1937 in literature

The year 1937 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * January 9 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
 * Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets Klaus Mann.

New books

 * Eric Ambler - Uncommon Danger
 * Georges Bernanos - Diary of a Country Priest
 * Morley Callaghan - More Joy in Heaven
 * John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson" - The Ten Teacups
 * Agatha Christie
 * Dumb Witness
 * Death on the Nile
 * Murder in the Mews
 * Murray Constantine - Swastika Night


 * A. J. Cronin - The Citadel
 * Isak Dinesen - Out of Africa
 * Zona Gale - Light Woman
 * Witold Gombrowicz - Ferdydurke
 * Ernest Hemingway - To Have and Have Not
 * Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
 * Meyer Levin - The Old Bunch
 * Cameron McCabe - The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor
 * Elliot Paul - Life and Death of a Spanish Town
 * Ellery Queen - The Door Between
 * Arthur Ransome - "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea"
 * Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock  - "The Far-Distant Oxus"
 * Ruth Sawyer - Roller Skates
 * Dorothy L. Sayers - Busman's Honeymoon
 * Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker
 * John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men
 * Rex Stout - The Red Box
 * Phoebe Atwood Taylor
 * Figure Away
 * Octagon House
 * Beginning with a Bash (as by Alice Tilton)
 * J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
 * Virginia Woolf - The Years

New drama

 * Karel Čapek - The White Disease
 * J.B. Priestley - Time and the Conways

Non-fiction

 * Hilaire Belloc - The Crusades: the World's Debate
 * Alf K. Berle and L. Sprague de Camp - Inventions and Their Management
 * Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich
 * Walter Lippmann - The Good Society
 * George Orwell - The Road to Wigan Pier
 * Eric Partridge - A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Births

 * January 1 - John Fuller, poet
 * January 7 - Ian La Frenais, TV comedy writer
 * January 8 - Leon Forrest, novelist and essayist
 * January 9 - Judith Krantz, bestselling novelist
 * January 22 - Joseph Wambaugh, novelist and non-fiction writer
 * February 21 - Jilly Cooper, novelist and journalist
 * April 29 - Jill Paton Walsh, novelist
 * May 8 - Thomas Pynchon, novelist
 * May 13 - Roger Zelazny, American writer of fantasy and science fiction
 * May 13 - Roch Carrier, novelist and short-story writer
 * June 16 - Erich Segal, Love Story author (d. 2010)
 * July 3 - Tom Stoppard, dramatist
 * August 5 - Carla Lane, comedy writer
 * September 5 - Dick Clement, TV comedy writer
 * November 17 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer (d. 1995)
 * December 3 - Binod Bihari Verma, Maithili littérateur
 * date unknown - David F. Case, American writer
 * date unknown - Richard Ingrams, editor
 * date unknown - Jan Karon, novelist
 * date unknown - Roger McGough, poet

Deaths

 * February 19 - Horacio Quiroga, short story writer
 * March 15 - H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer (b. 1890)
 * March 25 - John Drinkwater, poet and novelist
 * June 19 - J. M. Barrie, novelist and dramatist (b. 1860)
 * August 11 - Edith Wharton, writer (b. 1862)
 * September 13 - Ellis Parker Butler, novelist
 * October 22 - Nakahara Chuya, poet
 * October 31 - Ralph Connor, novelist
 * December 24 - Elizabeth Haldane
 * December 26 - Ivor Gurney, war poet
 * December 29 - Don Marquis, poet
 * date unknown
 * Frederic Taber Cooper, editor
 * Gerald Duckworth, publisher
 * Edward Garnett, critic
 * W. F. Harvey, short story writer
 * William F. Lloyd, newspaper editor
 * H. C. McNeile ("Sapper"), "Bulldog Drummond" novelist

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Eve Garnett, The Family From One End Street
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Neil M. Gunn, Highland River
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Lord Eustace Percy, John Knox
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ruth Sawyer, Roller Skates
 * Nobel Prize for literature: Roger Martin du Gard
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Frost: A Further Range
 * Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Margaret Mitchell - Gone with the Wind
 * King's Gold Medal for Poetry: W. H. Auden