1951 in literature

See also: 1950 in literature, other events of 1951, 1952 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus.

• From Here to Eternity by James Jones is published.

• A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell is published. It is the first novel of his A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy.

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is published.

New books

• The Balance Wheel – Taylor Caldwell
• The Blessing – Nancy Mitford
• Boy at the Window – Owen Dodson
• The Caine Mutiny  – Herman Wouk
• The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
• The Cruel Sea  – Nicholas Monsarrat
• The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey
• The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
• Foundation  – Isaac Asimov
• The Foundling – Cardinal Spellman
• From Here to Eternity  – James Jones
• Lie Down In Darkness – William Styron
• The Loved and the Lost – Morley Callaghan
• Moses – Sholem Asch
• My Cousin Rachel  – Daphne du Maurier
• Prince Caspian – C. S. Lewis
• A Question of Upbringing – Anthony Powell
• Return to Paradise  – James A. Michener
• Spartacus – Howard Fast
• The Wanderer – Mika Waltari
• A Woman Called Fancy – Frank Yerby

Births

• August 20 – Greg Bear, science fiction author
• August 24 – Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
• September 20 – Javier Marías, Spanish novelist
• December 22 – Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician

Deaths

• February 7 – Sinclair Lewis, novelist
• February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, author
• February 19 – André Gide, author
• March 14 – Algernon Blackwood, writer
• March 25 – Oscar Micheaux, African-American, author & filmmaker

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Yates, Amos Fortune, Free Man
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Pär Fabian Lagerkvist
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Town
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems