1973 in literature

See also: 1972 in literature, other events of 1973, 1974 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Frank Herbert becomes director-photographer of the television show, The Tillers.
• Michael Crichton directs the film, Westworld.

New books

• The Billion Dollar Sure Thing – Paul E. Erdman
• The Black Prince  – Iris Murdoch
• Breakfast of Champions  – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Burnt Offerings – Robert Marasco
• Burr  – Gore Vidal
• The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone  – Allan W. Eckert
• Cromwell, our Chief of Men  – Antonia Fraser
• Demon Seed – Dean R. Koontz
• Devil Tree – Jerzy Kosinski
• Evening in Byzantium  – Irwin Shaw
• Eye of the Storm – Patrick White
• Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 – Hunter S Thompson
• Gravity's Rainbow  – Thomas Pynchon
• The Honorary Consul  – Graham Greene
• If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home – Tim O'Brien
• The Matlock Paper  – Robert Ludlum
• Momo  – Michael Ende
• The Odessa File  – Frederick Forsyth
• Once Is Not Enough  – Jacqueline Susann
• The Rachel Papers – Martin Amis
• The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb – Mervyn Peake (posthumous)
• The Stone That Never Came Down – John Brunner
• Sula – Toni Morrison
• Tar Baby – Jerome Charyn
• Temporary Kings – Anthony Powell
• Temptations of Big Bear – Rudy Wiebe
• There Is A Tree More Ancient Than Eden – Leon Forrest
• A Touch of Danger – James Jones
• Who Are You? – Anna Kavan

Births

Deaths

• February 22 – Elizabeth Bowen, novelist
• March 6 – Pearl S. Buck
• March 26 – Sir Noel Coward, dramatist and humorist
• April 9 – Warren Lewis, author, Inkling, and brother of C. S. Lewis
• April 28 – Jacques Maritain, philosopher
• June 30 – Nancy Mitford, English novelist and biographer
• July 29 – Henri Charrière, Papillon author
• September 2 – J. R. R. Tolkien, fantasy writer
• September 23 – Pablo Neruda, poet
• September 29 – W. H. Auden, poet
• October 28 – Sergio Tofano, dramatist
• December 9 – Anthony Gilbert, crime writer

Awards

• Booker Prize: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
• See 1973 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
• Nebula Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Craighead George, Julie of the Wolves
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Patrick White
• Prix Goncourt: Jacques Chessex, L'Ogre
• Prix Médicis French: Tony Duvert, Paysage de fantaisie
• Prix Médicis International: Milan Kundera, Life Is Elsewhere
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Jason Miller, That Championship Season
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Eudora Welty, The Optimists Daughter
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Maxine Kumin, Up Country*Viareggio Prize: Achille Campanile, Manuale di conversazione