1968 in literature

• January 1 – Cecil Day-Lewis is announced as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.{{Cite news |work=The Times |location=London |date=January 2, 1968 |page=1 |issue= 57138 |title=C. Day Lewis Is Poet Laureate |first=Rita |last=Marshall}}
• April – The American edition of Andrew Garve's thriller The Long Short Cut becomes the first book printed completely by electronic composition.{{Cite book |last1=Altbach |first1=Philip Gabriel |last2=Hoshino |first2=Edith S. |title=International Book Publishing: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuWEc20g0-cC&pg=PA65 |year=1995 |publisher=Garland Publishing |isbn=978-0-8153-0786-0 |page=65}}{{Cite book |last=Kane |first=Joseph Nathan |year=1997 |title=Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in American History |edition=5th |publisher=The H.W. Wilson Company |isbn=0-8242-0930-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/famousfirstfacts00kane_0/page/67 67] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/famousfirstfacts00kane_0/page/67}}
• May – The Action Theater in Munich is disbanded after its building is wrecked by one of its founders, jealous of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's growing power in the group.{{Cite book |last=Elsaesser |first=Thomas |title=Fassbinder's Germany: History, Identity, Subject |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=1996 |isbn=90-5356-059-9 |page=301}}
• June 17 – Tom Stoppard's parodic comedy The Real Inspector Hound opens at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, starring Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker.{{cite book|author=Stephen Hu|title=Tom Stoppard's Stagecraft|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OU0fAQAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=P. Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-0709-8|page=253}}
• July 28 – Last Exit to Brooklyn is cleared of obscenity in the English appeal court. John Mortimer appears for the defence.{{Cite book |isbn=978-184831-247-0 |title=Love, Sex, Death & Words: surprising tales from a year in literature |first1=John |last1=Sutherland |author-link1=John Sutherland (author) |first2=Stephen |last2=Fender |location=London |publisher=Icon |year=2011 |pages=283–4}}
• September 26 – Theatres Act 1968 (royal assent July 26) ends censorship of the theatre in the United Kingdom.{{Cite book |title=The Hutchinson Factfinder |publisher=Helicon |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-85986-000-7}}{{UK-LEG |title=Theatres Act 1968}}
• November – The English novelist Anthony Burgess and his new wife Liana settle in Lija on Malta.{{Cite web |title=Going into Exile: Anthony Burgess in Malta |url=https://www.anthonyburgess.org/banned-books/going-exile-anthony-burgess-malta/ |date=2018-06-26 |publisher=International Anthony Burgess Foundation |access-date=2020-05-17}}
• unknown dates
• The first translations and book-length discussion of the Sumerian Enheduanna's work is published.{{Cite book |author-link1=William W. Hallo |last1=Hallo |first1=William W. |first2=J. J. A. |last2=Van Dijk |title=The Exaltation of Inanna |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1968}}
• Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest, is published by Ace Books in the United States.{{cite book|author=Christopher P. Stephens|title=A Checklist of Dean R. Koontz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=770RXWFT1JUC&pg=PA7|year=1992|publisher=Ultramarine Publishing|isbn=978-0-89366-133-5|pages=7}}
• The Arvon Foundation is established by young poets John Fairfax and John Moat in the UK to promote creative writing.{{cite book|author=Miranda H. Ferrara|title=The Writers Directory: Vol. 1: A-L. 2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtxkAAAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=St. James Press|isbn=978-1-55862-525-9|page=434}}

• Ayi Kwei Armah – The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born{{Cite web|last=Sherwood|first=Harriet |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/18/the-god-of-small-things-to-shuggie-bain-the-queens-jubilee-book-list|title=The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list|date=18 April 2022|website=The Guardian|access-date=14 June 2022}}
• Elizabeth Bowen – Eva Trout{{cite book|title=Moving Out|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMqxAAAAIAAJ|year=1975|page=39}}
• Anthony Burgess – Enderby Outside{{cite book|first=D. L.|last=Kirkpatrick|title=Reference Guide to English Literature: Introductions; Writers A-G|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8cUAQAAIAAJ|year=1991|publisher=St. James Press|isbn=978-1-55862-078-0|page=325}}
• Victor Canning – The Melting Man{{cite book|author=John M. Reilly|title=Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers|publisher=Springer|year=2015|page=254}}
• Per Anders Fogelström – Stad i världen{{Cite news |url=https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se/post/31545 |title=Stad i världen / Per Anders Fogelström|last=Fogelström|first=Per Anders |work=Stockholmskällan|access-date=2017-10-28|language=sv-SE}}
• Michael Innes – Appleby at Allington{{cite book|author=George L. Scheper|title=Michael Innes|publisher=Ungar|year=1986|page=186}}
• John Irving – Setting Free the Bears{{cite book|author=Jim O'Loughlin|title=Kurt Vonnegut Remembered |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=waCHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|date=26 March 2019|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-2011-9 |pages=219}}
• Halldór Laxness – Kristnihald undir jökli (Christianity under the Glacier){{cite book|title=Scandinavian Studies: Publication of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mi08AAAAIAAJ|year=1985|publisher=The Society|page=88}}
• John le Carré – A Small Town in Germany{{cite web|last1=BOSTON|first1=RICHARD|title=What Became Of Harting?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/specials/lecarre-germany.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=16 September 2016|date=October 27, 1968}}
• Helen MacInnes – The Salzburg Connection{{cite news |last1=Hubin |first1=Allen J. |title=Blackmail unlimited |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/09/15/88963351.html?pageNumber=177 |access-date=20 March 2022 |agency=The New York Times |date=September 15, 1968}}
• Ngaio Marsh – Clutch of Constables{{Cite news |last=Richardson |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Richardson |date=27 October 1968 |title=Crime Ration |work=The Observer |page=29}}
• N. Scott Momaday – House Made of DawnScarberry-García, Susan. Landmarks of Healing: a Study of House Made of Dawn. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1990. Print.
• Brian Moore – I Am Mary Dunne{{cite news | url=http://www.robertfulford.com/BrianMoore.html | title=Brian Moore: A writer who never failed to surprise his readers | work=The Globe and Mail | date=12 January 1999 | author= Fulford, Robert | author-link= Robert Fulford (journalist) |accessdate=6 February 2016}}
• Fănuș Neagu – Îngerul a strigat ("The Angel Has Shouted"){{cite journal|title=Mișcarea literară 1968. Romanul total|first=Lucian|last=Raicu|journal=România Literară|issue=11|page=1|year=1968}}
• Anthony Powell – The Military PhilosophersBarnes, Simon, "Magic in Action: Coincidences in A Dance to the Music of Time." Secret Harmonies 10 (Spring 2023):149-157.
• Giorgio Scerbanenco – I ragazzi del massacro{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldcat.org/title/ragazzi-del-massacro/oclc/878369855/editions|title=Formats and Editions of I ragazzi del massacro|work=WorldCat|accessdate=2016-11-29}}
• Robert Silverberg – The Masks of Time{{cite book |last=Chapman|first= Edgar L. |title=The road to Castle Mount: the science fiction of Robert Silverberg |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut|year=1999 |isbn=0-313-26145-8 |page=45}}
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Cancer Ward («Раковый Корпус», Rakovy Korpus){{cite book|author=Frank Northen Magill|title=Cyclopedia of World Authors II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2wYAAAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Salem Press|isbn=978-0-89356-516-9|page=4391}}
• Muriel Spark – The Public Image{{cite book|title=The Edinburgh Companion to Muriel Spark|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2010|isbn=9780748637706|page=21}}

• Lloyd Alexander – The High King{{sfn|Hahn|2015|p=14}}
• Joan Aiken – The Whispering Mountain{{sfn|Hahn|2015|p=10}}
• Don Freeman – Corduroy{{sfn|Hahn|2015|p=142}}
• Russell Hoban – The Mouse and His Child{{sfn|Hahn|2015|p=264}}
• Ted Hughes – The Iron Man{{cite web |title=The Iron Man by Ted Hughes |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-iron-man-by-ted-hughes |website=www.bl.uk |access-date=10 January 2022}}
• Judith Kerr – The Tiger Who Came to Tea{{cite web |last=Eyre |first=Charlotte |date=5 February 2018 |title=HarperCollins to celebrate 50 years of 'Tiger Who Came to Tea' |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/harpercollins-celebrate-50-years-tiger-who-came-tea-723766 |access-date=23 May 2019 |website=The Bookseller |archive-date=6 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206162605/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/harpercollins-celebrate-50-years-tiger-who-came-tea-723766 |url-status=live}}
• Alexander Key – Escape to Witch Mountain{{cite book|title=The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Film and Television |publisher=Springer International Publishing|year=2019|isbn=9783030176204|page=45}}
• David McKee – Elmer the Patchwork Elephant{{cite web |title=The evolution of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28202506 |website=BBC News |access-date=20 January 2022 |date=9 July 2014}}
• Robert C. O'Brien – The Silver Crown{{cite book|title=The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=9780547348896|page=331}}
• Jill Tomlinson – The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark{{sfn|Hahn|2015|p=436}}
• Paul Zindel – The Pigman (first in The Pigman trilogy){{Cite news|title=Obituary: Paul Zindel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/apr/02/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries1 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 2, 2003}}

• Michel Tremblay – Les Belles-Sœurs{{Citation |last=Lachance |first=François |title=Tremblay, Michel |work=glbtq.com |year=2002 |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/tremblay_m.html |access-date=2007-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814125050/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/tremblay_m.html |archive-date=August 14, 2007}}

{{Main|1968 in poetry}}

• Eldridge Cleaver – Soul on Ice{{cite book|author=College Language Association (U.S.)|title=CLA Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1T1pAAAAIAAJ|year=1977|publisher=College Language Association|page=556}}
• Joan Didion – Slouching Towards Bethlehem{{cite web |title=Slouching Towards Bethlehem |url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531386/slouchingtowardsbethlehem |website=Macmillan Publishers}}
• Esther Hautzig – The Endless Steppe (autobiography){{cite news |title=YIVO News |url=https://www.yivo.org/cimages/yivo_yedies_206.pdf |access-date=2 December 2023 |issue=206 |publisher=YIVO Institute for Jewish Research |date=Spring 2010 |page=12 }}
• Bevis Hillier – Art Deco of the 20s and 30s
• Pauline Kael – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang{{cite book|author1=Ronald Gottesman|author2=Harry M. Geduld|title=Guidebook to Film: An Eleven-in-one Reference|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston|year=1972|page=22}}
• Gershon Legman – Rationale of the Dirty Joke{{cite book|authorlink=Mikita Brottman|last=Brottman|first=Mikita|title=Funny Peculiar: Gershon Legman and the Psychopathology of Humor|publisher=Analytic Press|location=Hillsdale, NJ|year=2004}}
• Peter Maas – The Valachi Papers{{cite book|title=Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5JDtP9G1ycC&pg=PA104|year=1990|publisher=National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration|pages=104}}
• Erich von Däniken – Chariots of the Gods? (Erinnerungen an die Zukunft){{cite book | last = Story | first = Ronald | title = The space-gods revealed : a close look at the theories of Erich von Däniken | url = https://archive.org/details/spacegodsreveale0000stor | url-access = registration | publisher = Harper & Row | location = New York | year = 1976 |page= [https://archive.org/details/spacegodsreveale0000stor/page/2 2]| isbn = 0-06-014141-7 }} Citing Der Spiegel, in issue 12/1969 (March 17, 1969), p. 184 and issue 12/1973 (March 19, 1973), p. 145.
• Gwyn Thomas – A Few Selected Exits{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2019|isbn=9781107106765|page=403}}
• James D. Watson – The Double Helix{{cite book|last=Feldman|first=Burton|title=The Nobel prize: a history of genius, controversy, and prestige|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnckeeTICn0C&q=Thomas+Hunt+Morgan|year=2001|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=1-55970-592-2|page=263}}

• October 7 – Rachel Kushner, American writer
• unknown dates
• Brock Clarke, American writer{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}
• K. V. Johansen, Canadian children's author{{cite book |title=Book Review Digest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BIkAQAAMAAJ |date=December 2001 |publisher=H.W. Wilson Company |page=90}}

• January 21 – Will Lang, Jr., American journalist (born 1914){{cite news |title=Will Lang, Headed Life News Bureaus |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/01/23/archives/will-lang-headed-life-news-bureaus.html |work=The New York Times |date=January 23, 1968 |page=43 |language=en}}
• March 23 – Edwin O'Connor, American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator (born 1918){{cite book |author1=Charles F. Duffy|title=A Family of His Own: A Life of Edwin O'Connor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vV7MJDy29GcC&pg=PA353 |year=2003 |publisher=CUA Press |isbn=978-0-8132-1337-8 |page=353}}
• April 4 - Muhammad Taha al-Huwayzi, Iranian-Iraqi Ja'fari jurist, religious teacher and poet (born 1889){{cite book |last1=Al-Khaqani|first1=Abdullah|title=Mawsūʻat al-Najaf al-Ashraf|script-title=ar:موسوعة النجف الأشرف|trans-title=Encyclopedia of Najaf |volume=20|date=2000|publisher=Dar Al-Adhwa|location=Beirut, Lebanon |page=143|edition=first |language=ar}}
• April 16 – Edna Ferber, American novelist, short story writer and playwright (born 1885){{cite book|author=R. Baird Shuman|title=Great American Writers: Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBIvc_e_YwwC&pg=PA503|year=2002|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7240-7|pages=503}}
• April 27 – Vasily Azhayev, Soviet writer (born 1915){{cite book|author1=Andreas Lahusen|author2=Thomas Lahusen|author3=Gene Kuperman|title=Late Soviet Culture: From Perestroika to Novostroika|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3b5oAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA141|year=1993|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-1290-1|pages=141}}
• April 29 – Anthony Boucher, American author, critic, and editor (born 1911){{cite book|author=Michael Ashley|title=The History of the Science-fiction Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Awj6AF-BZTcC&pg=PA300|year=2000|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0-85323-779-2|pages=300}}
• May 1 – Sir Harold Nicolson, British biographer (born 1886){{cite book|author1=Derek Drinkwater|author2=Visiting Fellow Department of International Relations Derek Drinkwater|title=Sir Harold Nicolson and International Relations: The Practitioner as Theorist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCHVzaK07i0C&pg=PA33|date=17 February 2005|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-927385-0|pages=33}}
• May 30 – Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, Romanian anthropologist, ethnographer and children's writer (born 1900){{cite news|title=Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor|newspaper=România Liberă|date=1968-05-31|page=5}}
• May 31 – Abel Bonnard, French poet, novelist and politician (born 1883){{cite book|language=fr|author1=Olivier Mathieu|publisher=Léon Degrelle|title=Abel Bonnard, une aventure inachevée|place=Paris|year=1988|page=371}}
• June 1 – Helen Keller, deaf-blind American author, activist and lecturer (born 1880){{cite book|author=Nigel Starck|title=Life After Death: The Art of the Obituary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EfvchwHafFsC&pg=PA188|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Melbourne Univ. Publishing|isbn=978-0-522-85256-1|pages=188}}
• August 21 - Germaine Guèvremont, Canadian writer (born 1893){{cite book|first=Kathleen|last=Kuiper|title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature|location=Springfield|publisher=Merriam-Webster|year=1995|isbn=978-0-87779-042-6|page=498}}
• November 17 – Mervyn Peake, English novelist (dementia, born 1911){{Cite journal |title=Dementia With Lewy Bodies and the Neurobehavioral Decline of Mervyn Peake |first=Demetrios J. |last=Sahlas |journal=Archives of Neurology |year=2003 |volume=60 |issue=6 |doi=10.1001/archneur.60.6.889 |url=http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/Mobile/article.aspx?articleid=784261 |pages=889–892 |pmid=12810496|doi-access=free}}
• November 25 – Upton Sinclair, American novelist and politician (born 1878){{cite book|author=Jay Parini|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMhMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA3-PA48|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515653-9|pages=3}}
• November 28 – Enid Blyton, English author and poet (born 1897){{cite book|first=George|last=Greenfield|title=Enid Blyton|location=Oxford|publisher=Isis|year=1999|page=xiv|isbn=978-0-75310-720-1}}
• December 5 – Anna Kavan, British novelist, short story writer and painter (born 1901){{cite ODNB|id=76072|title=Kavan, Anna [née Helen Emily Woods; married name Helen Emily Ferguson] (1901–1968)|first=Virginia|last=Ironside}}
• December 20 – John Steinbeck, American novelist (congestive heart failure, born 1902){{Cite web |url=http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html |title=John Steinbeck Biography |publisher=National Steinbeck Centre |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305004150/http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html |archive-date=March 5, 2010}}
• December 24 – D. Gwenallt Jones, Welsh poet (born 1899){{cite web|url=https://biography.wales/article/s2-JONE-JAM-1899|title=Jones, David James ('Gwenallt'; 1899-1968), poet, critic and scholar|author=Brynley Francis Roberts|website=Dictionary of Welsh Biography|publisher=National Library of Wales|access-date=17 December 2020}}

{{reflist|30em}}

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

{{Year in literature article categories}}