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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.


• 
  April 16 – Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III is released in U.K. film theaters.


• 
  July 10 – Jorge Luis Borges is appointed Director of the National Library of the Argentine Republic.


• 
  July 14 – Director Stephen Joseph establishes Britain's first theatre in the round at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, predecessor of the Stephen Joseph Theatre.^[1]


• 
  July 30 – English poet Philip Larkin, having taken up the post of University Librarian at the University of Hull on March 21, makes a train journey from Hull to Grantham which inspires his poem "The Whitsun Weddings".^[2] His collection The Less Deceived is published in November (dated October).


• August – 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 – 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.^[3]


• September – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in Paris, but it takes until 1958 to be published in the United States.^[4]


• November – Frank Herbert's first novel, The Dragon in the Sea, begins its three-part serialization as Under Pressure in the monthly Astounding Science-Fiction.^[5]


• 
  November 28 – Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll receives its stage première by the Union Theatre Repertory Company in Melbourne with the playwright in a leading role; this is influential, as the first authentically naturalistic modern drama in the theatre of Australia.^[6]


• 
  Jean Cocteau is elected to both the Académie française (March 3; inducted October 20) and the Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (January 8; inducted October 1).


• An article in the British Journal of Education criticises the novels of Enid Blyton as formula fiction.^[7]


• Indian guru Mani Madhava Chakyar performs Koodiyattam outside the temple for the first time.^[8]

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)
  


• 
  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
  


• 
  Franquin – La Corne de rhinocéros
  


• 
  William Gaddis – The Recognitions
  


• 
  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
  
  


• 
  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)
  


• 
  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
  
  • Good Country People
  
  
  • A Good Man Is Hard To Find
  
  


• 
  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)


• 
  A. S. T. Fisher (as Michael Scarrott) – Ambassador of Loss
  


• 
  Isaac Bashevis Singer – Satan in Goray
  


• 
  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

• 
  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
  


• 
  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
  


• 
  Arthur Miller
  
  • 
    A View from the Bridge (one-act verse version)
  
  
  • A Memory of Two Mondays
  
  


• 
  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

• 
  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 – About Chekhov
  


• 
  Thomas E. Gaddis – Birdman of Alcatraz
  


• 
  Robert Graves – The Greek Myths
  


• 
  The Guinness Book of Records, 1st edition


• 
  Morris K. Jessup – The Case for the UFO
  


• 
  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
  

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 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 – Mia Couto (António Emílio Leite Couto), Mozambican writer


• 
  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)


• 
  Unknown date
  
  • 
    Wang Xiaoni (王小妮), Chinese poet
  
  
  • 
    Regina Yaou, Ivorienne 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)

References