1973 in literature

March 6 – The Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded as the Montenegrin Society for Science and Arts (Crnogorsko društvo za nauku i umjetnost) in Podgorica, elects its first members.^[1]
March – 5 Italian fascists abduct Franca Rame (wife of Dario Fo) and rape, beat and mutilate her.^[2] She and Fo continue to write and tour drama in Italy, although Fo is arrested by police in November.
May 14
- New orthography for the Greenlandic language is introduced.
- François Truffaut's film Day for Night (La Nuit américaine) premieres; novelist Graham Greene (credited as Henry Graham) has a cameo role as an English insurance company representative.
June 21
- The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in the landmark case Miller v. California, establishing the "Miller test" for determining obscenity.
- Virago Press, registered on June 18 in the U.K. by Carmen Callil mainly to publish classics by women writers, holds its first board meeting;^[3] its first book will be published in 1975.
July 26 – Peter Shaffer's drama Equus is premièred in London by the National Theatre company at The Old Vic.
September – Following the overthrow of President Allende by a military regime, book burnings take place in Chile.^[4]
September 16 – Chilean poet and playwright Víctor Jara, detained four days earlier as a political prisoner in Estadio Chile and tortured during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, is shot and killed. His last poem, "Estadio Chile", is preserved in memories and scraps of paper retained by fellow detainees.
September 25 – The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet.^[5]
December 3 – French police of the Direction de la surveillance du territoire, disguised as plumbers, are caught trying to install a spy microphone in the directors' office of the Paris satirical paper Le Canard enchaîné.
c. December 27 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel The Gulag Archipelago (Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, written 1958–1968) is first published, by the Paris publisher Éditions du Seuil from a typescript smuggled out of the Soviet Union.
unknown dates
- André Brink's novel Kennis van die aand ("Looking on Darkness") becomes the first Afrikaans book banned by the government of South Africa.^[6]
- Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita (Ма́стер и Маргари́та) is first published complete in Moscow (in the form left at the author's death in 1940), by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura.
- Frank Herbert becomes director-photographer of the television show, The Tillers.
- Robert B. Parker starts the Boston-based Spenser book series with his debut crime novel The Godwulf Manuscript.

Alan Ayckbourn – The Norman Conquests
Dario Fo
- Guerra di popolo in Cile (The People's War in Chile - published version includes monologue Mamma Togni)
- Pum, pum, chi è? La Polizia! (Knock, knock, who's there? The police!)
Griselda Gambaro – Information For Foreigners (Información para extranjeros)
Jean Poiret – La Cage aux Folles
David Rudkin – Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin (radio play)
Peter Shaffer – Equus
Wole Soyinka – The Bacchae of Euripides

Poetry

edit

Allen Curnow – An Abominable Temper and Other Poems
Tomás Rivera – Always and other poems

Non-fiction

edit

Ernest Becker – The Denial of Death
Howard W. Bergerson – Palindromes and Anagrams
Allan W. Eckert – The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone
Antonia Fraser – Cromwell, Our Chief of Men
Nancy Friday – My Secret Garden
Pauline Kael – Deeper into Movies (1974 National Book Award winner for Arts and Letters)
Christopher Lloyd – Foliage Plants
Peter Maas – Serpico
New York Bible Society International – New Testament, New International Version (translated into modern American English)
Nigel Nicolson – Portrait of a Marriage (compiled from writings of his mother, Vita Sackville-West, died 1962)
Tim O'Brien – If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
Bill Owens – Suburbia
John Pearson – James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007
Flora Rheta Schreiber – Sybil
E. F. Schumacher – Small Is Beautiful
Maureen and Tony Wheeler – Across Asia on the Cheap
Paula Wolfert – Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco

January 1 – Bryan Thao Worra, Lao writer
January 8 – Madhulika Liddle, Indian writer
January 13 – Lois Pryce, Scottish-born travel writer and journalist
February 10 – Núria Añó, Catalan writer
February 21
- Jacob M. Appel, American short story writer and bioethicist
- Mariana Savka, Ukrainian poet, children's writer, translator and publisher
April 15 – Maria V. Snyder, American fantasy and science-fiction writer
May 10 – Tana French, American-born mystery novelist and actress
May 20 – Natalka Sniadanko, Ukrainian writer, journalist and translator
June 2 – David Bezmozgis, Latvian-Canadian writer
June 16 – Veronica Rossi, Brazilian-American young adult novelist
August 13 – Kamila Shamsie, Pakistan-born novelist
August 18 – Victoria Coren Mitchell, English writer, presenter and poker player, daughter of Alan Coren
November 12 - Jay Kristoff, Australian fantasy and science-fiction author
November 17 – Marianna Kiyanovska, Ukrainian poet, translator and literary scholar
December 20 – Maarja Kangro, Estonian author and poet
December 24 – Stephenie Meyer, American young-adult vampire romance writer and film producer
unknown dates
- Frances Hardinge, English young people's fiction writer
- Ahmed Saadawi, Iraqi writer
- Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Colombian novelist^[10]

January 15 – Neil M. Gunn, Scottish novelist, dramatist and critic (born 1891)
February 22
- Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer (born 1899)
- Brigitte Reimann, East German novelist (cancer) (born 1933)
March 5 - Robert C. O'Brien, American novelist (born 1918)
March 6 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist (born 1892)^[11]
March 18 – Roland Dorgelès, French novelist and memoirist (born 1885)^[12]
March 26 – Sir Noël Coward, English dramatist and humorist (born 1899)^[13]
April 9 – Warren Lewis, Irish author (born 1895)
April 20 – Elisabeth Hauptmann, German writer (born 1897)
April 28 – Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (born 1882)
April 30 – Jirō Osaragi (大佛次郎, Haruhiku Nojiri), Japanese novelist (born 1897)
May 21 – Carlo Emilio Gadda, Italian poet and linguist (born 1893)
June 4 – Arna Bontemps, American poet (born 1902)
June 9 – John Creasey, English crime writer (born 1908)^[14]
June 10 – William Inge, American playwright (born 1913)^[15]
June 30 – Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer (born 1904)^[16]
July 11 – Nobuko Yoshiya (吉屋信子, Yoshiya Nobuko), Japanese romantic novelist (born 1896)
July 29 – Henri Charrière, French writer and criminal (born 1906)
August 1 – Ann Quin, English novelist (born 1936)
September 2 – J. R. R. Tolkien, English fantasy writer and scholar (born 1892)^[17]
September 9 – S. N. Behrman, American playwright, screenwriter and biographer (born 1893)
September 13 – Sajjad Zaheer, Urdu writer and revolutionary (born 1899)^[18]
September 20 – William Plomer, South African-born British novelist, poet and literary editor (born 1903)^[19]
September 23 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (born 1904)^[20]
September 29 – W. H. Auden, English-born poet (born 1907)^[21]
October 6 – Margaret Wilson, American novelist (born 1882)
October 28 – Sergio Tofano, Italian dramatist (born 1886)
November 8 – Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel, Turkish poet, author and playwright (born 1898)^[22]
November 13 – B. S. Johnson, English novelist (suicide) (born 1933)
December 7 – Benn Levy, English playwright and politician (born 1900)
December 9 – Anthony Gilbert, English crime writer (born 1899)
December 11 – May Wedderburn Cannan, English poet (born 1893)
December 14 – Josef Magnus Wehner, German poet and playwright (born 1891)
unknown date – Kathleen Lindsay, English-born South African romance novelist (born 1903)

Nobel Prize in Literature: Patrick White

Canada

edit

See 1973 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

edit

Prix Goncourt: Jacques Chessex, L'Ogre
Prix Médicis French: Tony Duvert, Paysage de fantaisie
Prix Médicis International: Milan Kundera, Life Is Elsewhere

United Kingdom

edit

Booker Prize: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Cholmondeley Award: Patric Dickinson, Philip Larkin
Eric Gregory Award: John Beynon, Ian Caws, James Fenton, Keith Harris, David Howarth, Philip Pacey
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: John Heath-Stubbs

United States

edit

Elsewhere

edit

Miles Franklin Award: No award presented
Premio Nadal: José García Blázquez, El rito
Viareggio Prize: Achille Campanile, Manuale di conversazione

^ "Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA)". IAP. 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2015-01-09.

^ Mitchell, Tony (1999). Dario Fo: People's Court Jester (Updated & expanded ed.). London: Methuen. p. 122. ISBN 0-413-73320-3.

^ "The History of Virago". Virago. 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-03-23. Retrieved 2015-01-09.

^ Sonia Cardenas (2010). Conflict and Compliance: State Responses to International Human Rights Pressure. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-8122-2130-3.

^ The Washington Post. Archived December 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

^ Peter France (2001). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-19-924784-4.

^ "1973 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-29.

^ Jan van Coillie (1999). Leesbeesten en boekenfeesten: hoe werken (met) kinder- en jeugdboeken?. NBD Biblion Publishers. p. 285. ISBN 978-90-5483-189-1.

^ Bernard Alger Drew (1997). The 100 Most Popular Young Adult Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies. Libraries Unlimited. p. 453. ISBN 978-1-56308-615-1.

^ Juan Gabriel Vásquez (3 May 2018). The Shape of the Ruins: Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019. Quercus. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-85705-660-3.

^ Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1973. p. 163.

^ Obituaries on File: A-R. Facts on File. 1979. p. 163.

^ "Obituary: Sir Noel Coward", The Times, 27 March 1973, p. 18

^ "John Creasey, Author, Is Dead; Specialized in Mystery Novels". New York Times. June 10, 1973. Retrieved March 8, 2022.

^ "Inge's Funeral Today". The New York Times. June 12, 1973. Retrieved 24 April 2017.

^ Hastings, Selina (2015) [2004]. "Mitford, Nancy Freeman- (1904–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31450. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

^ "J. R. R. Tolkien Dead at 81; Wrote 'The Lord of the Rings'". The New York Times. 3 September 1973. Archived from the original on 11 April 2009.

^ Shingavi, Snehal (2018-06-05). Angaaray. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-93-5118-695-3.

^ Alexander, Peter F. (1989). William Plomer: A Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-212243-8.

^ "Pablo Neruda, Nobel Poet, Dies in a Chilean Hospital", The New York Times, 24 September 1973.

^ Shrenker, Israel (30 September 1973). "W. H. Auden Dies in Vienna". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2017.

^ Birinci, Necat (1993). Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel: Inceleme-Seçmeler (in Turkish). Cağaloğlu: Boğaziçi yayınları. p. 13. ISBN 978-9-75451-102-4.

^ R. Reginald (1981). Science Fiction & Fantasy Awards ... Borgo Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-89370-806-1.

1973 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

References

Languages