1949 in literature

See also: 1948 in literature, other events of 1949, 1950 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Death of a Salesman, a play by Arthur Miller
• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles is published.
• June 8 – Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is published.

New books

• The Aleph – Jorge Luis Borges
• Alien Land – Willard W. Savoy
• The Angry Wife – Pearl S. Buck
• Beneath The Sky – Alfred Q. Jarrette
• Beyond Earth's Gates – C. L. Moore
• Cannibal – John Hawkes
• Crooked House – Agatha Christie
• The Egyptian – Mika Waltari
• The Golden Sequence  – Martha E. Von Almedingen
• The Heat of the Day – Elixabeth Bowen
• King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry
• Let Love Come Last – Taylor Caldwell
• Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
• Male and Female – Margaret Mead
• The Man with the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren
• Men of Maize – Miguel Angel Asturias
• The Miracles of the Red Altar Cloth – Hermann L. Hunter
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
• Pride's Castle – Frank Yerby
• A Rage To Live – John O'Hara
• The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
• To Hell and Back – Audie Murphy
• Shane – Jack Schaefer
• The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles
• A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
• Trouble with Harry – Jack Story

Births

• January 26 – Jonathan Carroll, American author of fantasy fiction
• November 2 – Lois McMaster Bujold, American author of science fiction and fantasy

Deaths

• January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, U.S. book publisher
• February 11 – Axel Munthe, Swedish author
• April 24 – Willa Cather, author
• May 6 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet & playwright
• June 10 – Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize winning author
• June 14 – Russell Doubleday, U.S. author and publisher
• September 19 – Will Cuppy, U.S. humorist
• December 28 – Hervey Allen – U.S. author

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Marguerite Henry, King of the Wind
• Nobel Prize for literature – William Faulkner
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Peter Viereck, Terror and Decorum