1955 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1955.

Events

• February 8 – Jin Yong's first wuxia novel, The Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄), begins publication in the New Evening Post (Hong Kong), where he is an editor.
• Jean Cocteau is elected to the Académie française (March 3; inducted October 20) and the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (January 8/October 1).
• April 16 – Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III is released in U.K. cinemas.
• July 10 – Jorge Luis Borges is appointed Director of the National Library of the Argentine Republic.
• July 14 – Director Stephen Joseph sets up Britain's first theatre in the round at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, predecessor of the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
• July 30 – The English poet Philip Larkin, having become University Librarian at the University of Hull on March 21, is inspired on a train from Hull to Grantham to write a poem, "The Whitsun Weddings". His collection The Less Deceived is published in November (dated October).
• August – The American speculative fiction author Charles Beaumont's short story "The Crooked Man", depicting a homosexual society where heterosexuality is persecuted, is published in Playboy magazine after being rejected by Esquire.
• August 3 – The English-language première of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, directed by Peter Hall, opens at the Arts Theatre, London.
• August 27 – The first hardback edition of The Guinness Book of Records appears in London.
• September – Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita appears in Paris three years before its US publication.
• November – Frank Herbert's first novel The Dragon in the Sea begins as a three-part serial, Under Pressure, in the monthly Astounding Science-Fiction.
• November 28 – Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is first staged by the Union Theatre Repertory Company in Melbourne with the playwright in a lead. It is the first authentically naturalistic drama in the theatre of Australia.

Uncertain dates

• An article in the British Journal of Education criticises Enid Blyton's novels as formulaic.
• The Indian guru Mani Madhava Chakyar performs Koodiyattam outside a temple for the first time.

New books

Fiction

1st ed.

• Kingsley Amis – That Uncertain Feeling
• Isaac Asimov
  • The End of Eternity
  • The Martian Way and Other Stories
• Elisabeth Augustin – Labyrinth (Auswege)
• Nigel Balchin – The Fall of the Sparrow
• John Bingham – The Paton Street Case
• Antoine Blondin – L'Humeur vagabonde
• Leigh Brackett – The Long Tomorrow
• Ray Bradbury – The October Country
• Henry Cecil – Brothers in Law
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Conversations with Professor Y (Entretiens avec le professeur Y)
• Agatha Christie – Hickory Dickory Dock
• Arthur C. Clarke – Earthlight
• Ivy Compton-Burnett – Mother and Son
• Thomas B. Costain – The Tontine
• Marco Denevi – Rosaura a las 10 (Rosaura at 10 O'Clock)
• Patrick Dennis – Auntie Mame
• John Dickson Carr – Captain Cut-Throat
• J. P. Donleavy – The Ginger Man
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Once a Greek (Grieche sucht Griechin)
• Mircea Eliade – The Forbidden Forest (Noaptea de Sânziene)
• Ian Fleming – Moonraker
• André Franquin – La Corne de rhinocéros
• Gillian Freeman – The Liberty Man
• William Gaddis – The Recognitions
• Gao Yubao (with Guo Yongjiang) – Gao Yubao
• David Garnett – Aspects of Love
• William Golding – The Inheritors
• Graham Greene
  • The Quiet American
  • Loser Takes All
• Henri René Guieu
  • L'Agonie du Verre
  • Commandos de l'Espace
  • Univers parallèles
• L.P. Hartley – A Perfect Woman
• Robert A. Heinlein – Tunnel in the Sky
• Georgette Heyer – Bath Tangle
• Patricia Highsmith – The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp – Tales of Conan
• Aldous Huxley – The Genius and the Goddess
• Mac Hyman – No Time for Sergeants
• Roger Ikor – Les Eaux mêlées
• Dan Jacobson – The Trap
• Robin Jenkins – The Cone Gatherers
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala – To Whom She Will
• MacKinlay Kantor – Andersonville
• Nikos Kazantzakis – The Last Temptation of Christ (O Teleutaios Peirasmos)
• Yaşar Kemal – Memed, My Hawk (İnce Memed)
• Alexander Lernet-Holenia – Count Luna
• Józef Mackiewicz
  • Droga donikąd (The Road to Nowhere)
  • Karierowicz
• Alistair MacLean – HMS Ulysses
• Norman Mailer – The Deer Park
• Gabriel García Márquez
  • The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (Relato de un náufrago)
  • Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca)
• J. J. Marric – Gideon's Day
• Brian Moore – The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
• Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita
• Flannery O'Connor – A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (including "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People")
• John O'Hara – Ten North Frederick
• Pier Paolo Pasolini – Ragazzi di vita
• Anthony Powell – The Acceptance World
• Marin Preda – Moromeții, Vol. 1
• Barbara Pym – Less than Angels
• Alain Robbe-Grillet – Le Voyeur
• Robert Ruark – Something of Value
• Juan Rulfo – Pedro Páramo
• Françoise Sagan – Bonjour Tristesse (English translation)
• Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio – El Jarama
• A. S. T. Fisher (as Michael Scarrott) – Ambassador of Loss
• Isaac Bashevis Singer – Satan in Goray
• Howard Spring – These Lovers Fled Away
• Mary Stewart – Madam, Will You Talk?
• Rex Stout – Before Midnight
• Jim Thompson – After Dark, My Sweet
• Morton Thompson – Not as a Stranger
• J. R. R. Tolkien – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Evelyn Waugh – Officers and Gentlemen
• Patrick White – The Tree of Man
• Leonard Wibberley – The Mouse That Roared
• Sloan Wilson – The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
• Herman Wouk – Marjorie Morningstar
• John Wyndham – The Chrysalids

Children and young people

• BB (Denys Watkins-Pitchford) – The Forest of Boland Light Railway
• Paul Berna – Le Cheval sans tête (Horse without a Head, translated as A Hundred Million Francs)
• Crockett Johnson – Harold and the Purple Crayon
• C. S. Lewis – The Magician's Nephew
• William Mayne – A Swarm in May
• Janet McNeill – My Friend Specs McCann
• Iona and Peter Opie – The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book
• Philippa Pearce – Minnow on the Say
• Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (died 1953) – The Secret River
• Barbara Sleigh – Carbonel: The King of the Cats
• E. C. Spykman – A Lemon and a Star
• Catherine Storr – Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
• Patricia Wrightson – The Crooked Snake
• Eva-Lis Wuorio – Return of the Viking

Drama

• Arthur Adamov – Le Ping-Pong
• Enid Bagnold – The Chalk Garden
• Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot (English version)
• Bertolt Brecht – Trumpets and Drums (Pauken und Trompeten; adaptation of Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer, 1706)
• João Cabral de Melo Neto – Morte e Vida Severina (Severine Life and Death, verse)
• Alice Childress – Trouble in Mind
• John Dighton – Man Alive!
• Sonnie Hale – The French Mistress
• William Inge – Bus Stop
• Eugène Ionesco
  • Jack, or The Submission (Jacques ou la soumission)
  • The New Tenant (Le Nouveau locataire)
• Kol Jakova – Toka jonë (Our Land)
• Ray Lawler – Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
• Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee – Inherit the Wind
• Philip Mackie – The Whole Truth
• Arthur Miller
  • A View from the Bridge (one-act verse version)
  • A Memory of Two Mondays
• J.B. Priestley – Mr. Kettle and Mrs. Moon
• Reginald Rose – Twelve Angry Men (stage version)
• Jean-Paul Sartre – Nekrassov
• Ariano Suassuna – O Auto da Compadecida (The Compassionate Self)
• Orson Welles – Moby Dick—Rehearsed
• Thornton Wilder
  • The Matchmaker
  • A Life in the Sun
• Tennessee Williams – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• Carl Zuckmayer – The Cold Light (Das kalte Licht)

Poetry

Main article: 1955 in poetry

• Philip Larkin – The Less Deceived
• R.S. Thomas – Song at the Year's Turning

Non-fiction

• Richard Aldington – Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry
• James Baldwin – Notes of a Native Son
• Frank Barlow – The Feudal Kingdom of England
• Ivan Bunin (died 1953) – About Chekhov
• G. D. H. Cole – Studies in Class Structure
• Thomas E. Gaddis – Birdman of Alcatraz
• Antonio Gramsci – Gli intellettuali e l'organizzazione della cultura (Intellectuals and Cultural Organization)
• Robert Graves – The Greek Myths
• The Guinness Book of Records, 1st edition
• Morris K. Jessup – The Case for the UFO
• R. K. Kelsall – Higher Civil Servants in Britain
• T. E. Lawrence (352087 A/c Ross; died 1935) – The Mint: A day-book of the R.A.F. Depot between August and December 1922, with later notes (written 1928; 1st trade edition)
• C. S. Lewis – Surprised by Joy
• Walter Lippmann – Essays in the Public Philosophy
• Walter Lord – A Night to Remember
• Herbert Marcuse – Eros and Civilization
• Alan Marshall – I Can Jump Puddles
• Garrett Mattingly – Renaissance Diplomacy
• Meher Baba – God Speaks
• J. H. Plumb – Studies in Social History
• RAND – A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates
• Donald J. West – Homosexuality

Births

• January 11 – Max Lucado, American religious writer
• January 12 – Rockne S. O'Bannon, American writer and producer
• January 13 – Jay McInerney, American novelist
• January 27 – Alexander Stuart, English-born American novelist and screenwriter
• February 2 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet, fiction writer and translator
• February 8 – John Grisham, American novelist
• February 17 – Mo Yan, Chinese fiction writer
• March 19 – John Burnside, Scottish poet and fiction writer
• March 23 – Lloyd Jones, New Zealand novelist
• March 27 – Patrick McCabe, Irish novelist
• April 8 – Barbara Kingsolver, American novelist, essayist and poet
• April 30 – Zlatko Topčić, Bosnian author and screenwriter
• May 13 – Mark Abley, Canadian poet and non-fiction writer
• May 30 – Colm Tóibín, Irish novelist, playwright and poet
• June 4 – Val McDermid, Scottish crime novelist
• June 16 – J. Jill Robinson, Canadian fiction writer
• June 20 – Tor Nørretranders, Danish science author
• July 1
  • Candia McWilliam, Scottish fiction writer
  • Lisa Scottoline, American writer of legal thrillers
• July 5
  • Sebastian Barry, Irish novelist, playwright and poet
  • Mia Couto (António Emílio Leite Couto), Mozambican fiction writer and poet
• July 6
  • Michael Boyd, British theatre director
  • William Wall, Irish author and poet
• July 12 – Robin Robertson, Scottish-born poet, novelist and editor
• August 2 – Caleb Carr, American writer
• August 7 – Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
• August 8 – Iain Pears, English writer
• September 6 – Raymond Benson, American novelist
• September 13 – Hiromi Itō (伊藤 比呂美), Japanese poet, essayist and translator
• October 19 – Jason Shinder, American poet and editor (died 2008)
• November 12 – Katharine Weber, American author and academic
• November 23 – Steven Brust, American fantasy author
• December 28 – Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波), Chinese critic, writer and activist (died 2017)

Uncertain dates

• Wang Xiaoni (王小妮), Chinese poet
• Regina Yaou, Ivory Coast novelist (died 2017)

Deaths

• January 20 – Robert P. Tristram Coffin, American poet, essayist and novelist (born 1892)
• February 23 – Paul Claudel, French poet, dramatist and diplomat (born 1868)
• April 10 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher and essayist (born 1881)
• May 16 – James Agee, American writer (born 1909)
• June 6 – Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, English crime writer (born 1883)
• June 17 – Constance Holme, English novelist and dramatist (born 1880)
• June 19 – Adrienne Monnier, French poet and publisher (born 1892)
• June 21 – Roger Mais, Jamaican novelist (born 1905)
• June 30 – Gilbert Cannan, British writer (born 1884)
• July 3 – Beatrice Chase, English writer (born 1874)
• August 1 – Charles Shaw, Australian writer (born 1900)
• August 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (born 1879)
• August 12 – Thomas Mann, German novelist (born 1875)
• August 14 – Herbert Putnam, American Librarian of Congress (born 1861)
• August 29 – Hong Shen (洪深), Chinese dramatist (born 1894)
• September 20 – Robert Riskin, American dramatist and screenwriter (born 1897)
• October 18 – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (born 1883)
• November 1 – Dale Carnegie, American writer (born 1888)
• November 12 – Tin Ujević, Croatian poet (born 1891)
• November 14
  • Ruby M. Ayres, English romance novelist (born 1881)
  • Robert E. Sherwood, American playwright (born 1896)
• December – Al. T. Stamatiad, Romanian poet (born 1885)

Awards

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom
• Frost Medal: Leona Speyer
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Ivy Compton-Burnett, Mother and Son
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: R. W. Ketton-Cremer, Thomas Gray
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Meindert DeJong, The Wheel on the School
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Halldór Kiljan Laxness
• Premio Nadal: Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, El Jarama
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Faulkner, A Fable
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ruth Pitter

In literature

• Ian McEwan's novel The Innocent (1990)
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel Cancer Ward (1967)
• Colin Wilson's novel Adrift in Soho (1961)
• Richard Yates's novel Revolutionary Road (1961)