1974 in literature

The year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.

New books

 * Richard Adams - Shardik
 * Kingsley Amis - Ending Up
 * Peter Benchley - Jaws
 * Hal Bennett - Wait Until the Evening
 * Heinrich Böll - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
 * Anthony Burgess - The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End
 * Robert A. Caro - The Power Broker
 * Agatha Christie - Poirot's Early Cases
 * Robert Cormier - The Chocolate War
 * Roald Dahl - Switch Bitch
 * Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
 * Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
 * Lawrence Durrell - Monsieur
 * Frederick Forsyth - The Dogs of War
 * John Fowles - The Ebony Tower
 * Donald Goines - Crime Partners
 * John Hawkes - Death Sleep
 * Joseph Heller - Something Happened
 * Erica Jong - Fear of Flying
 * Anna Kavan - Let Me Alone
 * Stephen King - Carrie
 * Margaret Laurence - The Diviners
 * John le Carré - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
 * Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
 * Madeleine L'Engle - A Wind in the Door
 * H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth - The Watchers Out of Time and Others
 * Robert Ludlum - The Cry of the Halidon
 * Brian Lumley - Beneath the Moors
 * Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Book of Sorcerers and Spells
 * James A. Michener - Centennial
 * Meja Mwangi - Carcase for Hounds
 * Vladimir Nabokov - Look at the Harlequins!
 * Edith Pargeter - Sunrise in the West (first in the "Brothers of Gwynedd" quartet)
 * Robert B. Parker - God Save the Child
 * Ellen Raskin - Figgs & Phantoms
 * Ishmael Reed - The Last Days of Louisiana Red
 * Harold Robbins - The Pirate
 * Leonardo Sciascia - Todo modo
 * Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue
 * Sidney Sheldon - The Other Side of Midnight
 * C. P. Snow - In Their Wisdom
 * Studs Terkel - Working
 * Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman - Collected Ghost Stories

New drama

 * Michael Cook - Jacob's Wake
 * Dario Fo - Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
 * Paavo Haavikko - The Knight
 * Ira Levin - Veronica's Room
 * Harold Pinter - No Man's Land
 * Tom Stoppard - Travesties

Poetry

 * Duncan Bush, Tony Curtis, Nigel Jenkins - Three Young Anglo-Welsh Poets

Non-fiction

 * Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward – All the President's Men
 * Vincent Bugliosi - Helter Skelter
 * Shelby Foote – The Civil War: A Narrative – Vol 3: Red River to Appomattox
 * Jonathan Raban - Soft City
 * Piers Paul Read - Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
 * Lewis Thomas – The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
 * Joseph Wambaugh - The Onion Field

Births

 * January 6 - Romain Sardou, novelist
 * April 13 — K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (d. 2005)
 * August 7 - Faisal Tehrani, novelist
 * August 23 - Serhiy Zhadan, poet, novelist and essayist
 * November 4 — Carlos Be, Spanish playwright
 * December 26 - Joshua John Miller, novelist and screenwriter
 * date unknown
 * Naomi Alderman, novelist
 * Nicole Krauss, novelist
 * Joe Meno, novelist and journalist
 * Ryūsui Seiryōin, novelist
 * Owen Sheers, poet
 * Roger Williams, dramatist and screenwriter

Deaths

 * January 20 - Edmund Blunden, poet and critic (born 1896)
 * January 29 - H. E. Bates, novelist (born 1905)
 * February 2 - Marieluise Fleißer, German dramatist (born 1901)
 * February 24 - Martin Armstrong, poet and short story writer (born 1882)
 * March 3 - Carl Jacob Burckhardt, historian (born 1891)
 * March 24 - Olive Higgins Prouty, American novelist
 * May 13 - Arthur J. Burks, American writer (born 1898)
 * June 2 - Tom Kristensen, novelist and poet (born 1893)
 * June 11 - Julius Evola, philosopher and author (born 1898)
 * June 9 - Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Prize-winning novelist (born 1899)
 * July 4 - Georgette Heyer, author (born 1902)
 * September 21 - Jacqueline Susann, best-selling novelist (born 1918)
 * October 4 - Anne Sexton, poet (born 1928)
 * November 5 - William Gardner Smith, expatriate American novelist & journalist (born 1927)
 * October 28 - David Jones, artist and poet (born 1895)
 * December 14 - Walter Lippmann, writer (born 1889)

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Evyind Johnson and Harry Martinson

Canada

 * See 1974 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Pascal Lainé, La Dentellière
 * Prix Médicis French: Porporino ou les Mystèrs de Naples
 * Prix Médicis International: Julio Cortázar, Libro de Manuel

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist and Stanley Middleton, Holiday.
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold
 * Cholmondeley Award: D.J. Enright, Vernon Scannell, Alasdair Maclean
 * Eric Gregory Award: Duncan Forbes, Roger Garfitt, Robin Hamilton, Frank Ormsby, Penelope Shuttle
 * Newdigate prize: Alan Hollinghurst
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: John Wain, Samuel Johnson
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Ted Hughes

United States

 * Frost Medal: John Hall Wheelock
 * Hugo Award: Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
 * Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Lowell, The Dolphin

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Luis Gasulla, Culminación de Montoya
 * Viareggio Prize: Clotilde Marghieri, Amati enigmi