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1964 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1964|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1964.

Events

  • January 10 – Federico García Lorca's play The House of Bernarda Alba, completed just before his assassination in 1936, receives its first performance in Spain.[http://www.madridteatro.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1223:la-casa-de-bernarda-alba-resena-1964-critica&catid=69:critica&Itemid=24 House of Bernarda Alba – Premiere in Madrid (Spanish)]. Accessed 27 November 2013.
  • January 12 – The Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group open a four-week Theatre of Cruelty season at the LAMDA Theatre Club, London.{{Cite news |title=The Theatre of Cruelty |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=1964-01-01 |page=13 |issue=55897}}
  • January 23 – Arthur Miller's play After the Fall opens at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre Off-Broadway in New York City, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Jason Robards and Kazan's wife Barbara Loden. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over Miller's portrayal of his late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe.
  • February 11 – A London retailer, in the case of R. v. Gold, is found guilty under section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 of stocking a 1963 edition of John Cleland's novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1748–1749).
  • February 28 – The Dutch comic artist and writer Jan Cremer publishes his autobiographical novel I, Jan Cremer, which provokes controversy for its frank content and style and becomes a bestseller.{{Cite web |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cremer_jan.htm |title=Jan Cremer |work=Lambiek Comiclopedia |language=en |date=2019-07-26 |access-date=2020-01-07}}
  • April 23 – Shakespeare Birthplace Trust opens the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, to house its library and research facilities.
  • April 29 – Peter Weiss's play with music Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, known as Marat/Sade) premières at the Schiller Theater in West Berlin. In August it receives its English-language première by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London at the Aldwych Theatre.{{Cite news |title=Ambitious Example of Theatre of Cruelty |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=1964-08-21 |page=11 |issue=56096}}
  • May – Michael Moorcock becomes editor of the science fiction magazine New Worlds.
  • May 5 – W. H. Auden's preface to the anthology The Protestant Mystics describes the supernatural "Vision of Agape" he experienced in June 1933.{{Cite book |author=Stan Smith |title=The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltwN3MpcPIcC&pg=PA31 |date=13 January 2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-82713-3 |pages=31}}
  • May 6 – Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane premières at the New Arts Theatre in London with Dudley Sutton in the title rôle.
  • May 29 – Le Théâtre du Soleil is established as a collective avant-garde stage ensemble by Ariane Mnouchkine, Philippe Léotard and fellow students of L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. It opens with Les Petits Bourgeois (adapted from Maxim Gorky's Мещане), at Théâtre Mouffetard.{{Cite web |title=Chronologie des spectacles et des films du Théâtre du Soleil |url=http://www.theatre-du-soleil.fr/thsol/a-propos-du-theatre-du-soleil,1/l-historique/chronologie-des-spectacles-du?lang=fr |publisher=Théâtre du Soleil |access-date=2013-11-27}}
  • June 22 – Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer is allowed to circulate legally in the United States by the U.S. Supreme Court three decades after its publication in France, after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein, cites Jacobellis v. Ohio (decided the same day) and overrules state court findings that the book is obscene.{{Cite court |litigants=Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein |vol=378 |reporter=U.S. |opinion=577 |court=U.S. Supreme Court |date=22 June 1964 |url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/378/577/}}
  • August 11 – Ian Fleming walks to the Royal St George's Golf Club near Sandwich, Kent, for lunch with friends, collapsing shortly afterward with a heart attack.{{Cite book |last=Lycett |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Lycett |title=Ian Fleming |year=1996 |publisher=Phoenix |location=London |isbn=978-1-85799-783-5 |page=442}} His last recorded words are an apology to the ambulance drivers: "I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don't know how you get along so fast with the traffic on the roads these days." Fleming dies next day.
  • September – The Everyman Theatre opens in Liverpool, England.
  • September 28 – Brian Friel's play Philadelphia, Here I Come! is premièred at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin.
  • October 22 – French author Jean Paul Sartre declines the Nobel Prize in Literature for literary and political reasons, explaining his belief that an author must not accept official awards from any institution.[https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/23/archives/sartre-explains-stand.html Sartre Explains Stand] nytimes.com
  • October 28 – The Wednesday Play is broadcast for the first time on BBC1 television, presenting original one-off contemporary social drama, mostly written for television.{{Cite book |author=Jacob Leigh |title=The Cinema of Ken Loach: Art in the Service of the People |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKwc4ltKdLgC&pg=PA183 |year=2002 |publisher=Wallflower Press |isbn=978-1-903364-31-4 |pages=183}}

New books

=Fiction=

=Children and young people=

=Drama=

=Poetry=

{{Main article|1964 in poetry}}

=Non-fiction=

Births

  • January 26 – Peter Braunstein, American journalist and playwright
  • February 23 – Joseph O'Neill, Irish-born writer
  • March 7 – Bret Easton Ellis, American novelist, screenwriter and short-story writer{{cite book|author1=Clifford Thompson|author2=H. W. Wilson|title=World Authors 1990-1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cWoYAAAAIAAJ|year=1999|publisher=H.W. Wilson|isbn=978-0-8242-0956-8|page=215}}
  • March 21 – Kaori Ekuni (江國 香織), Japanese novelist
  • April 9 – Margaret Peterson Haddix, American children's author
  • June 5 – Rick Riordan, American young-adult author
  • June 7 – Petr Hruška, Czech poet
  • June 11 – Dan Chaon, American novelist and short-story writer
  • June 22 – Dan Brown, American novelist and mystery writer
  • June 26 – Conor Kostick, Irish historian and children's author
  • July 3 – Joanne Harris, English novelist
  • July 7 – Karina Galvez, Ecuadorian poet
  • July 16 – Anne Provoost, Flemish novelist and essayist
  • August 22 – Diane Setterfield, British author
  • September 9 – Aleksandar Hemon, Bosnian novelist and short-story writer
  • September 19
  • Patrick Marber, English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter{{cite book|author=Graham Saunders|title=Patrick Marber's Closer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKYaO9jCeUsC&pg=PA3|date=6 June 2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-7104-7|pages=3}}
  • Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwean novelist (died 2005){{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/apr/27/guardianobituaries.books|title=Yvonne Vera|date=27 April 2005|author=Helon Habila|website=The Guardian|access-date=22 November 2023}}
  • September 25
  • Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Spanish novelist (died 2020)
  • Gareth Thompson, English children's author
  • December 12 – J. R. Moehringer, American journalist and ghostwriter
  • December 26 – Elizabeth Kostova, American author
  • December 29 – Christine Leunens, American-born Belgian-New Zealand novelist
  • unknown dates
  • Ros Barber, English novelist and poet{{cite book|author=Carole Buchan|title=Reshape Whilst Damp: Prize-winning Stories by Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FexZAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Serpent's Tail|isbn=978-1-85242-652-1|page=177}}
  • Ge Fei (格非, real name: Liu Yong, 刘勇), Chinese novelist
  • Mai Jia (real name: Jiǎng Běnhǔ, 蒋本浒), Chinese novelist{{cite book|author=Laifong Leung|title=Contemporary Chinese Fiction Writers: Biography, Bibliography, and Critical Assessment|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KklnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT344|date=28 July 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-51618-7|pages=344}}
  • Nell Zink, American novelist{{Cite web|url = http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Biographies&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CH1000313869&source=Bookmark&u=mlin_n_umass&jsid=aace2b95731651c6350bd10f1d139d28|title = Contemporary Authors Online|date = 2015|access-date = February 4, 2016|website = Biography in Context|publisher = Gale}}

Deaths

  • January 17 – T. H. White, English novelist (heart condition, born 1906){{cite book|author1=Clark Layman Bruccoli|author2=Gale Cengage|title=British Children's Writers, 1914-1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqERAQAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Gale Research|isbn=978-0-8103-9355-4|page=314}}
  • February 1 – Sigge Stark (Signe Björnberg), Swedish writer (born 1896){{cite web|first=Yvonne|last=Leffler|title=Sigge Stark: Sveriges mest produktiva, utskällda och lästa författare|url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/bokrecensioner/yvonne-leffler-sigge-stark-sveriges-mest-produktiva-utskallda-och-lasta-forfattare/|website=Dagens Nyheter|access-date=2021-06-13|language=Swedish|date=2015-05-11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613133550/https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/bokrecensioner/yvonne-leffler-sigge-stark-sveriges-mest-produktiva-utskallda-och-lasta-forfattare/ |archive-date=2021-06-13 }}
  • February 3 – Clarence Irving Lewis, American philosopher (born 1883)
  • February 15 – Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, French theologian (born 1877){{cite book|title=Catholic School Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bGhLAAAAYAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Bruce Publishing Company|page=19}}
  • February 25 – Grace Metalious (Marie Grace DeRepentigny), American novelist (cirrhosis of liver, born 1924){{cite book|author=George C. Kohn|title=The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzdWTBytwAIC&pg=PA314|year=2001|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-3022-4|pages=314}}
  • March 1 – Davíð Stefánsson, Icelandic poet (born 1895){{cite book|author=Patrick J. Stevens|title=Icelandic Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsoUAQAAIAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Gale|isbn=978-0-7876-6830-3|page=29}}
  • March 17 – Păstorel Teodoreanu, Romanian poet and satirist (lung cancer, born 1894)
  • March 20 – Brendan Behan, Irish playwright, poet and writer (born 1923){{cite book|author=Frances Stephens|title=Theatre World Annual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yg3DWEjfAUEC|year=1964|publisher=Macmillan|page=165}}
  • April 9 – Mihu Dragomir, Romanian poet, journalist and short story writer (heart attack, born 1919)
  • April 14 – Rachel Carson, American environmentalist (breast cancer, born 1907){{cite book|title=Carson, Rachel|year=2010|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|edition=2010}}
  • April 18 – Ben Hecht, American screenwriter (born 1894)
  • April 23 – Karl Polanyi (Károly Polányi), Austro-Hungarian economic historian and social philosopher (born 1886)
  • April 26 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet (born 1882)David G. Pitt, "[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006453 Pratt, Edwin John] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215082539/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006453 |date=2011-02-15 }}," Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988), 1736.
  • May 13 – Hamilton Basso, American novelist and journalist (born 1904)
  • July 6 – Ion Vinea, Romanian poet, novelist, and journalist (cancer, born 1895)
  • July 29 – Wanda Wasilewska, Polish Soviet novelist and journalist (heart disease, born 1905)
  • August 3 – Flannery O'Connor, American essayist and fiction writer (born 1925) {{cite encyclopedia |last = Gordon |first = Sarah |title = Flannery O'Connor |date = December 8, 2015 |orig-year = Originally published July 10, 2002 |encyclopedia = New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher = Georgia Humanities Council |url = http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/flannery-oconnor-1925-1964 |access-date = May 13, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160314114535/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/flannery-oconnor-1925-1964 |archive-date = March 14, 2016 |url-status = live }}
  • August 5 – Moa Martinson, Swedish author (born 1890){{cite book|title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature|location=Springfield|publisher=Merriam-Webster|year=1995|page=739|isbn=978-0-87779-042-6}}
  • August 12 – Ian Fleming, English spy thriller writer (heart attack, born 1908){{cite book|title=20th Century Fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdQ5AAAAMAAJ|year=1985|publisher=St. James Press|isbn=978-0-912289-19-9|page=220}}
  • August 17 – Mihai Ralea, Romanian critic and sociologist of literature (born 1896)
  • September 5 – Angel Cruchaga Santa María, Chilean writer (born 1893){{cite book |last=Cruchaga Santa Maria |first=Angel |title=La hora digna: antología poética |editor-last=Silva Acevedo |editor-first=Manuel |series=Colección Premios nacionales de literatura |volume=7 |publisher=Editorial Universitaria |location=Santiago de Chile |year=1996 |lccn=98199495}}
  • September 6 – San Tiago Dantas, Brazilian journalist (born 1911)
  • September 14 – Vasily Grossman, Soviet novelist (cancer, born 1905)
  • September 18 – Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist and memoirist (born 1880){{cite web|title=Sean O'Casey – Irish dramatist|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sean-OCasey|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=7 July 2017|language=en}}
  • October 26 – Agnes Miegel, German author, journalist and poet (born 1879)
  • c. November – Radu D. Rosetti, Romanian poet and playwright (born 1874){{cite journal|first=Horia|last=Oprescu|title=Un bătrîn poet a murit|journal=Gazeta Literară|volume=XI|issue=46|page=7|year=1964}}
  • November 21 – Leah Bodine Drake, American poet, editor and critic (cancer, born 1914)
  • November 29 – Anne de Vries, Dutch novelist (born 1904)
  • December 9 – Dame Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (born 1887)
  • December 21 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (born 1880){{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/vanvechten/vvbio.html |title=Portraits by Carl Van Vechten – Carl Van Vechten Biography |work=American Memory |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=2010-03-09}}

Awards

=Canada=

=France=

=United Kingdom=

=United States=

=Elsewhere=

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}}