1948 in literature

See also: 1947 in literature, other events of 1948, 1949 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• November 4 – T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
• The first volume of Sir Winston Churchill's "The Second World War" (1948–1953) is published.
• The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene is published.
• The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer is published.

New books

• The American Political Tradition – Richard Hofstadter
• Catalina – W. Somerset Maugham
• Concluding – Henry Green
• Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
• The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline – Isaac Asimov
• The Foundling – Georgette Heyer
• The Golden Warrior – Hope Muntz
• Guard of Honor – James Gould Cozzens
• The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
• The Hearth and the Eagle – Anya Seton
• The House of Sleep  – Anna Kavan
• The Ides of March – Thornton Wilder
• John Aubrey and His Friends – Anthony Powell
• Joseph and His Brothers – Thomas Mann
• Last Of The Conquerors – William Gardner Smith
• The Living Is Easy – Dorothy West
• The Mask of Circe – C. L. Moore
• Melissa (novel) – Taylor Caldwell
• My Glorious Brothers – Howard Fast
• The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer
• Parris Mitchell of King's Row – Henry Bellamann
• Raintree County – Ross Lockridge, Jr.
• Seraph On The Sewanee  – Zora Neale Hurston
• The Twenty-One Balloons – William Pène du Bois
• The White Goddess – Robert Graves
• The World is Not Enough – Zoe B. Oldenbourg
• The Young Lions – Irwin Shaw

Short story

• "The Lottery" – Shirley Jackson

Births

• January 1  – Lynn Abbey, writer
• February 5 – Christopher Guest, actor, writer, director, composer
• February 28 – Mike Figgis, director, writer, composer
• February 29 – Patricia A. McKillip, author of fantasy and science fiction novels
• March 17 – William Gibson, writer
• April 4 – Dan Simmons, American author of science fiction, horror and fantasy
• April 28 – Terry Pratchett, English fantasy author
• September 20 – George R. R. Martin, fantasy writer
• October 17 – Robert Jordan, fantasy writer

Deaths

• March 6 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., author of Raintree County

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: William Pene du Bois, The Twenty-One Balloons
• Nobel Prize for literature: Thomas Stearns Eliot
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James A. Michener – Tales of the South Pacific
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. H. Auden: The Age of Anxiety