1936 in literature

The olive tree near Alfacar where Federico García Lorca is executed on August 19[1]

• January 8 – Jewish booksellers throughout Nazi Germany are deprived of their Reich Publications Chamber membership cards, without which no one can sell books.[2]
• May – The Greek poet and Communist activist Yiannis Ritsos is inspired to write his poem Epitaphios by a photograph of a dead protester at a massive tobacco workers' demonstration in Thessaloniki. It is published soon after. In August, the right-wing dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas comes to power in Greece and copies are burned publicly at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.[3]
• May 16–17 – About 30 left-wing writers of the Second Polish Republic gather at the Lviv Anti-Fascist Congress of Cultural Workers.
• August 3 – George Heywood Hill establishes the Heywood Hill bookshop in London's Mayfair.
• August 18 – The 38-year-old Spanish dramatist, Federico García Lorca, is arrested by Francoist militia during the White Terror and never seen alive again. His brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, the leftist mayor of Granada, is shot on the same day.[4][5] Lorca's play The House of Bernarda Alba (La casa de Bernarda Alba), completed on June 19, will not be performed until 1945.
• November 6 – After United States publication in 1934, the U.K. authorities decide they will not prosecute or seize copies of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.[6]
• November 23 – Life magazine begins to appear as a weekly news magazine in the United States, under the management of Henry Luce.

Uncertain dates

• The Scottish-born university teacher of English literature J. I. M. Stewart, writing as Michael Innes, publishes his first lighthearted crime novel, Death at the President's Lodging, set in Oxford. It introduces his long-running character Detective Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard.[7]
• The Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature is inaugurated by the Library Association in the United Kingdom. The first winner is Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post.

• January 5 – Florence King, American writer (died 2016)
• January 10 – Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian (died 2002)
• January 28 – Ismail Kadare, Albanian novelist and poet
• February 12 – Shawkat Ali, Bangladeshi writer (died 2018)
• February 18 – Jean M. Auel, American historical novelist
• March 1 – Jean-René Huguenin, French novelist and literary critic (died in 1962)
• March 7 – Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker and essayist (died 1982)
• March 28 – Peter Mayer, English-born publisher (died 2018)
• March 31 – Marge Piercy, American poet and activist
• April 30 – Viktor Likhonosov, Soviet Russian writer and editor
• May 10 – Anthea Bell, English translator (died 2018)
• May 23 – Ian Kennedy Martin, English scriptwriter and novelist
• May 27 – Ivo Brešan, Croatian playwright, novelist, screenwriter and satirist (died 2016)
• June 3
  • Duff Hart-Davis, English biographer and journalist
  • Larry McMurtry, American novelist, essayist and screenwriter
• June 9 – Nell Dunn, English playwright and author
• June 18 – Dick Wimmer, American novelist (died 2011)
• June 23 – Richard Bach, American novelist and non-fiction writer
• June 24 – J. H. Prynne, English poet
• June 29 – David Rudkin, English playwright
• July 6 – Abidullah Ghazi, Indian-American author, educator and poet
• July 22 – Tom Robbins, American novelist
• August 24 – A. S. Byatt, English novelist
• September 1 – Roderick Thorp, American novelist (died 1999)
• September 2 – Károly Krajczár, Hungarian Slovene teacher, writer and collector (died 2018)
• September 20 – Andrew Davies, Welsh novelist and screenwriter
• September 26 – Victor Watson, English children's writer and academic
• October 1 – Kailayar Sellanainar Sivakumaran, Sri Lankan writer, art and literary critic, journalist and radio and TV personality
• October 5 – Václav Havel, Czech dramatist and first president of Czech Republic (died 2011)
• November 4 – C. K. Williams, American poet (died 2015)
• November 17 – John Wells, English satirical writer and actor (died 1998)
• November 18 – Suzette Haden Elgin, American science fiction writer (died 2015)[11]
• November 20 – Don DeLillo, American novelist
• November 25 – William McIlvanney, Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet (died 2015)
• November 27 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (died 2005)
• December 1 – Ma Văn Kháng, Vietnamese writer
• December 2 – Hebe Uhart, Argentine writer (died 2018)
• December 5
  • James Lee Burke, American writer
  • Lewis Nkosi, Zulu writer (died 2010)
• December 11 – Ingvar Moe, Norwegian poet, novelist and children's writer (died 1993)
• December 17 – Frank Martinus Arion, Curaçaoan novelist and poet (died 2015)

• January 4 – James Churchward, British writer (born 1851)
• January 5 – Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Spanish dramatist and novelist (born 1866)
• January 17 – Mateiu Caragiale, Romanian novelist and poet (stroke, born 1885)
• January 18 – Rudyard Kipling, English writer and Nobel laureate (born 1865)
• February 7 – Elizabeth Robins Pennell, American biographer and critic based in London (born 1855)
• February 8 – Rahel Sanzara, German dancer, actress and novelist (cancer, born 1894)
• February 23 – Lidia Veselitskaya (V. Mikulich), Russian novelist, memoirist and translator (born 1857)
• March 1 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian poet, musician and novelist (born 1872)
• March 9 – A. de Herz, Romanian playwright and journalist (hemoptysis, born 1887)
• March 16 – Marguerite Durand, French actress and journalist (born 1864)
• April 30 – A. E. Housman, English poet (born 1859)
• June 11 – Robert E. Howard, American fantasy writer (suicide, born 1906)
• June 12 – M. R. James, English ghost story writer and scholar (born 1862)
• June 14
  • G. K. Chesterton, English novelist, poet and Catholic apologist (born 1874)
  • Maxim Gorky, Russian dramatist (born 1868)
• July 25 – Donald Maxwell, English travel writer and illustrator (born 1877)
• July 26 – F. J. Harvey Darton English children's literature historian and publisher (born 1878)
• August 8 – Mourning Dove, Native American writer (born 1884)
• August 15 – Grazia Deledda, Sardinian-born novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1871)
• August 19 – Federico García Lorca, Spanish dramatist and poet (shot, born 1898)
• October 5 – J. Slauerhoff, Dutch poet and novelist (born 1898)
• November 12 – Stefan Grabiński, Polish horror writer (born 1887)
• December 10 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist and novelist (born 1867)
• December 24 – Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley, English horticulturist and garden writer (born 1872)
• December 27 – Kristína Royová, Slovak novelist, religious writer and poet (born 1860)
• December 28 – John Cornford, English poet (killed in action, born 1915)[12]
• December 31 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish novelist, poet and scholar (born 1864)

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Winifred Holtby, South Riding
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Edward Sackville West, A Flame in Sunlight: The Life and Work of Thomas de Quincey
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Carol Ryrie Brink, Caddie Woodlawn
• Nobel Prize in literature: Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert E. Sherwood, Idiot's Delight
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Strange Holiness
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Harold L. Davis, Honey in the Horn

• William Boyd – The Blue Afternoon (1993)
• Sebastian Faulks – The Girl at the Lion d'Or (1989)
• Brian Friel – Dancing at Lughnasa (play, 1990)
• Philip Kerr – March Violets (1989)
• Anthony Powell – Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960)