1968 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1968.

Events

 * January 1 – Cecil Day-Lewis is announced as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.
 * April – The American edition of Andrew Garve's thriller The Long Short Cut becomes the first book printed completely by electronic composition.
 * May – The Action Theater in Munich is disbanded after its building is wrecked by one of its founders, jealous of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's growing power in the group.
 * June 17 – Tom Stoppard's parodic comedy The Real Inspector Hound opens at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, starring Richard Briers and Ronnie Barker.
 * July 28 – Last Exit to Brooklyn is cleared of obscenity in the English appeal court. John Mortimer appears for the defence.
 * September 26 – Theatres Act 1968 (royal assent July 26) ends censorship of the theater in the United Kingdom.
 * November – The English novelist Anthony Burgess and his new wife Liana settle in Lija on Malta.
 * unknown dates
 * The first translations and book-length discussion of the Sumerian Enheduanna's work is published.
 * Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest, is published by Ace Books in the United States.
 * The Arvon Foundation is established by young poets John Fairfax and John Moat in the UK to promote creative writing.

Fiction

 * Ayi Kwei Armah – The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
 * Elizabeth Bowen – Eva Trout
 * Anthony Burgess – Enderby Outside
 * Victor Canning – The Melting Man
 * Per Anders Fogelström – Stad i världen
 * Michael Innes – Appleby at Allington
 * John Irving – Setting Free the Bears
 * Halldór Laxness – Kristnihald undir jökli (Christianity under the Glacier)
 * John le Carré – A Small Town in Germany
 * Helen MacInnes – The Salzburg Connection
 * Ngaio Marsh – Clutch of Constables
 * N. Scott Momaday – House Made of Dawn
 * Brian Moore – I Am Mary Dunne
 * Fănuș Neagu – Îngerul a strigat ("The Angel Has Shouted")
 * Anthony Powell – The Military Philosophers
 * Giorgio Scerbanenco – I ragazzi del massacro
 * Robert Silverberg – The Masks of Time
 * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Cancer Ward («Раковый Корпус», Rakovy Korpus)
 * Muriel Spark – The Public Image

Children and young people

 * Lloyd Alexander – The High King
 * Joan Aiken – The Whispering Mountain
 * Don Freeman – Corduroy
 * Russell Hoban – The Mouse and His Child
 * Ted Hughes – The Iron Man
 * Judith Kerr – The Tiger Who Came to Tea
 * Alexander Key – Escape to Witch Mountain
 * David McKee – Elmer the Patchwork Elephant
 * Robert C. O'Brien – The Silver Crown
 * Jill Tomlinson – The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark
 * Paul Zindel – The Pigman (first in The Pigman trilogy)

Drama

 * Michel Tremblay – Les Belles-Sœurs

Non-fiction

 * Eldridge Cleaver – Soul on Ice
 * Esther Hautzig – The Endless Steppe (autobiography)
 * Bevis Hillier – Art Deco of the 20s and 30s
 * Pauline Kael – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
 * Peter Maas – The Valachi Papers
 * Erich von Däniken – Chariots of the Gods? (Erinnerungen an die Zukunft)
 * Gwyn Thomas – A Few Selected Exits
 * James D. Watson – The Double Helix

Births

 * unknown date – K. V. Johansen, Canadian children's author

Deaths

 * January 21 – Will Lang, Jr., American journalist (born 1914)
 * March 23 – Edwin O'Connor, American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator (born 1918)
 * April 4 - Muhammad Taha al-Huwayzi, Iranian-Iraqi Ja'fari jurist, religious teacher and poet (born 1889)
 * April 16 – Edna Ferber, American novelist, short story writer and playwright (born 1885)
 * April 27 – Vasily Azhayev, Soviet writer (born 1915)
 * April 29 – Anthony Boucher, American author, critic, and editor (born 1911)
 * May 1 – Sir Harold Nicolson, British biographer (born 1886)
 * May 30 – Constantin S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor, Romanian anthropologist, ethnographer and children's writer (born 1900)
 * May 31 – Abel Bonnard, French poet, novelist and politician (born 1883)
 * June 1 – Helen Keller, deaf-blind American author, activist and lecturer (born 1880)
 * August 21 - Germaine Guèvremont, Canadian writer (born 1893)
 * November 17 – Mervyn Peake, English novelist (dementia, born 1911)
 * November 25 – Upton Sinclair, American novelist and politician (born 1878)
 * November 28 – Enid Blyton, English author and poet (born 1897)
 * December 5 – Anna Kavan, British novelist, short story writer and painter (born 1901)
 * December 20 – John Steinbeck, American novelist (congestive heart failure, born 1902)
 * December 24 – D. Gwenallt Jones, Welsh poet (born 1899)