1990 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1990.

Events

March – Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters opens at the Gate Theatre in Dublin with locally-born Sinéad, Sorcha and Niamh Cusack in the title rôles and their father Cyril Cusack as Dr. Chebutykin.^[1]
c. June – Joanne Rowling has the idea for Harry Potter while on a train from Manchester to London: "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed. The basic idea was for a boy who didn't know what he was." She begins writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which will be completed in 1995 and published in 1997.
October – Nicci Gerrard marries Sean French in the London Borough of Hackney, to make up a writing team known as Nicci French.
Austrian writer Ernest Bornemann is awarded the first Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for sexual research.

May 10 – Walker Percy, American novelist (born 1916)
May 25 – Lucy M. Boston, English children's novelist (born 1892)
July 22 – Manuel Puig, Argentine novelist (heart attack, born 1932)^[3]
August 25 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian novelist, playwright and broadcasting personality (born 1903)
September 26 – Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist and journalist (born 1907)
September 30 – Patrick White, Australian novelist (born 1912)
October 23 – Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (heart attack, born 1918)^[4]
November 7 – Lawrence Durrell, English novelist, dramatist, and travel writer (born 1912)
November 8 – Anya Seton, American genre novelist (born 1904)^[5]
November 23 – Roald Dahl, Welsh-born children's author (myelodysplastic syndrome, born 1916^[6]
December 7 – Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright (born 1943; suicide)^[7]
December 11 – David Turner, English dramatist (born 1927)
December 14 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss dramatist (congestive heart failure, born 1921)^[8]

See 1990 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

^ Wolf, Matt (27 May 1990). "Theater: Novel Casting for 'Three Sisters' – Three Sisters". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
^ Ginger: The Life and Death of Albert Goodwin Goodreads, (retrieved 11/18/2012)
^ Levine, Suzanne Jill (2000). Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fictions. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-28190-8. p 377
^ Lewis, William (2005). Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism. Lexington Books.
^ Moser, Margaret (29 September 2006). "Love in the Time of 'Green Darkness'". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
^ "Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006". Findmypast.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
^ Soto, Francisco (1998). Reinaldo Arenas. Twayne's World Author Series.
^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Friedrich Dürrenmatt". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |website= (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)