1966 in literature

• February – The Nottingham-based chain of pharmacy stores Boots UK closes the last of its circulating "Booklovers' Library" branches.[1]
• February 10 – Author Jacqueline Susann has her first novel, Valley of the Dolls, published. From a friend she obtains a list of the bookstores on whose sales figures The New York Times relies for its bestseller list. She then uses her own money to buy large quantities of her book at these stores, causing it to head the list. Valley of the Dolls incidentally comes to rank among the best-selling novels of all time.
• February 14 – Dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to hard labour for "anti-Soviet activity".
• March 9 – J. R. R. Tolkien writes to Roger Verhulst expressing concerns about a proposed book about him by W. H. Auden, saying, "I regard such things as premature impertinences.... I cannot believe that they have a usefulness to justify the distaste and irritation given to the victim," but adding: "I owe Mr. Auden a debt of gratitude for the generosity with which he has supported and encouraged me since the first appearance of The Lord of the Rings."[2]
• March 21 – In a landmark obscenity case, Memoirs v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that the hitherto banned novel Fanny Hill (John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1749) does not meet the Roth Standard for obscenity.
• June 14 – The Roman Curia abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of books banned by the Catholic Church, after 427 years.
• June 16 – Blackwell's opens the 930 m² Norrington Room in their main bookshop in Broad Street, Oxford.[3]
• June 23 – Octopussy and The Living Daylights appears as the final collection of James Bond short stories by the character's creator, Ian Fleming, who died in 1964.
• July 24 – The poet and critic Frank O'Hara is hit by a dune buggy on Fire Island beach.[4] He dies of his injuries the following day.
• August 24 – Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is first played, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Despite small audiences, Stoppard's reputation is made by a review by Ronald Bryden in The Observer.[5]
• September 8 – The first UNESCO International Literacy Day is celebrated.
• September 9 – New Beacon Books, the first Caribbean publishing house in England, releases its first title, Foundations by John La Rose.[6]
• October 21 – Jacques Derrida delivers a lecture, La Structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines,[7] to a structuralism colloquium at Johns Hopkins University, giving international prominence to his work on literary theory.
• November 3–4 – The 1966 flood of the Arno in Florence causes severe damage to libraries, including the National Central Library and Gabinetto Vieusseux.
• November 28 – Truman Capote's Black and White Ball ("The Party of the Century") is held in New York City. The guest of honor, the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, later says: "Truman called me up that summer and said, 'I think you need cheering up. And I'm going to give you a ball.'...I was...sort of baffled....I felt a little bit like Truman was going to give the ball anyway and that I was part of the props."[8]
• December – Moskva magazine begins the first publication of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita (Ма́стер и Маргари́та), begun in 1928 but left incomplete on the author's death in 1940. It appears in two parts with portions, omitted or altered.

Uncertain date

• The first modern revival of a play by Bhāsa, Madhyamavyayoga, directed by Shanta Gandhi, is performed in a Hindi translation.

• February 24 – Alain Mabanckou, Francophone Congolese novelist
• March 4 – Dav Pilkey, American author and illustrator
• April 12 – Jim Duffy, Irish political writer
• April 15 – Cressida Cowell, English children's writer
• April 20 – David Chalmers, Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist
• April 26 – Natasha Trethewey, American poet
• July 4 – Brian Selznick, American children's writer and illustrator
• July 21 – Sarah Waters, Welsh novelist
• October 19 – David Vann, Alaskan-born fiction writer and sailor
• November 17 – Jane Holland (Victoria Lamb, etc.), English poet and novelist
• September 24 – Rhys Hughes, Welsh short-story writer
• December 27 – Chris Abani, Nigerian poet and novelist
• December 29 – Christian Kracht, Swiss novelist and journalist

Uncertain date

• Helen Zahavi, English novelist and translator

• January 18 – Kathleen Norris, American novelist (born 1880)
• February 12 – Elio Vittorini, Italian novelist (born 1908)
• March 10 – Frank O'Connor, Irish short-story writer (born 1903)
• April 1 – Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien), Irish satirist (heart attack, born 1911)
• April 2 – C. S. Forester, English historical novelist (born 1899)
• April 10 (Easter Day) – Evelyn Waugh, English novelist, biographer and travel writer (heart failure, born 1903)
• April 13 – Georges Duhamel, French novelist (born 1884)
• June 7
  • Yoshishige Abe, Japanese philosopher and politician (born 1883)
  • Jean Arp, Alsatian poet, sculptor and painter (born 1886)
• June 10 – Henry Treece, English children's historical novelist and poet (born 1911)
• June 30 – Margery Allingham, English crime novelist (born 1904)
• July 20 – Anne Beffort, Luxembourg literary writer and biographer (born 1880)
• July 25 – Frank O'Hara, American poet (ruptured liver, born 1926)
• August 2 or 3 – Tristan Klingsor (Léon Leclère), French fantaisiste poet, painter and musician (born 1874)
• August 6 – Cordwainer Smith (Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger), American science fiction author (heart attack, born 1913)
• August 12 – Artur Alliksaar, Estonian poet (cancer, born 1923)
• September 14- Dorothy Whipple, English novelist and children's writer (born 1893)
• September 25 – Mina Loy, English-born poet and artist (born 1882)
• September 28 – André Breton, French Surrealist poet and author (born 1896)
• October 30 – Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist (born 1906)
• November 26 – Siegfried Kracauer, German journalist and critic (born 1889)
• December 23 – Heimito von Doderer, Austrian author (born 1896)

• Alfaguara Prize: Manuel Vicent, Pascua y naranjas
• Cholmondeley Award: Ted Walker, Stevie Smith
• Eric Gregory Award: Robin Fulton, Seamus Heaney, Hugo Williams
• See 1966 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Frank Herbert, Dune and Roger Zelazny, ...And Call Me Conrad
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Christine Brooke-Rose, Such, and Aidan Higgins, Langrishe, Go Down
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Geoffrey Keynes, The Life of William Harvey
• Miles Franklin Award: Peter Mathers, Trap
• Nebula Award (first): Samuel R. Delany, Babel–17 and Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Borton de Treviño, I, Juan de Pareja
• Nobel Prize in Literature: Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
• Premio Nadal: Vicente Soto, La zancada
• Prix Goncourt: Edmonde Charles-Roux, Oublier Palerme
• Prix Médicis: Marie-Claire Blais, Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Katherine Anne Porter, Collected Stories
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Eberhart, Selected Poems
• Viareggio Prize: Alfonso Gatto, La storia delle vittime