1946 in literature

The year 1946 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * November 7 - Walker Percy marries Mary Bernice Townsend.
 * Animal Farm by George Orwell – becomes book of the year in the USA.
 * Frederick Buechner receives a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University.
 * All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren is published.

New books

 * Miguel Ángel Asturias - The President
 * Simone de Beauvoir - Tous les hommes sont mortels
 * Algernon Blackwood - The Doll and One Other
 * John Dickson Carr
 * He Who Whispers
 * My Late Wives (as by Carter Dickson)
 * Agatha Christie - The Hollow
 * A.E. Coppard - Fearful Pleasures
 * Edmund Crispin - The Moving Toyshop
 * Kenneth Fearing - The Big Clock
 * Errol Flynn - Showdown
 * C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower
 * Pat Frank - Mr. Adam
 * William Lindsay Gresham - Nightmare Alley
 * João Guimarães Rosa - Sagarana
 * Thomas Heggen - Mister Roberts
 * Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, editors - Adventures in Time and Space
 * George Wylie Henderson - Jule
 * William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland and Other Novels
 * Robert E. Howard - Skull-Face and Others
 * Christopher Isherwood - The Berlin Stories
 * Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek
 * Arthur Koestler - Thieves in the Night
 * Madeleine L'Engle - Ilsa
 * Lois Lenski - Strawberry Girl
 * Frank Belknap Long - The Hounds of Tindalos
 * W. Somerset Maugham - Then and Now
 * Carson McCullers - Member of the Wedding
 * Oscar Micheaux - The Story Of Dorothy Stanfield
 * Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
 * Ann Lane Petty - The Street
 * Anya Seton - The Turquoise
 * Rex Stout - The Silent Speaker
 * Phoebe Atwood Taylor
 * The Asey Mayo Trio
 * Punch with Care
 * Charles Tazewell - The Littlest Angel
 * A.E. van Vogt - Slan
 * Boris Vian - I Spit On Your Grave
 * H. Russell Wakefield - The Clock Strikes Twelve
 * Robert Penn Warren - All the King's Men
 * Eudora Welty - Delta Wedding
 * Henry S. Whitehead - West India Lights
 * Ivan Yefremov - The Land of Foam

New drama

 * Eduardo De Filippo - Filumena Marturano
 * Eugene O'Neill - The Iceman Cometh
 * J.B. Priestley - An Inspector Calls
 * Terence Rattigan - The Winslow Boy

Non-fiction

 * R.G. Collingwood – The Idea of History
 * Jean Genet – Miracle de la rose
 * Benjamin Spock - The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

Births

 * August 29 - Leona Gom, author
 * September 26 - Andrea Dworkin, author
 * October 1 - Tim O'Brien, novelist
 * October 20 - Elfriede Jelinek, author
 * October 28 - Sharon Thesen, poet
 * November 7 - Diane Francis, Canadian journalist and author
 * November 18 - Alan Dean Foster, science fiction author
 * December 11 - Ellen Meloy, author

Deaths

 * March 1 - Adriana Porter, Wiccan poet
 * March 19 - Catherine Carswell, novelist and biographer
 * April 1 - Edward Sheldon, dramatist
 * May 19 - Booth Tarkington, novelist and dramatist
 * May 25 - Ernest Rhys, founder of the Everyman series
 * June 2 - Carrie Ingalls, newspaper worker and sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder
 * July 8 - Orrick Glenday Johns, poet & playwright
 * July 22 - Edward Sperling, humorist
 * July 27 - Gertrude Stein, poet and dramatist
 * August 13 - H.G. Wells, ground-breaking science fiction novelist
 * August 31 - Harley Granville-Barker, actor, dramatist and critic
 * November 14 - May Sinclair, novelist, 83

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Oliver Onions, Poor Man's Tapestry
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Richard Aldington, Wellington
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lois Lenski, Strawberry Girl
 * Nobel Prize for literature: Hermann Hesse
 * Premio Nadal: José María Gironella, Un hombre
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay, State of the Union
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: no award given