1977 in literature

See also: 1976 in literature, other events of 1977, 1978 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• The Amityville Horror – Jay Anson
• Beggarman, Thief  – Irwin Shaw
• Bloodline  – Sidney Sheldon
• A Bonus – Elizabeth Smart
• The Chancellor Manuscript – Robert Ludlum
• Child of the Morning – Pauline Gedge
• The Complete Book of Running – Jim Fixx
• Daniel Martin  – John Fowles
• Dreams Die First  – Harold Robbins
• The Honourable Schoolboy  – John le Carré
• How to Save Your Own Life – Erica Jong
• Illusions  – Richard Bach
• Oliver's Story  – Erich Segal
• The Plague Dogs – Richard Adams
• Rage – Richard Bachman
• Refiner's Fire – Mark Helprin
• A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
• The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
• The Shining – Stephen King
• The Slave Girl – Buchi Emecheta
• Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
• Terms of Endearment – Larry McMurtry
• The Thorn Birds  – Colleen McCullough
• The True American, A Folk Fable – Melvin Van Peebles
• The Wars – Timothy Findley
• Rocky Marciano. Biography of A First Son – Everett M. Skehan

Births

• Jonathan Safran Foer

Deaths

• January 14 – Anaïs Nin, novelist and diarist
• February 27 – John Dickson Carr, crime novelist
• April 7 – Jim Thompson, pulp fiction author
• April 11 – Jacques Prévert, poet
• July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian/American novelist
• September 4 – E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful author
• September 12 – Robert Lowell, poet
• October 27 – James M. Cain, novelist, newspaperman
• November 10 – Dennis Wheatley, occult novelist
• November 30 – Terence Rattigan, dramatist
• December 22 – Frank Thiess, German writer

Awards

• Booker Prize: Paul Scott, Staying On
• Nebula Award: Frederik Pohl, Gateway
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Mildred Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Vicente Aleixandre
• Prix Goncourt: Didier Decoin, John l'enfer
• Prix Médicis French: Michel Butel, L'Autre Amour
• Prix Médicis International: Hector Bianciotti, Le Traité des saisons – Argentina
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Michael Cristofer, The Shadow Box
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Merrill, Divine Comedies
• Viareggio Prize: Davide Lajolo, Veder l'erba dalla parte delle radici
• 1977 Governor General's Awards