1968 in literature

See also: 1967 in literature, other events of 1968, 1969 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published.

New books

• Airport – Arthur Hailey
• Armies of the Night – Norman Mailer
• Cancer Ward – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Cocksure – Mordecai Richler
• Couples – John Updike
• Cousin Kate – Georgette Heyer
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
• The Double Helix – James D. Watson
• The End of Obscenity: The trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill – Charles Rembar
• The First Circle – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• I Am Mary Dunne – Brian Moore
• The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories – James Jones
• Lonesome Cities (poetry) – Rod McKuen
• The Military Philosophers – Anthony Powell
• The Money Game – Adam Smith
• Myra Breckinridge – Gore Vidal
• Preserve and Protect – Allen Drury
• The Salzburg Connection – Helen McInnes
• A Small Town in Germany – John le Carré
• Testimony of Two Men – Taylor Caldwell

Births

• January 30 – Rhoda Shipman, comic book writer
• date unknown – K. V. Johansen, children's author

Deaths

• January 14 – Dorothea Mackellar, poet
• April 16 – Edna Ferber
• April 25 – Donald Davidson
• May 1 – Harold Nicolson, biographer and husband of Vita Sackville-West
• May 30 – Martin Noth, Hebraist
• June 1 – Helen Keller
• October 13 – Sir Stanley Unwin (publisher)
• November 17 – Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast author
• November 25 – Upton Sinclair
• December 5 – Anna Kavan
• December 20 – John Steinbeck

Awards

• See 1968 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
• Nebula Award: Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: E. L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Yasunari Kawabata
• Prix Goncourt: Bernard Clavel, Les fruits de l'hiver
• Prix Médicis: Élie Wiesel, Le Mendiant de Jérusalem
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Anthony Hecht, The Hard Hours
• Viareggio Prize: Libero Bigiaretti, La controfigura