1975 in literature

See also: 1974 in literature, other events of 1975, 1976 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Writing under the pseudonym of "Emile Ajar," author Romain Gary becomes the only person to ever win the Prix Goncourt twice.

• Hearing Secret Harmonies, the twelfth and final novel of the A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy by Anthony Powell is published.

• Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow is published.

New books

• The Ascent of Man – Jacob Bronowski
• Black Sunday – Thomas Harris
• The Choirboys  – Joseph Wambaugh
• Curtain  – Agatha Christie
• Dead Babies – Martin Amis
• Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
• The Eagle Has Landed  – Jack Higgins
• A Fine and Private Place – Morley Callaghan
• The Great Train Robbery  – Michael Crichton
• Hang That Nigger – Arthur Robinson
• Hearing Secret Harmonies – Anthony Powell
• Heat and Dust – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• The History Man – Malcolm Bradbury
• Humboldt's Gift  – Saul Bellow
• In A Shallow Grave – James Purdy
• Inside the Company: CIA Diary – Philip Agee
• Looking for Mister Goodbar  – Judith Rossner
• Mr. Schutzer – Timothy L. Bottoms
• The Moneychangers  – Arthur Hailey
• My Lord John – Georgette Heyer
• Northern Lights – Tim O'Brien
• Ragtime  – E.L. Doctorow
• The Road to Gandolfo  – Robert Ludlum
• Rudyard Kipling and His World – Kingsley Amis
• 'Salem's Lot – Stephen King
• Shogun  – James Clavell
• La vie devant soi – Romain Gary as Emile Ajar
• Woman at Point Zero – Nawal El Saadawi
• World of Wonders – Robertson Davies

Births

• October 27 – Zadie Smith, novelist

Deaths

• January 15 – Sydney Goodsir Smith, poet, dramatist and novelist
• February 14 – Sir P. G. Wodehouse (b.1881), English comic novelist – creator of Jeeves and Wooster
• February 14 – Julian Huxley, biologist and author, brother of Aldous Huxley
• March 13 – Ivo Andrić (b.1892), Serbo-Croatian novelist – winner, 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature
• June 8 – Murray Leinster, science fiction writer
• September 20 – Saint-John Perse, poet
• October 5 – Constance Malleson, actress and writer
• October 22 – Arnold J. Toynbee, historian
• November 13 – R. C. Sherriff, dramatist
• November 19 – Elizabeth Taylor, novelist
• November 23 – Francis Webb, poet
• November 27 – Ross McWhirter, joint author of the Guinness Book of Records
• December 4 – Hannah Arendt, philosopher
• December 7 – Thornton Wilder, novelist and dramatist
• date unknown – Janko Glazer, (b.1893) – poet
• date unknown – Vojko Gorjan, (b.1949) – poet

Awards

• Booker Prize: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Heat and Dust
• See 1975 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Virginia Hamilton, M. C. Higgins, the Great
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugenio Montale
• Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary as Emile Ajar – La vie devant soi
• Prix Médicis French: Jacques Almira, Le Voyage à Naucratis
• Prix Médicis International: Steven Millhauser, La Vie trop brève d'Edwin Mulhouse – United States
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Edward Albee, Seascape
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Shaara – The Killer Angels
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gary Snyder – Turtle Island
• Viareggio Prize: Paolo Volponi, Il sipario ducale