1951 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1951.

Events

 * January 12 – Janie Moore, C. S. Lewis' so-called adoptive mother, dies.
 * March – The American writer Flannery O'Connor leaves hospital after being diagnosed with lupus at the age of 25.
 * March 12 – Hank Ketcham's U.S. Dennis the Menace appears for the first time in 16 United States newspapers.
 * March 17 – The homonymous U.K. Dennis the Menace comic strip first appears in the children's comic The Beano.
 * Spring – Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", which will form a basis for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and a subsequent novel, is published as "Sentinel of Eternity" in the only issue ever produced of the American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine 10 Story Fantasy.
 * May – Joe Orton enters the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he meets his lover and ultimate murderer Kenneth Halliwell.
 * June 18 – Frank Hardy is acquitted of criminal libel in the Australian state of Victoria over his self-published 1950 roman à clef on corruption in Melbourne political life, Power Without Glory.
 * July 16 – J. D. Salinger's coming-of-age story The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown and Company in New York City.
 * September 6 – William S. Burroughs shoots and kills his common-law wife Joan Vollmer, apparently by accident, in Mexico City.
 * December 16 – Noël Coward leaves his home, White Cliffs, on the south coast of England, having sold it to Ian Fleming.
 * unknown dates
 * E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships. It is Cummings' second.
 * Janet Frame's first book, The Lagoon and Other Stories, is published by the Caxton Press (New Zealand) (dated 1952) while the author is a patient in Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, Seacliff, New Zealand, scheduled for a lobotomy. It is awarded the Hubert Church Memorial Award, at the time one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary prizes. This results in the cancellation of Frame's operation.
 * Béla Hamvas completes his epic novel Karnevál. He is banned from publication in Hungary at the time, so that it will appear only in 1985, 17 years after his death.
 * A Question of Upbringing, the first book in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series A Dance to the Music of Time, is published by Heinemann in the U.K.
 * The custom of performing medieval mystery plays is revived at York and Chester, England.
 * The Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris is founded.

Fiction

 * Martha Albrand – Desperate Moment
 * Eric Ambler – Judgment on Deltchev
 * Charlotte Armstrong – The Black-Eyed Stranger
 * Sholem Asch – Moses
 * Isaac Asimov
 * Foundation
 * The Stars Like Dust
 * Nigel Balchin – A Way Through the Wood
 * Samuel Beckett – Molloy
 * Peter Blackmore – The Blue Goose
 * Ray Bradbury
 * The Illustrated Man
 * "The Last Night of the World" (short story)
 * John Brophy – Turn the Key Softly
 * Gill Hunt – Galactic Storm
 * Gerald Butler – Choice of Two Women
 * Taylor Caldwell – The Balance Wheel
 * Morley Callaghan – The Loved and the Lost
 * Truman Capote – The Grass Harp
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Rogue Queen
 * The Undesired Princess
 * John Dickson Carr – The Devil in Velvet
 * Henry Cecil – The Painswick Line
 * Camilo José Cela – The Hive (La Colmena)
 * James Hadley Chase – But a Short Time to Live
 * Peter Cheyney – Ladies Won't Wait
 * Agatha Christie
 * The Under Dog and Other Stories
 * They Came to Baghdad
 * Arthur C. Clarke – Prelude to Space
 * Beverly Cleary – Ellen Tebbits
 * Howard Clewes – The Long Memory
 * Claud Cockburn – Beat the Devil
 * Julio Cortázar – Bestiario
 * Freeman Wills Crofts – French Strikes Oil
 * Edmund Crispin – The Long Divorce 
 * Robertson Davies – Tempest-Tost
 * August Derleth – The Memoirs of Solar Pons
 * Heimito von Doderer – Die Strudlhofstiege, oder Melzer und die Tiefe der Jahre (The Strudelhof Steps)
 * Owen Dodson – Boy at the Window
 * Daphne du Maurier – My Cousin Rachel
 * Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Suspicion
 * Howard Fast – Spartacus
 * Per Anders Fogelström – Sommaren med Monika
 * Anthony Gilbert – Lady Killer
 * Michael Gilbert – Death Has Deep Roots
 * Julien Gracq – Le Rivage des Syrtes (The Opposing Shore)
 * Graham Greene – The End of the Affair
 * Henri René Guieu – Le Pionnier de l'atome
 * Cyril Hare – An English Murder
 * John Hawkes – The Beetle Leg
 * Robert A. Heinlein – The Puppet Masters
 * A. P. Herbert – Number Nine
 * James Hilton – Morning Journey
 * Anne Hocking – Mediterranean Murder
 * Elizabeth Jane Howard and Robert Aickman – We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories
 * Laurence Hyde – Southern Cross (wordless novel)
 * Hammond Innes – Air Bridge
 * Michael Innes – Operation Pax
 * James Jones – From Here to Eternity
 * Margaret Kennedy – Lucy Carmichael
 * A. M. Klein – The Second Scroll
 * Wolfgang Koeppen – Tauben im Gras (Pigeons on the Grass)
 * Kalki Krishnamurthy
 * Poiman Karadu
 * Ponniyin Selvan (பொன்னியின் செல்வன், The Son of Ponni; publication begins)
 * Louis L'Amour – The Rustlers of the West Fork
 * Eric Linklater – Laxdale Hall
 * E. C. R. Lorac – Murder of a Martinet
 * Ross Macdonald – The Way Some People Die
 * Olivia Manning – School for Love
 * Ngaio Marsh – Opening Night
 * John Masters – Nightrunners of Bengal
 * François Mauriac – Le Sagouin (The Marmoset)
 * James A. Michener – Return to Paradise
 * Nancy Mitford – The Blessing
 * Gladys Mitchell – The Devil's Elbow
 * Nicholas Monsarrat – The Cruel Sea
 * Alberto Moravia – The Conformist (Il conformista)
 * Robert Pinget – Entre Fantoine et Agapa
 * Anthony Powell – A Question of Upbringing
 * J. B. Priestley – Festival at Farbridge
 * Ernest Raymond – A Chorus Ending
 * John Rhode – Doctor Goodwood's Locum
 * Sax Rohmer – Sumuru
 * J. D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
 * Ernst von Salomon – The Questionnaire (Der Fragebogen)
 * Ooka Shohei (大岡 昇平) – Fires on the Plain (野火, Nobi)
 * Vern Schneider – The Teahouse of the August Moon
 * Georges Simenon
 * Maigret and the Burglar's Wife
 * Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters
 * Margit Söderholm – Meeting in Vienna
 * Cardinal Spellman – The Foundling
 * Howard Spring – The Houses in Between
 * John Steinbeck – The Log from the Sea of Cortez
 * Rex Stout
 * Curtains for Three
 * Murder by the Book
 * Cecil Street
 * Beware Your Neighbour
 * The Secret Meeting
 * William Styron – Lie Down in Darkness
 * Elizabeth Taylor – A Game of Hide and Seek
 * Phoebe Atwood Taylor – Diplomatic Corpse
 * Josephine Tey – The Daughter of Time
 * Jerrard Tickell – Appointment with Venus
 * Anne de Tourville – Jabadao
 * Henry Wade – Diplomat’s Folly
 * P. G. Wodehouse – The Old Reliable
 * Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
 * John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids
 * Frank Yerby – A Woman Called Fancy
 * Marguerite Yourcenar – Memoirs of Hadrian (Mémoires d'Hadrien)
 * Juan Eduardo Zúñiga – Inútiles totales (Totally useless)

Children and young people

 * M. E. Atkinson – Castaway Camp (first in the Fricka series of five books)
 * Rev. W. Awdry – Henry the Green Engine (sixth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
 * Viola Bayley – The Dark Lantern
 * Margaret Biggs – The Blakes Come to Melling
 * Anne de Vries – Into the Darkness (De Duisternis in, first in the Journey Through the Night – Reis door de nacht – series of four books)
 * Eleanor Estes – Ginger Pye
 * Rumer Godden – The Mousewife
 * Cynthia Harnett – The Wool-Pack
 * C. S. Lewis – Prince Caspian
 * Elinor Lyon – We Daren't Go A'Hunting
 * Gianni Rodari – l romanzo di Cipollino (The Adventures of the Little Onion)
 * Sydney Taylor – All-of-a-Kind Family

Drama

 * Muriel Box and Sydney Box – The Seventh Veil
 * Agatha Christie – The Hollow
 * Ian Hay – The White Sheep of the Family
 * Kenneth Horne – And This Was Odd
 * Eugène Ionesco – The Lesson (La Leçon)
 * Ronald Jeans – Count Your Blessings
 * Maryat Lee – Dope!
 * A. A. Milne – Before the Flood
 * Lawrence Riley – Kin Hubbard
 * Jean-Paul Sartre – The Devil and the Good Lord (Le Diable et le Bon Dieu)
 * Peter Ustinov
 * The Love of Four Colonels
 * The Moment of Truth
 * John Van Druten – I Am a Camera
 * John Whiting
 * A Penny for a Song
 * Saint's Day (first performance)
 * Tennessee Williams – The Rose Tattoo

Poetry

 * Clark Ashton Smith – The Dark Chateau
 * Frank O'Hara – A City Winter and Other Poems
 * Iona and Peter Opie – The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes

Non-fiction

 * Nelson Algren – Chicago: City on the Make (essay)
 * Lou Andreas-Salomé (died 1937) – Lebensrückblick (Looking Back)
 * Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism
 * Albert Camus – The Rebel (L'Homme révolté)
 * Rachel Carson – The Sea Around Us
 * Nirad C. Chaudhuri – The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
 * Wolfgang Clemen – The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery
 * Thomas B. Costain – The Magnificent Century (second book in the Plantagenet or Pageant of England series)
 * Daphne du Maurier (ed.) – The Young George du Maurier: a selection of his letters 1860–67
 * James A. Frost – Life On The Upper Susquehanna 1783-1860
 * Jacquetta Hawkes
 * A Land
 * A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales
 * Eric Hoffer – The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements
 * Karl Huber (executed 1943) – Leibniz
 * Dumas Malone – Jefferson and the Rights of Man
 * C. Wright Mills – White Collar: The American Middle Classes
 * Vladimir Nabokov – Speak, Memory
 * J. A. Schumpeter – Imperialism and Social Classes
 * Tran Duc Thao – Phénoménologie et matérialisme dialectique

Births

 * January 1 – Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet
 * January 13 – Nigel Cox, New Zealand novelist
 * January 22 – Steve J. Spears, Australian actor, singer, and playwright (died 2007)
 * February 13 – Katja Lange-Müller, German novelist
 * February 17 – Jagadish Mohanty, Indian novelist (died 2013)
 * March 4 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, South Korean-born novelist and artist (died 1982)
 * March 12 – Susan Musgrave, Canadian poet and children's writer
 * March 17 - Lian Tanner, Australian children's writer
 * April 5 – Guy Vanderhaeghe, Canadian author
 * April 16 – Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian novelist and essayist
 * April 19 – Pierre Lemaitre, French suspense novelist
 * May 3 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian novelist, essayist and TV presenter
 * May 9
 * Christopher Dewdney, Canadian poet
 * Joy Harjo, Native American poet
 * May 15 – David Almond, English writer for children and young adults
 * May 20 – Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist, writer and broadcaster (died 2020)
 * May 21 – Al Franken, American comedian, actor, writer and politician
 * June 5 – Suze Orman, American financial advisor, writer and television personality
 * June 15 – Amir Barghashi, Iranian-born Swedish actor and dramatist
 * June 22 – Rosario Murillo, Nicaraguan poet and political activist
 * June 29 – Don Rosa, American writer and artist of Disney comics
 * August 20 – Greg Bear, American science fiction writer
 * August 24 – Orson Scott Card, American science fiction writer
 * September 14 – Volodymyr Melnykov, Ukrainian poet, writer, songwriter and composer
 * September 15 – Jared Taylor, American author and journalist
 * September 20 – Javier Marías, Spanish novelist
 * September 29 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian novelist and cinema critic (suicide 1977)
 * October 3 – Bernard Cooper, American writer
 * October 11 – Louise Rennison, English author and comedian (died 2016)
 * October 12 – Peter Flannery, English dramatist
 * October 17 – Clark Parent, Haitian novelist, musician and politician
 * November 18 - Dennis Foon, Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist
 * December 6 – Tomson Highway, Canadian and Cree playwright, novelist and children's author
 * December 8 – Bill Bryson, American travel writer
 * December 20 – Peter May, Scottish novelist and television dramatist
 * December 22 – Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician
 * Unknown dates
 * Mohammed Achaari, Moroccan writer
 * Carol Birch, English novelist

Deaths

 * January 6 – Maila Talvio, Finnish writer, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (born 1871)
 * January 7 – René Guénon, French philosophical writer (born 1886)
 * January 10 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist (born 1885)
 * January 29 – James Bridie, Scottish dramatist (born 1888)
 * February 13 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (born 1877)
 * February 16 – Henri-René Lenormand, French dramatist (born 1882)
 * February 19 – André Gide, French author (born 1869)
 * February 28 – Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Russian dramatist and screenwriter (born 1900)
 * March 11 – János Zsupánek, Prekmurje Slovene poet and author (born 1861)
 * March 25 – Oscar Micheaux, African American author, film director and producer (born 1884)
 * April 3 – Henrik Visnapuu, Estonian poet and dramatist (born 1890)
 * April 9 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist (born 1903; suicide)
 * April 12 - Henry De Vere Stacpoole. Irish author (born 1863)
 * April 29 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (born 1889)
 * May 2 – Alphonse de Châteaubriant, French writer (born 1877)
 * May 25 – Paula von Preradović, Austrian poet and writer (born 1887)
 * May 30 – Hermann Broch, Austrian writer (born 1886)
 * June 10 – Håkon Evjenth, Norwegian children's writer (born 1894)
 * June 11 – W. C. Sellar, Scottish humorist (born 1898)
 * August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper tycoon (born 1863)
 * August 18 – Richard Malden, English editor, classical and Biblical scholar, and ghost story writer (born 1879)
 * August 31 – Abraham Cahan, American Jewish journalist and novelist (born 1860)
 * September 2 – Antoine Bibesco, Romanian dramatist (born 1878)
 * September 7 – F. G. Loring, English writer and naval officer (born 1869)
 * September 28 – Petre P. Negulescu, Romanian philosopher (born 1870)
 * November 5 – I. C. Vissarion, Romanian novelist, dramatist, poet and science writer (born 1879)
 * November 27 – Timrava (Božena Slančíková), Slovak novelist, short story writer and playwright (born 1867)
 * December 4 – Pedro Salinas, Spanish poet (born 1891)
 * December 10 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist and journalist (born 1869)

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Harnett, The Wool-Pack
 * Frost Medal: Wallace Stevens
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen
 * Newbery Medal: Elizabeth Yates, Amos Fortune, Free Man
 * Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist
 * Premio Nadal: Luis Romero, La noria
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Town
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems