1970 in literature

January 16 – The Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus opens with a performance of Georg Büchner's Dantons Tod.^[1]
March – Magdalena Mouján's story "Gu ta Gutarrak" ("We and Ours") in Basque is suppressed by the authorities in Francoist Spain.^[2]
June 10 – The English novelist Anthony Burgess delivers an inflammatory lecture, "Obscenity and the Arts", at the University of Malta; its reception leads to him leaving Malta.^[3] He has begun a novel that will become Earthly Powers (1980).
June 17 – The première of David Storey's play Home at the Royal Court Theatre, London, is directed by Lindsay Anderson and stars Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.
July 7 – The English publisher Sir Allen Lane dies age 67 having suffered cancer.^[4]OnAugust 21 his paperback imprint Penguin Books is acquired by Pearson.
August 27 – England's Royal Shakespeare Company introduces a revolutionary production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Peter Brook, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.^[5]
November 20 – The playwright Fadil Paçrami becomes Chairman of the Parliament of Albania.
November 25 – In Tokyo, the Japanese author and Tatenokai militia leader Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫, 45) and others take over the headquarters of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in an attempted coup d'état. Mishima commits seppuku (public ritual suicide) when he fails to sway the public to his right-wing politics, which include restoring the powers of the Emperor.
December 5 – Dario Fo premières his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Morte accidentale di un anarchico)atVarese in Italy.
unknown dates
- Len Deighton's Bomber, set in 1943, becomes the first published novel to have been written on a word processor, an IBM MT/ST.^[6]
- The novel Deliverance by the American poet James Dickey is published; it will go on to be named among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by an editorial board of the American Modern Library.^[7]
- An unexpurgated edition of John Cleland's Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1748–1749) appears in the U.K. without legal challenge.^[8]
- Bohumil Hrabal's books Domácí úkoly (Home Work) and Poupata (Buds) are suppressed by the communist authorities in Czechoslovakia.

January 25 – Stephen Chbosky, American novelist and screenwriter
February 28 – Daniel Handler, American novelist
March 6 – Simona Vinci, Italian fiction writer
March 12 – Dave Eggers, American writer, editor and publisher
March 20 – Michele Jaffe, American author
March 26 – Martin McDonagh, British-born Irish playwright
May 20 – Dorthe Nors, Danish fiction writer
May 26 – Alex Garland, English novelist
June 6 – Sarah Dessen, American novelist
July 22 – Doug Johnstone, Scottish crime fiction writer
August 27 - Ann Aguirre, American speculative fiction writer
September 10 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (died 2004)
September 16 – Nick Sagan, American novelist and screenwriter
October 27 – Jonathan Stroud, English fantasy writer
November 7 – Chris Adrian, American novelist
November 24 – Marlon James, Jamaican novelist
November 27 – Han Kang, South Korean novelist
December 21 – Mohamedou Ould Salahi, Mauritanian author and former Guantánamo detainee
unknown dates
- Raja'a Alem, Saudi Arabian writer^[13]
- Roberta Dapunt, Italian poet^[14]
- Nathan Englander, American novelist and short story writer^[15]
- Neel Mukherjee, Indian novelist^[16]
- Faruk Šehić, Bosnian poet and fiction writer

January 10 – Charles Olson, American modernist poet (liver cancer, born 1910)
January 29 – B. H. Liddell Hart, English military historian (born 1895)
February 2 – Bertrand Russell, English philosopher (born 1872)^[17]
February 4 – Louise Bogan, American poet (born 1897)^[18]
February 20 – Sophie Treadwell, American dramatist and journalist (born 1885)^[19]
February 21 – Johannes Semper, Estonian writer, translator and politician (born 1892)^[20]
March 11 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American writer (born 1889)^[21]
March 15 – Arthur Adamov, Russian-French playwright (born 1908)^[22]
March 21 – Marlen Haushofer, Austrian novelist (born 1920)
March 29 – Vera Brittain, English novelist, memoirist and poet (born 1893)^[23]
April 11 – John O'Hara, American novelist (cardiovascular disease, born 1905)^[24]
May 7 – Jack Jones, Welsh novelist (born 1884)^[25]
May 12 – Nelly Sachs, Jewish German poet and dramatist (born 1891)^[26]
June 2 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian modernist poet and writer (born 1888)
June 3 – Ruth Sawyer, American children's writer and novelist (born 1880)
June 7 – E. M. Forster, English novelist (born 1879)^[27]
June 16 – Elsa Triolet, French novelist (born 1896)^[28]
July 7 – Allen Lane, English publisher (born 1902)
July 15 – Eric Berne, Canadian-born psychiatrist and author (heart attack, born 1910)
September 1 – François Mauriac, French novelist (born 1885)^[29]
September 25 – Erich Maria Remarque, German novelist (All Quiet On The Western Front) (born 1898)^[30]
September 28 – John Dos Passos, American novelist (born 1896)^[31]
October 18 – Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Irish language writer (born 1906)^[32]
November 23 – Alf Prøysen, Norwegian author, musician and children's writer (born 1914)^[33]
November 25 – Yukio Mishima (三島由紀夫), Japanese author (seppuku, born 1925)^[34]
unknown date – Racey Helps, English children's author and illustrator (born 1913)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Canada

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See 1970 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

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Prix Goncourt: Michel Tournier, Le Roi des Aulnes
Prix Médicis French: Camille Bourniquel, Sélinonte ou la Chambre impériale
Prix Médicis International: Luigi Malerba, Saut de la mort

United Kingdom

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Booker Prize: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
Cholmondeley Award: Kathleen Raine, Douglas Livingstone, Edward Brathwaite
Eric Gregory Award: Helen Frye, Paul Mills, John Mole, Brian Morse, Alan Perry, Richard Tibbitts
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Roy Fuller

United States

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Hugo Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Nebula Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
Newbery Medal for children's literature: William H. Armstrong, Sounder
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Charles Gordone, No Place To Be Somebody^[35]
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Richard Howard, Untitled Subjects

Elsewhere

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Miles Franklin Award: Dal Stivens, A Horse of Air^[36]
Alfaguara Prize: Carlos Droguett, Todas esas muertes
Premio Nadal: Jesús Fernández Santos, Libro de las memorias de las cosas
Viareggio Prize: Nello Saito, Dentro e fuori

Hahn, Daniel (2015). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (2nd ed.). Oxford. University Press. ISBN 9780198715542.

^ "Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus" (in German). nrw-buehnen.de. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2013-07-19.

^ Michael Ashley (2000). The History of the Science-fiction Magazine. Liverpool University Press. p. 411. ISBN 978-1-84631-003-4.

^ "Anthony Burgess's censorship scandal in Malta: a timeline". International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

^ "About Penguin: Company history". Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 2011-11-01. Retrieved 2013-11-01.

^ Barnes, Clive (1970-08-28). "Historic Staging of Dream". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-06-23.

^ Kirschenbaum, Matthew (2013-03-01). "The Book-Writing Machine: What was the first novel ever written on a word processor?". Slate. Retrieved 20 August 2020.

^ "100 Best Novels". Modern Library. 1998.

^ John Sutherland (1983). Offensive Literature: Decensorship in Britain, 1960-1982. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-0-389-20354-4.

^ Hahn 2015, p.14

^ Hahn 2015, p. 76

^ Hahn 2015, p, 199

^ Barone, Diane M. (8 March 2011). Children's Literature in the Classroom: Engaging Lifelong Readers. Guilford Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-60623-940-7.

^ "Raja Alem: "All my life, i tried to break the frame"". KAWA. 20 November 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

^ "Roberta Dapunt, info e libri dell'autore. Giulio Einaudi Editore". Einaudi (in Italian). Retrieved 22 August 2020.

^ "Nathan Englander". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

^ "Neel Mukherjeewebsite=Royal Society of Literature". Retrieved 21 August 2020.

^ Mehra, Jagdish; Rechenberg, Helmut (28 December 2000). The Historical Development of Quantum Theory. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-387-95178-2.

^ Eric L. Haralson (21 January 2014). Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-317-76322-2.

^ Louise Heck-Rabi (1976). Sophie Treadwell: Subjects and Structures in 20th Century American Drama. Wayne State University. p. 181.

^ Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich Prokhorov (1973). Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Macmillan. p. 327.

^ Harold Bloom (1995). Modern Mystery Writers. Chelsea House Publishers. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7910-2375-4.

^ Meanjin Quarterly. University of Melbourne. 1970. p. 338.

^ Harold Oxbury (1985). Great Britons: Twentieth-century Lives. Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-19-211599-7.

^ Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary. Somerset Publishers. 1999. p. 234. ISBN 0403099501.

^ Keri Edwards (2001). "Jones, Jack (1884-1970), author and playwright". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 2 June 2022.

^ Leo Baeck Institute (1990). Catalog of the Archival Collections. Mohr Siebeck. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-16-145597-1.

^ Norman Page (22 January 1988). E-M-Forster. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-349-19008-9.

^ Gale Cengage (2002). Modern French Poets. Gale Group. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7876-5252-4.

^ Bernard A. Cook (2001). Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 840. ISBN 978-0-8153-4058-4.

^ Konzett, Matthias (2000). Encyclopedia of German Literature. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 814. ISBN 9781135941222.

^ Jay Parini (2004). The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-19-515653-9.

^ Igoe, Vivien (2001). Dublin burial grounds & graveyards. Dublin: Wolfhound Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780863278723.

^ Ove Røsbak. "Alf Prøysen, 1914–1970" (in Norwegian). Norsk Oversetterleksikon. Retrieved July 1, 2019.

^ Henry Scott Stokes (2000). The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 249. ISBN 978-0-8154-1074-4.

^ Elizabeth A. Brennan; Elizabeth C. Clarage (1999). Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-57356-111-2.

^ Contemporary Novelists. St. James Press. 1972. p. 1188.

1970 in literature

Contents

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

Canada

France

United Kingdom

United States

Elsewhere

Notes

References

Languages