Login
Login

1956 in literature#Deaths

{{Short description|none}}

{{Year nav topic5|1956|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1956.

Events

  • c. January – The first book in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct police procedural series, Cop Hater, is published in the United States under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym.{{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=Erin|title=Ed McBain/Evan Hunter: A Literary Companion|date=April 30, 2012|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786489480|page=86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dlk4-f2RWKYC|accessdate=8 January 2018}}
  • February 2 – Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night (completed in 1942) receives a posthumous world première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in Swedish (Lång dags färd mot natt), directed by Bengt Ekerot and starring Lars Hanson. Its Broadway debut at the Helen Hayes Theatre on November 7 follows an American première at the Shubert Theatre (New Haven).{{Cite web |title=Shubert Theater |url=http://www.capa.com/newhaven/venues/shubert_history.php |publisher=CAPA |location=New Haven |year=2008 |access-date=2008-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511195305/http://www.capa.com/newhaven/venues/shubert_history.php|archive-date=2008-05-11|url-status=dead}}
  • February 25 – The English poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath meet in Cambridge, England.{{Cite book |editor=Jones, Neal T. |title=A Book of Days for the Literary Year |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofdaysforlit0jone |url-access=registration |location=London; New York |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1984 |isbn=0-500-01332-2}}
  • March 11 – The U.S. release of Sir Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's Richard III plays simultaneously on NBC network television and as afternoon matinée screenings in movie theaters. Its TV audience is put at 25–40 million – almost certainly the largest to date for a Shakespeare production.{{Cite news |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/467017/index.html |publisher=British Film Institute |work=Screenonline |title=Richard III Review |access-date=2006-07-08}}
  • March 19 – The widowed English author Aldous Huxley marries the Italian-American film-maker and author Laura Archera at a drive-in wedding chapel in Yuma, Arizona.{{Cite book |first=Laura |last=Huxley |title=This Timeless Moment |year=1969 |isbn=0-89087-968-0}}
  • April 23 – The British author C. S. Lewis and American poet Joy Gresham have a civil marriage at Oxford register office.42, St Giles'. {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LWK59Z68ZGoC&pg=PA79 |last=Hooper |first=Walter |title=C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Works |page=79 |access-date=2011-12-03 |isbn=9780060638801 |date=1998-06-23}}
  • May 8 – The first performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger is given by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in London.{{Cite book |title=Penguin Pocket On This Day |publisher=Penguin Reference Library |isbn=0-14-102715-0 |year=2006}}{{Cite book |title=The Hutchinson Factfinder |publisher=Helicon |year=1999 |isbn=1-85986-000-1}} Alan Bates has his first major role as Cliff. The press release describes Osborne as one of the angry young men of the time, a phrase used on July 26 in a Daily Express headline.
  • June 16 – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry at St George the Martyr, Holborn in the London Borough of Camden.
  • June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
  • June 26 and August 23 – Books published by the discredited psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich are burned in the United States under a court injunction.
  • June – Nineteen-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested as an accessory to robbery.
  • June 29 – Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe in White Plains, New York.
  • July – After pleas by Israeli diplomats, the Romanian communist regime releases A. L. Zissu, formally sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954.{{Cite book |last=Nastasă |first=Lucian |editor1-last=Andreescu |editor1-first=Andreea |editor2-last=Nastasă |editor2-first=Lucian |editor3-last=Varga |editor3-first=Andrea |title=Minorități etnoculturale. Mărturii documentare. Evreii din România (1945–1965) |publisher=Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center |location=Cluj-Napoca |year=2003 |page=30 |chapter=Studiu introductiv}} Zissu emigrates to Israel, where he dies on September 6.{{Cite book |last=Glass |first=Hildrun |editor1-last=Rotman |editor1-first=Liviu |editor2-last=Crăciun |editor2-first=Camelia |editor3-last=Vasiliu |editor3-first=Ana-Gabriela |title=Noi perspective în istoriografia evreilor din România |publisher= Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania & Editura Hasefer |location=Bucharest |year=2010 |pages=166–167 |chapter=Câteva note despre activitatea lui Avram L. Zissu}}
  • July 4 – The National Library of Scotland's first purpose-built premises open in Edinburgh.{{Cite news |title=Bute Collection for Scotland: Library Opening by The Queen|work=The Times |location=London |date=1956-07-05 |page=12 |issue= 53575}}
  • July 8 – The drama series Armchair Theatre, produced by ABC Weekend TV for the ITV network in the United Kingdom, begins a twelve-year run.
  • August 14 – Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley at Oxford register office.
  • September 14 – Harold Pinter marries Vivien Merchant in a civil ceremony at Bournemouth, after they meet while touring in repertory theatre.
  • October – The Ladder becomes the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the United States.
  • November 1 – Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems, a signal work of the Beat Generation, is published by City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
  • December
  • J. G. Ballard's first professional publications, the science fiction short stories "Escapement" and "Prima Belladonna", appear in this month's issues of New Worlds and Science Fantasy respectively.{{Cite news |first=Bruce |last=Weber |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html |title=J. G Ballard, Novelist, Is Dead at 78 |date=2009-04-21 |access-date=2014-10-15 |newspaper=The New York Times}}
  • Martin Gardner begins his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.
  • December 3 – The author Romain Gary wins the Prix Goncourt for Les Racines du ciel. He would later become the only person to win the prize twice, publishing La Vie devant soi under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975.
  • unknown dates
  • Finished in 1952, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street), is first published.{{cite book|author=Ed. Mohit K. Ray|title=The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_YatfLrgnMC&pg=PA336|date=September 2007|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0832-5|pages=336}}
  • Sixteen-year-old Michael Moorcock becomes editor of Tarzan Adventures.
  • Jorge Luis Borges becomes a professor of English and American literature at the University of Buenos Aires.{{cite book|author=Adrian Lennon|title=Jorge Luis Borges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=piYNAQAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|isbn=978-0-7910-1236-9|page=104}}

New books

=Fiction=

=Children and young people=

=Drama=

=Poetry=

=Non-fiction=

Births

  • January 2 – Storm Constantine, British science fiction and fantasy author
  • January 4 – Sarojini Sahoo, Indian journalist, author, and poet
  • January 8 – Jack Womack, American novelist
  • January 10 – Antonio Muñoz Molina, Spanish novelist
  • January 21 – Ian McMillan, English poet[http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth132 "Ian McMillan"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001020045/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth132 |date=1 October 2007 }}, Peter Forbes, British Council, 2002
  • January 14 – Ronan Bennett, Northern Irish novelist
  • February 20 – François Bréda, Romanian essayist, poet, literary critic, literary historian, translator and theatrologist (died 2018)
  • February 26 – Michel Houellebecq, French novelist
  • March 3 – Frank Giroud, French comics writer (died 2018){{cite news |title=BD : l'auteur Frank Giroud (Le Décalogue) est mort à 62 ans |url=https://www.leprogres.fr/france-monde/2018/07/14/bd-l-auteur-frank-giroud-(le-decalogue)-est-mort-a-62-ans |accessdate=July 15, 2018 |work=Le Progres |date=July 14, 2018}}
  • March 7 – Andrea Levy, English novelist (died 2019){{Cite web |last1=Innes |first1=Lyn |author-link=Lyn Innes|title=Andrea Levy obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/15/andrea-levy-obituary |work=The Guardian |access-date=15 February 2019 |date=15 February 2019}}
  • March 12 – Ruth Ozeki, American novelist and filmmaker
  • March 20
  • Minken Fosheim, Norwegian actress and author (died 2018)
  • Win Lyovarin, Thai novelist and short story writer
  • March 23 – Steven Saylor, American historical novelist
  • April 7 – Christopher Darden, African-American attorney, author, actor and lecturer{{cite web| url= https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/darden-christopher-1957| website= Biography| title= Christopher Darden 1957–| access-date= December 13, 2023| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190403203206/https://www.biography.com/people/christopher-darden-122915| archive-date= April 3, 2019}}
  • April 12 – Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese novelist and politician
  • April 29 – Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist{{cite book|title=Contemporary Authors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqziAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Gale Research Company|isbn=978-0-8103-5552-1|page=206}}
  • May 4 – David Guterson, American journalist and novelist
  • May 9 – Cindy Lovell, American educator and writer
  • May 18 – John Godber, English dramatist
  • May 20
  • Boris Akunin, Russian novelist and essayist{{cite web|url=http://www.lenta.ru/lib/14183665/|script-title=ru:Чхартишвили, Григорий|work=Collection of materials by Lenta.ru|language=ru|access-date=26 November 2009}}
  • Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
  • June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American crime novelist
  • June 25 – Anthony Bourdain, American chef, writer and television personality (died 2018){{cite news |last1=Hayward |first1=Tim |title=Anthony Bourdain obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/09/anthony-bourdain-obituary |access-date=June 4, 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=June 9, 2018 |language=en}}
  • June 26 – Davide Ferrario, Italian film director, screenwriter and author
  • June 29 – Richard Summerbell, Canadian mycologist, author and songwriter
  • July 2 – Cynthia Kadohata, Japanese-American children's writer
  • July 4 – Éric Neuhoff, French novelist
  • July 11 – Amitav Ghosh, Bengali Indian novelist[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1537377/Amitav-Ghosh Ghosh, Amitav] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805051222/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1537377/Amitav-Ghosh |date=5 August 2011 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica
  • September 6 – Mai Yamani, Saudi Arabian independent scholar, author and anthropologist
  • October 9 – Robert Reed, American science fiction author
  • October 13 – Chris Carter, American screenwriter
  • October 16 - Meg Rosoff, American-British children's and young-adult writer
  • October 18 – Lucy Ellmann, Anglo-American novelist
  • October 21 – Carrie Fisher, American actress and novelist (died 2016){{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/27/carrie-fisher-obituary-star-wars-actor-writer|title=Carrie Fisher obituary|date=27 December 2016|author=Ryan Gilbey|website=The Guardian|access-date=25 February 2024}}
  • November 11 – Tim Pears, English novelist
  • November 20 – Elena Gremina, Russian dramatist (died 2018)
  • November 26 – John McCarthy, English journalist and hostage
  • December 22 – Percival Everett, American writer and novelist
  • unknown dates
  • James Aboud, Trinidad poet and judge{{cite book|author=Tony Kellman|title=Crossing Water: Contemporary Poetry of the English-speaking Caribbean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEZ7AAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Greenfield Review Press|isbn=978-0-912678-85-6|page=2}}
  • James Belich, New Zealand historian{{cite book|author1=Roger Robinson|author2=Nelson Wattie|title=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8cUAQAAIAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-558348-9|page=50}}
  • Amy Gerstler, American poet{{cite book|author1=Catherine Cucinella|author2=Emmanuel Sampath Nelson|title=Contemporary American Women Poets: An A-to-Z Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uIhM0n05FJMC&pg=PA138|year=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31783-5|pages=138}}

Deaths

Awards

Notes

  • {{cite book |last1=Hahn |first1=Daniel |title=The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford. University Press |isbn=9780198715542 |edition=2nd}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}