1952 in literature

See also: 1951 in literature, other events of 1952, 1953 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report.

• January 29 – James Jones wins the National Book Award for his 1951 novel, From Here to Eternity.

• November 25 – Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens in London

New books

• Adventures in Two Worlds – A.J. Cronin
• Arrow in the Blue – Arthur Koestler
• A Buyer's Market – Anthony Powell
• Charlotte's Web – E.B. White
• The Devils of Loudun – Aldous Huxley
• Drama from Ibsen to Eliot – Raymond Williams
• East of Eden  – John Steinbeck
• Foundation and Empire  – Isaac Asimov
• Giant – Edna Ferber
• The Gown of Glory – Agnes Sligh Turnbull
• Heaven and Earth – Carlo Coccioli
• The Hidden Flower – Pearl S. Buck
• The Houses in Between – Howard Spring
• The Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
• Island of Desire – Edith Templeton
• Judgment Night – C. L. Moore
• A Many-splendoured Thing – Han Suyin
• Martha Quest – Doris Lessing
• The Old Man and the Sea  – Ernest Hemingway
• The Power of Positive Thinking  – Norman Vincent Peale
• The Saracen Blade – Frank Yerby
• The Silver Chalice  – Thomas B. Costain
• The Small Miracle – Paul Gallico
• Steamboat Gothic  – Frances Parkinson Keyes
• Vermeer – Lawrence Gowing
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis
• Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

Births

• February 19 – Amy Tan, novelist
• February 29 – Tim Powers, American fantasy author
• March 11 – Douglas Adams, science fiction author
• Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, author of fantasy novels under the pennames Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm

Deaths

• February 19 – Knut Hamsun, author
• May 26 – Eugene Jolas, writer, literary translator and critic
• September 29 – George Santayana, writer
• November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Estes, Ginger Pye
• Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems