1948 in literature

The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
 * The first volume of Sir Winston Churchill's "The Second World War" (1948–1953) is published.
 * A debate between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston on the existence of God is broadcast by the BBC.

New books

 * Jerzy Andrzejewski - Ashes and Diamonds
 * Hervé Bazin - Vipère au Poing
 * Henry Bellamann - Parris Mitchell of King's Row
 * Pearl S. Buck - Peony
 * Taylor Caldwell - Melissa
 * Truman Capote - Other Voices, Other Rooms
 * Al Capp - The Life and Times of the Shmoo
 * John Dickson Carr - The Skeleton in the Clock (as by Carter Dickson)
 * Agatha Christie
 * Taken at the Flood
 * The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
 * The Rose and the Yew Tree (as by Mary Westmacott)
 * James Gould Cozzens - Guard of Honor
 * Edmund Crispin - Love Lies Bleeding
 * A. J. Cronin - Shannon's Way
 * Osamu Dazai - No Longer Human
 * L. Sprague de Camp - Divide and Rule
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - The Carnelian Cube
 * August Derleth - Not Long for this World
 * William Pène du Bois - The Twenty-One Balloons
 * Lord Dunsany - The Fourth Book of Jorkens
 * Howard Fast - My Glorious Brothers
 * William Faulkner - Intruder in the Dust
 * Henry Green - Concluding
 * Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter
 * L.P. Hartley - The Travelling Grave and Other Stories
 * Marguerite Henry - King of the Wind
 * Georgette Heyer - The Foundling
 * Zora Neale Hurston - Seraph on the Suwanee
 * Aldous Huxley - Ape and Essence
 * Anna Kavan - The House of Sleep
 * Ross Lockridge, Jr. - Raintree County
 * Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead
 * Thomas Mann - Joseph and His Brothers
 * W. Somerset Maugham - Catalina
 * C. L. Moore - The Mask of Circe
 * Zoe B. Oldenbourg - The World Is Not Enough
 * Alan Paton - Cry, the Beloved Country
 * Ellery Queen - Ten Days' Wonder
 * Seabury Quinn - Roads
 * Anya Seton - The Hearth and the Eagle
 * Dr. Seuss - Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
 * Irwin Shaw - The Young Lions
 * Nevil Shute - No Highway
 * B. F. Skinner - Walden Two
 * Clark Ashton Smith - Genius Loci and Other Tales
 * Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle
 * William Gardner Smith - Last of the Conquerors
 * Rex Stout - And Be a Villain
 * Gore Vidal - The City and the Pillar
 * Donald Wandrei - The Web of Easter Island
 * Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One
 * Stanley G. Weinbaum - The Black Flame
 * Dorothy West - The Living Is Easy
 * Thornton Wilder - The Ides of March

New drama

 * Bertolt Brecht - The Caucasian Chalk Circle
 * Robertson Davies - Overlaid
 * Terence Rattigan - The Browning Version and Harlequinade
 * Jean-Paul Sartre - Dirty Hands

Short stories

 * Shirley Jackson - "The Lottery" & "Charles"

Poetry

 * Olga Kirsch - Mure van die Hart
 * Derek Walcott - 25 Poems

Non-fiction

 * Isaac Asimov - The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline
 * Robert Graves - The White Goddess
 * Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey - Cheaper by the Dozen
 * Richard Hofstadter - The American Political Tradition
 * Thomas Merton - The Seven Storey Mountain
 * A. A. Milne - The Norman Church
 * Anthony Powell - John Aubrey and His Friends
 * John Steinbeck - A Russian Journal

Births

 * January 1 - Lynn Abbey, writer
 * February 5 - Christopher Guest, actor, writer, director, composer
 * February 28 - Mike Figgis, director, writer, composer
 * February 29 - Patricia A. McKillip, author of fantasy and science fiction novels
 * March 17 - William Gibson, writer
 * April 4 - Dan Simmons, American author of science fiction, horror and fantasy
 * April 28 - Terry Pratchett, English fantasy author
 * September 20 - George R.R. Martin, fantasy writer
 * October 17 - Robert Jordan, fantasy writer

Deaths

 * March 6 - Ross Lockridge, Jr., author of Raintree County
 * March 10 - Zelda Fitzgerald, novelist and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald
 * April 22 - Prosper Montagné, chef, author of Larousse Gastronomique
 * July 3 - Phelps Putnam, American poet
 * June 21 - Alice Brown, novelist, poet and dramatist
 * July 5 - Georges Bernanos, novelist
 * July 21 - J.H. Rosny jeune, science fiction pioneer
 * July 27 - Susan Glaspell, dramatist and novelist
 * August 3 - Venetia Stanley, recipient of the Asquith letters
 * August 19 - Frederick Philip Grove, novelist and essayist
 * September 9 - Lajos Biró, novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
 * December 13 - Michael Roberts, poet and critic

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Richard Armstrong, Sea Change
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Percy A. Scholes, The Great Dr Burney
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: William Pene du Bois, The Twenty-One Balloons
 * Nobel Prize for literature: Thomas Stearns Eliot
 * Premio Nadal: Sebastián Juan Arbó, Sobre las piedras grises
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James A. Michener - Tales of the South Pacific
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W.H. Auden: The Age of Anxiety