1972 in literature

The year 1972 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Fiction

 * Richard Adams - Watership Down
 * Jorge Amado - Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra (Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars)
 * Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers
 * Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
 * Italo Calvino - ''Invisible Cities
 * Taylor Caldwell - Captains and the Kings
 * John Dickson Carr - The Hungry Goblin: A Victorian Detective Novel
 * Angela Carter - The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
 * Agatha Christie - Elephants Can Remember
 * Brian Cleeve - Tread Softly in this Place
 * Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
 * Robertson Davies - The Manticore
 * R. F. Delderfield - To Serve Them All My Days
 * Frederick Forsyth - The Odessa File
 * Günter Grass - Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke - (From the Diary of a Snail)
 * Graham Greene - The Honorary Consul
 * James Herriot - All Creatures Great and Small
 * Georgette Heyer - Lady of Quality
 * George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle
 * P.D. James - An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
 * Dan Jenkins - Semi-Tough
 * Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
 * Oe Kenzaburo - The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away
 * Carl Jacobi - Disclosures in Scarlet
 * Ira Levin - The Stepford Wives
 * Frank Belknap Long - The Rim of the Unknown
 * Robert Ludlum - The Osterman Weekend
 * John D. MacDonald - The Scarlet Ruse
 * David McCullough - The Great Bridge
 * Barry N. Malzberg - Beyond Apollo
 * Vladimir Nabokov - ''Transparent Things
 * Chaim Potok - My Name is Asher Lev
 * Mary Renault - The Persian Boy
 * Tom Sharpe -  Indecent Exposure
 * Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic
 * Paul Theroux - Saint Jack
 * Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
 * Irving Wallace - The Word

Non-fiction

 * Jacob Bronowski - The Ascent of Man
 * L. Sprague de Camp - Great Cities of the Ancient World
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp - Darwin and His Great Discovery'
 * Carlos Castaneda - Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan
 * Nena and George O'Neill - Open Marriage: A New Life Style for Couples
 * Frances Yates - The Rosicrucian Enlightenment.
 * John Howard Yoder - The Politics of Jesus

Drama

 * Alan Ayckbourn - Absurd Person Singular
 * Vijay Tendulkar - Ghashiram Kotwal
 * Vijay Tendulkar - Sakharam Binder

Births

 * January 1 - Maile Meloy
 * February 11 - Noboru Yamaguchi
 * September 6 - China Miéville

Deaths

 * February 15 - Edgar Snow, journalist
 * March 4 - Richard Church, poet and novelist
 * March 9 - Violet Trefusis, English writer and lover of Vita Sackville-West
 * March 11 - Fredric Brown, science fiction and mystery author
 * April 10 - Laurence Manning, science fiction author
 * May 22 - Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate
 * June 24 - R. F. Delderfield, novelist and historian
 * August 22 - Ernestine Hill, travel writer
 * September 21 - Henry de Montherlant, essayist
 * September 27 - S. R. Ranganathan, influential librarian
 * November 1 - Ezra Pound, poet
 * December 10 - Mark Van Doren, poet
 * December 13 - L. P. Hartley, novelist
 * December 23 - Abraham Joshua Heschel, theologian

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Heinrich Böll

Canada

 * See 1972 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Jean Carrière, L'Epervier de Maheux
 * Prix Médicis French: Maurice Clavel, Le Tiers des étoiles

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: John Berger, G.
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Richard Adams, Watership Down
 * Cholmondeley Award: Molly Holden, Tom Raworth, Patricia Whittaker
 * Eric Gregory Award: Tony Curtis, Richard Burns, Brian Oxley, Andrew Greig, Robin Lee, Paul Muldoon
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: John Berger, G
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf

United States

 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for the novel, Eudora Welty
 * Hugo Award: Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
 * Nebula Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Not awarded
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Wright, Collected Poems

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: José María Carrascal, Grrovy
 * Viareggio Prize: Romano Bilenchi, Il bottone di Stalingrado