1955 in literature

See also: 1954 in literature, other events of 1955, 1956 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• First issue of the "Guinness Book of Records" published.
• The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy is published.
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in Paris. However, it took until 1958 to be published in United States.

New books

• The Acceptance World – Anthony Powell
• Andersonville  – MacKinlay Kantor
• Auntie Mame  – Patrick Dennis
• Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer
• Birdman of Alcatraz – Thomas E. Gaddis
• Bonjour Tristesse  – Françoise Sagan
• The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
• The End of Eternity  – Isaac Asimov
• Essays in the Public Philosophy – Walter Lippmann
• The Ginger Man  – J. P. Donleavy
• A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O'Connor
• Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
• The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – Brian Moore
• The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King – J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Magician's Nephew – C.S. Lewis
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit  – Sloan Wilson
• Marjorie Morningstar  – Herman Wouk
• Moonraker – Ian Fleming
• No Time for Sergeants  – Mac Hyman
• Not As a Stranger  – Morton Thompson
• Notes of a Native Son – James Baldwin
• The October Country – Ray Bradbury
• Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo
• The Quiet American – Graham Greene
• Scuffy the Tugboat  – Gertrude Crampton
• Something of Value  – Robert Ruark
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
• Ten North Frederick  – John O'Hara
• The Tontine  – Thomas B. Costain
• The Tree of Man – Patrick White
• Tunnel in the Sky – Robert Heinlein

Births

• January 12 – Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
• January 13 – Jay McInerney, writer
• February 8 – John Grisham, novelist
• June 20 – Tor Nørretranders, science author
• September 6 – Raymond Benson, novelist
• November 23 – Steven Brust, fantasy author

Deaths

• January 20 – Robert P. Tristram Coffin, poet, essayist, novelist
• June 19 – Adrienne Monnier, French poet and publisher
• August 2 – Wallace Stevens, poet (b. 1879)
• August 12 – Thomas Mann

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Meindert DeJong, The Wheel on the School
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Halldór Kiljan Laxness
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Faulkner – A Fable
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems