1959 in literature

The year 1959 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * April 30 - Theatrical première of Bertolt Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, originally performed on radio in 1932.
 * Aldous Huxley turns down the offer of a knighthood.
 * First appearance of Astérix the Gaul.
 * Colin Dexter begins teaching at Corby Grammar School.
 * Frank Herbert begins researching Dune.
 * Frederik Pohl becomes editor of Galaxy magazine.
 * Marcel Achard is elected to the Académie française.
 * D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover (1928) legally circulates in the U.S. after a 31 year obscenity ban. (See Grove Press, Inc. v. Christenberry)

New books

 * Isaac Asimov - Nine Tomorrows
 * Saul Bellow - Henderson the Rain King
 * Robert Bloch - Psycho
 * Ray Bradbury - A Medicine for Melancholy
 * John Brunner
 * Echo in the Skull
 * The World Swappers
 * Algis Budrys - The Falling Torch
 * William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch
 * Taylor Caldwell - Dear and Glorious Physician
 * John Dickson Carr - Scandal at High Chimneys: A Victorian Melodrama
 * Agatha Christie - Cat Among the Pigeons
 * Ivy Compton-Burnett - A Heritage and Its History
 * Richard Condon - The Manchurian Candidate
 * Alexander Cordell - Rape of the Fair Country
 * Julio Cortázar - Las armas secretas (short stories)
 * Richard Crichton - The Great Impostor
 * Allen Drury - Advise and Consent
 * Alfred Duggan - Children of the Wolf
 * Lawrence Durrell - Mountolive
 * Ian Fleming - Goldfinger
 * Paul Gallico - Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris
 * William Golding - Free Fall
 * Günter Grass - The Tin Drum
 * Robert A. Heinlein
 * The Menace From Earth
 * Starship Troopers
 * The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
 * Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
 * John Knowles - A Separate Peace
 * William J. Lederer and Eugene L. Burdick - The Ugly American
 * H.P. Lovecraft and Divers Hands - The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces
 * John Lymington - Night of the Big Heat
 * John D. MacDonald
 * Deadly Welcome
 * The Beach Girls
 * The Crossroads
 * Colin MacInnes - Absolute Beginners
 * Alistair MacLean - Night Without End
 * Naguib Mahfouz - The Children of Gebelaawi
 * Norman Mailer - Advertisements for Myself
 * James A. Michener - Hawaii
 * Mervyn Peake - Titus Alone
 * Robert Randall (pseudonym of Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett) - The Dawning Light
 * Mordecai Richler - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
 * Philip Roth - Goodbye, Columbus
 * Robert Ruark - Poor No More
 * Nathalie Sarraute - Le Planétarium
 * Alan Sillitoe - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
 * Terry Southern - The Magic Christian
 * Rex Stout - Plot It Yourself
 * John Updike - The Same Door
 * Leon Uris - Exodus
 * Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan
 * Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar
 * Sheila Watson - The Double Hook

New drama

 * Edward Albee - The Death of Bessie Smith (written)
 * Jean Anouilh - Becket
 * John Arden - Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
 * Samuel Beckett - Embers (first broadcast)
 * Bertolt Brecht - Saint Joan of the Stockyards (first performed)
 * Albert Camus - The Possessed
 * Jean Genet - The Blacks (first performed)
 * Lorraine Hansberry - A Raisin in the Sun
 * Eugène Ionesco - The Killer
 * Judith Malina - The Connection
 * Harold Pinter - The Caretaker (first published)
 * Jean-Paul Sartre - The Condemned of Altona
 * N. F. Simpson - One Way Pendulum
 * Arnold Wesker - Roots and The Kitchen
 * Tennessee Williams - Sweet Bird of Youth

Non-fiction

 * Kenneth Anger - Hollywood Babylon
 * Thomas B. Costain - The Three Edwards (Third book in the Plantagenet or Pageant of England series)
 * L. Sprague de Camp - Engines
 * August Derleth
 * Arkham House: The First 20 Years
 * Some Notes on H. P. Lovecraft
 * Savitri Devi - Impeachment of Man
 * C. S. Forester - Sink the Bismarck! aka The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck
 * Erving Goffman - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
 * Laurie Lee - Cider With Rosie
 * Miguel León-Portilla - Visión de los vencidos: Relaciones indígenas de la conquista
 * Garrett Mattingly - The Defeat of the Spanish Armada
 * Karl Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery
 * Cornelius Ryan - The Longest Day
 * William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White - The Elements of Style

Births

 * March 15 - Ben Okri, poet and novelist
 * March 11 - Dejan Stojanović, Serbian-American poet, writer, essayist, philosopher, businessman, and former journalist
 * March 18 - Frédéric-Yves Jeannet, novelist and critic
 * May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and author
 * August 27 - Jeanette Winterson, novelist
 * October 31 - Neal Stephenson - science fiction writer
 * date unknown
 * Paul Anderson, journalist
 * Maurice Georges Dantec, science fiction author
 * R. A. Salvatore, science fiction and fantasy author

Deaths

 * January 3 - Edwin Muir, poet, novelist and translator
 * January 29 - Pauline Smith, novelist
 * February 22 - Percy F. Westerman, children's author
 * February 23 - Luis Palés Matos, poet
 * February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, playwright, film writer
 * March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist
 * April 14 - Julien Josephson, screenwriter
 * May 18 - Apsley Cherry-Garrard, explorer and memoirist
 * June 23 - Boris Vian, French novelist
 * June 30 - José Vasconcelos, political writer
 * September 18 - Benjamin Péret, poet
 * date unknown
 * Olga Knipper, widow of Anton Chekhov and star of many of his plays
 * Alfred Schütz, philosopher and sociologist

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers
 * Hugo Award for Best Novel: James Blish, A Case of Conscience
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Morris West, The Devil's Advocate
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh
 * Miles Franklin Award: Vance Palmer, The Big Fellow
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
 * Nobel Prize for literature: Salvatore Quasimodo
 * Premio Nadal: Ana María Matute, Primera memoria
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Archibald MacLeish, J. B.
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Stanley Kunitz, Selected Poems 1928-1958
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Francis Cornford