1951 in literature

The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.
 * Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus.
 * Anthony Powell produces the first novel of his A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy.
 * Arthur C. Clarke publishes "The Sentinel", the story that will form the basis for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * First appearance of Dennis the Menace comic strip in The Beano.
 * Janie Moore, C. S. Lewis's adoptive mother, dies.
 * James Clavell marries actress April Stride, who introduces him to the movie business.
 * Joe Orton enters the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

New books

 * Sholem Asch - Moses
 * Isaac Asimov
 * Foundation
 * The Stars Like Dust
 * Ray Bradbury - The Illustrated Man
 * Gill Hunt - Galactic Storm
 * Taylor Caldwell - The Balance Wheel
 * Morley Callaghan - The Loved and the Lost
 * Truman Capote - The Grass Harp
 * John Dickson Carr - The Devil in Velvet
 * Agatha Christie
 * The Under Dog and Other Stories
 * They Came to Baghdad
 * Arthur C. Clarke - Prelude to Space
 * Robertson Davies - Tempest-Tost
 * L. Sprague de Camp
 * Rogue Queen
 * The Undesired Princess
 * August Derleth - The Memoirs of Solar Pons
 * Owen Dodson - Boy at the Window
 * Daphne du Maurier - My Cousin Rachel
 * Howard Fast - Spartacus
 * Per Anders Fogelström - Sommaren med Monika
 * Henri René Guieu - Le Pionnier de l'atome
 * Graham Greene - The End of the Affair
 * John Hawkes - The Beetle Leg
 * Robert A. Heinlein - The Puppet Masters
 * James Jones - From Here to Eternity
 * Nikos Kazantzakis - The Last Temptation of Christ
 * A.M. Klein - The Second Scroll
 * Louis L'Amour - The Rustlers of the West Fork
 * C. S. Lewis - Prince Caspian
 * John Masters - Nightrunners of Bengal
 * François Mauriac - Le Sagouin
 * James A. Michener - Return to Paradise
 * Nancy Mitford - The Blessing
 * Nicholas Monsarrat - The Cruel Sea
 * Alberto Moravia - The Conformist (Il conformista)
 * John O'Hara - Butterfield 8''
 * Anthony Powell - A Question of Upbringing
 * J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
 * Ooka Shohei - Fires on the Plain
 * Vern Schneider - The Teahouse of the August Moon
 * Cardinal Spellman - The Foundling
 * John Steinbeck - The Log from the Sea of Cortez
 * Rex Stout
 * Curtains for Three
 * Murder by the Book
 * William Styron - Lie Down in Darkness
 * Elizabeth Taylor - A Game of Hide and Seek
 * Phoebe Atwood Taylor - Diplomatic Corpse
 * Josephine Tey - The Daughter of Time
 * Anne de Tourville - Jabadao
 * Mika Waltari - The Wanderer
 * Herman Wouk - The Caine Mutiny
 * John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids
 * Frank Yerby - A Woman Called Fancy
 * Marguerite Yourcenar - Mémoires d'Hadrien

New drama

 * Eugène Ionesco - La Leçon
 * A.A. Milne - Before the Flood
 * Lawrence Riley - Kin Hubbard
 * Jean-Paul Sartre - The Devil and the Good Lord
 * John Van Druten - I Am a Camera
 * Tennessee Williams - The Rose Tattoo

Poetry

 * Frank O'Hara - A City Winter and Other Poems
 * Clark Ashton Smith - The Dark Chateau

Non-fiction

 * Rachel Carson - The Sea Around Us
 * Nirad C. Chaudhuri - The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
 * Thomas B. Costain - The Magnificent Century (Second book in the Plantagenet or Pageant of England Series)
 * Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory
 * Lou Andreas-Salomé - Lebensrückblick (posthumously published)

Births

 * January 13 - Nigel Cox, New Zealand novelist
 * August 20 - Greg Bear, American science fiction author
 * August 24 - Orson Scott Card, American science fiction author
 * September 20 - Javier Marías, Spanish novelist
 * October 12 - Peter Flannery, English dramatist
 * October 17 - Clark Parent, Haitian novelist, musician and politician
 * December 8 - Bill Bryson, American travel writer
 * December 22 - Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author & Celtic folk musician
 * date unknown - Jagadish Mohanty, Indian novelist

Deaths

 * January 7 - René Guénon, French philosophical writer (b. 1886)
 * January 29 - James Bridie, Scottish dramatist (b. 1888)
 * February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, American novelist (b. 1885)
 * February 13 - Lloyd C. Douglas, American author (b. 1877)
 * February 19 - André Gide, French author (b. 1869)
 * March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, African-American author & filmmaker (b. 1884)
 * April 29 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (b. 1889)
 * June 11 - W.C. Sellar, Scottish humorist (b. 1898)
 * August 14 - William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper tycoon (b. 1863)
 * September 2 - Antoine Bibesco, Romanian dramatist (b. 1878)
 * December 4 - Pedro Salinas, Spanish poet (b. 1891)
 * December 10 - Algernon Blackwood, English writer (b. 1869)

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Cynthia Harnett, The Wool-Pack
 * Frost Medal: Wallace Stevens
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Chapman Mortimer, Father Goose
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen
 * Newbery Medal: Elizabeth Yates, Amos Fortune, Free Man
 * Nobel Prize in Literature: Pär Lagerkvist
 * Premio Nadal: Luis Romero, La noria
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Town
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems