1953 in literature

See also: 1952 in literature, other events of 1953, 1954 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• January 22 – The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.

• February 19 – Censorship: The State of Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.

• After five years as an English Teacher, Frederick Buechner moves to New York to become a full time writer.

• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin is published. In 2001, the book would be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

• The face of popular literature is transformed with the publication of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.

New books

• The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow
• Battle Cry  – Leon Uris
• Beyond This Place  – A.J. Cronin
• The Bridges at Toko-Ri – James A. Michener
• Casino Royale  – Ian Fleming
• Childhood's End – Arthur C. Clarke
• The Cornerstone – Zoe B. Oldenbourg
• The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
• Désirée – Annemarie Selinko
• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
• Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin
• Heartsnatcher – Boris Vian
• The High and the Mighty – Ernest K. Gann
• A Kiss Before Dying – Ira Levin
• The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
• Lord Vanity – Samuel Shellabarger
• Madame de Pompadour – Nancy Mitford
• Maud Martha – Gwendolyn Brooks
• The Night of the Hunter – Davis Grubb
• The Present and the Past – Ivy Compton-Burnett
• The Robe  – Lloyd C. Douglas
• Second Foundation  – Isaac Asimov
• The Silver Chair – C. S. Lewis
• The Sojourner – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• Time and Time Again  – James Hilton
• The Unconquered  – Ben Ames Williams
• The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham

Births

• March 12 – Carl Hiaasen, author

Deaths

• April 4 – Rachilde (Marguerite Vallette-Eymery), French author
• November 8 – John van Melle, South African author
• November 9 – Dylan Thomas, poet and author
• November 27 – Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• November 30 – Francis Picabia, painter, poet

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ann Nolan Clark, Secret of the Andes
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Inge, Picnic
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Archibald MacLeish: Collected Poems 1917–1952