1942 in literature

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	In poetry 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1942.

Events

February 20 – Jean Bruller's novella Le Silence de la mer ("The Silence of the Sea"), concerning resistance to the Nazi occupation of France, is issued clandestinely as the first publication of Les Éditions de Minuit in Paris under the pseudonym "Vercors". 100 copies are distributed from late summer; the remainder are destroyed by the occupying authorities.^[1]
February 22 – Austrian-born novelist Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte are found dead of barbiturate overdose in their home in Petrópolis, Brazil, leaving notes indicating their despair at the future of European civilization. The manuscript of his autobiography The World of Yesterday, posted to his publisher a day previously, is first published in Stockholm later in the year as Die Welt von Gestern.^[2]
March – Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are introduced in his short story "Runaround" published in Astounding Science-Fiction.
March 1 – Robertson Davies begins a 13-year spell as editor of the Peterborough Examiner in Ontario.
April 9 – The New York Times launches the national version of its influential New York Times Best Seller list.
April 29 – The newspaper Asia Raja is first published in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation; it will publish a number of literary works.
May – German novelist Thomas Mann moves to California.
May 4 – French novelist André Gide moves to Tunis.
May 8 – English novelist David Garnett marries, as his second wife, painter and writer Angelica Bell, the daughter of Garnett's lover Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.
June 4 – Release of the film Mrs. Miniver, for which novelist James Hilton will share an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (4 March 1943).
Autumn – Vasily Grossman is present at the Battle of Stalingrad as a reporter for the Soviet Army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda; he later uses the experience in his novel Life and Fate (Жизнь и судьба, completed 1959).
October – Keith Douglas takes part in the Second Battle of El Alamein (against orders).
November 19 – Polish Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz is shot dead while walking through the "Aryan quarter" of his hometown, Drohobych, by a Gestapo officer.

New books

Births

January 31 – Derek Jarman, English film director, writer and diarist (died 1994)
February 1 – Terry Jones, Welsh comedian and writer
February – David Williamson, Australian playwright
March 2 – John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter
April 1 – Samuel R. Delany, American novelist, essayist and critic
April 4 – Kitty Kelley, American biographer and journalist
April 20 – Arto Paasilinna, Finnish novelist and journalist
May 6 – Ariel Dorfman, Argentine/Chilean novelist, playwright and essayist
May 11 – Rachel Billington, English author
August 2 – Isabel Allende, Chilean novelist
August 7 – Garrison Keillor, American humorous writer and broadcaster
September 1 – António Lobo Antunes, Portuguese novelist and physician
October 23
- Michael Crichton, American writer and director (died 2008)
- Douglas Dunn, Scottish poet and scholar
October 24 – Frank Delaney, Irish novelist, journalist and broadcaster
November 8 – Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
November 24 – Craig Thomas, Welsh novelist (died 2011)
December 6 – Peter Handke, Austrian novelist and playwright
Unknown date – Mohamed Zafzaf, Moroccan novelist (died 2001)

Deaths

February 2 – Daniil Kharms, Russian poet, writer and dramatist (died in prison, born 1905)
March 28 – Miguel Hernández, Spanish poet (died in prison, born 1910)
April 24 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian novelist and children's writer (born 1874)
May 11 – Sakutarō Hagiwara (萩原朔太郎), Japanese poet (born 1886)
May 20 – Nini Roll Anker, Norwegian novelist and playwright (born 1873)
May 26 – Libero Bovio, Neapolitan dialect poet (born 1883)
May 29 – Akiko Yosano (与謝野晶子, Yosano Shiyo), Japanese poet and feminist (born 1878)
May – Jakob van Hoddis (Hans Davidsohn) German poet (died in extermination camp, born 1887)
June 30 – Léon Daudet, French writer and journalist (born 1867)
July 1 – Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish writer in Irish (born 1857)
August 17 – Irène Némirovsky, Russian-born French novelist (died in concentration camp, born 1903)
September 26 – Oskar Kraus, Czech philosopher (born 1872)
October 14 – Cosmo Hamilton, English dramatist and novelist (born 1870)
October 20 – Friedrich Münzer, German classicist (born 1868)
October 29 – Màrius Torres, Catalan Spanish poet (born 1910)
November 4
- Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, American novelist and textbook and children's writer (born 1863)
- Clementine Krämer, German poet and short-story writer (died in concentration camp, born 1873)
December 23 – Konstantin Balmont, Russian Symbolist poet and translator (born 1867)

Awards

Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Denys Watkins-Pitchford, The Little Grey Men
Frost Medal: Edgar Lee Masters
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Arthur Waley, Translation of Monkey by Wu Cheng'en
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Walter D. Edmonds, The Matchlock Gun
Nobel Prize for literature: not awarded
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: not awarded
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William Rose Benet, The Dust Which Is God
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Ellen Glasgow, In This Our Life

In literature

Laurent Binet's novel HHhH (2010) is based around the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich on 4 June 1942.
Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter (1948) is set during this year, with a background of the author's experiences as a wartime intelligence officer in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

References

^ Bruller, Jean (1967). La bataille du silence.
^ Davis, Darién J.; Marshall, Oliver, ed. (2010). Stefan and Lotte Zweig's South American Letters: New York, Argentina and Brazil, 1940-42. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 41.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) Laurent Seksik's 2010 novel Les Derniers Jours de Stefan Zweig is set in this period.

[1] Bruller, Jean (1967). La bataille du silence.

[2] Davis, Darién J.; Marshall, Oliver, ed. (2010). Stefan and Lotte Zweig's South American Letters: New York, Argentina and Brazil, 1940-42. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 41.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) Laurent Seksik's 2010 novel Les Derniers Jours de Stefan Zweig is set in this period.

[1]

[2]

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young adults

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

In literature

References