Keneally, Australian novelist and non-fiction writer
• November 7
  • Elvira Quintana, Spanish-Mexican actress, singer, and poet (died 1968)
  • Willibrordus S. Rendra, Indonesian dramatist, poet, activist, performer, actor and director (died 2009)
• November 18
  • Sam Abrams, American poet
  • Rodney Hall, Australian author and poet
• November 22 – Hugh C. Rae (Jessica Stirling, etc.), Scottish novelist (died 2014)
• December 5 – Yevgeny Titarenko, Soviet writer (died 2018)
• December 10 – Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司), Japanese avant-garde writer, film director and photographer (died 1983)
• December 13 – Adélia Prado, Brazilian writer and poet

Funeral cortege for Panait Istrati. Bucharest, April 1935

• February 7 – Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish novelist (peritonitis, born 1901)
• February 13 – Ioan Bianu, Romanian librarian, bibliographer and linguist (uremia, born 1856 or 1857)
• February 28 – Tsubouchi Shōyō (坪内 逍遥), Japanese writer (born 1859)
• April 6 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (born 1869)
• April 11 – Anna Katharine Green, American crime writer (born 1846)
• April 16 – Panait Istrati, Romanian novelist, short story writer and political essayist (tuberculosis, born 1884)
• May 19 – T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), English historian and memoirist (motorcycle accident, born 1888)
• August 11 – Sir William Watson, English poet (born 1858)
• August 17 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American novelist (born 1860)
• August 30 – Henri Barbusse, French novelist and journalist (pneumonia, born 1873)
• September 29 – Winifred Holtby, English novelist (Bright's disease, born 1898)
• October 11 – Steele Rudd, Australian short story writer (born 1868)
• November 30 – Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet, philosopher and critic (cirrhosis, born 1888)
• December 17 – Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet (born 1856)[8]
• December 21 – Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and satirist (drug overdose, born 1890)[9]
• December 28 – Clarence Day, American writer (born 1874)

• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: L. H. Myers, The Root and the Flower
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. W. Chambers, Thomas More
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Monica Shannon, Dobry
• Nobel Prize in literature: not awarded
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Zoë Akins, The Old Maid
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Audrey Wurdemann, Bright Ambush
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Josephine Winslow Johnson, Now in November

• March 23 – Francis Rattenbury is murdered in Bournemouth, inspiring the stage plays Cause Célèbre (1977) by Terence Rattigan and Molly (1978) by Simon Gray.
• According to Anthony Burgess's novel Earthly Powers (1980), this year's Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the fictional writer Jakob Strehler.