1956 in literature

The year 1956 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * Writing under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, author Romain Gary becomes the only person ever to win the Prix Goncourt twice.
 * Iris Murdoch marries John Bayley.
 * Aldous Huxley marries author Laura Archera.
 * C.S. Lewis marries Joy Gresham.
 * Finished in 1952, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street), is first published.
 * First book in the long-running 87th Precinct series, Cop Hater, is first published, written by Ed McBain
 * Nineteen-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested for robbery.
 * Sixteen-year-old Michael Moorcock becomes editor of Tarzan Adventures.
 * Jorge Luis Borges becomes a professor of literature at the University of Buenos Aires.
 * Martin Gardner begins his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.

New books

 * Kingsley Amis - That Uncertain Feeling
 * Poul Anderson - Planet of No Return
 * Isaac Asimov - The Naked Sun
 * James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room
 * Saul Bellow - Seize the Day
 * Pierre Berton - The Mysterious North
 * Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination (as Tiger! Tiger!)
 * Anthony Burgess - Time for a Tiger
 * Pearl S. Buck - Imperial Woman
 * Albert Camus - The Fall (La Chute)
 * John Dickson Carr
 * Patrick Butler for the Defense
 * Fear Is the Same (as by Carter Dickson)
 * Agatha Christie - Dead Man's Folly
 * Arthur C. Clarke - The City and the Stars
 * A. J. Cronin
 * A Thing of Beauty
 * Crusader's Tomb
 * Philip K. Dick
 * The Man Who Japed
 * The Minority Report
 * Gordon R. Dickson
 * Alien From Arcturus
 * Mankind on the Run
 * Gerald Durrell - My Family and Other Animals
 * Ian Fleming - Diamonds Are Forever
 * Romain Gary - Les racines du ciel
 * William Golding - Pincher Martin
 * Henri René Guieu - Les Monstres du Néant
 * Mark Harris - Bang the Drum Slowly
 * Marguerite Henry - Misty of Chincoteague
 * Frank Herbert - The Dragon in the Sea
 * Georgette Heyer - Sprig Muslin
 * Kathryn Hulme - The Nun's Story
 * C.S. Lewis
 * The Last Battle
 * Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
 * Rose Macaulay - The Towers of Trebizond
 * Ed McBain - Cop Hater
 * Naguib Mahfouz
 * Cairo Trilogy
 * Palace Walk
 * Grace Metalious - Peyton Place
 * Nicholas Monsarrat - The Tribe That Lost Its Head
 * Farley Mowat - Lost in the Barrens
 * Agnar Mykle - Song of the Red Ruby
 * Edwin O'Connor - The Last Hurrah
 * Pier Paolo Pasolini - Ragazzi di vita
 * Mervyn Peake - Boy in Darkness
 * Mary Renault - The Last of the Wine
 * Kenneth Roberts - Boon Island
 * João Guimarães Rosa - The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Grande Sertão: Veredas)
 * Françoise Sagan - A Certain Smile
 * Samuel Selvon - The Lonely Londoners
 * Ian Serraillier - The Silver Sword
 * Irwin Shaw - Lucy Crown
 * Khushwant Singh - Train to Pakistan
 * Rex Stout - Might as Well Be Dead
 * Rex Stout - Three Witnesses
 * Kay Thompson - Eloise
 * A.E. van Vogt - The Wizard of Linn
 * Angus Wilson  - Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
 * P.G. Wodehouse - French Leave
 * Eiji Yoshikawa - Heike Story

New drama

 * Jean Anouilh - Poor Bitos
 * Ferdinand Bruckner - The Fight with the Angel
 * Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Visit
 * Günter Grass - Flood
 * Hugh Leonard - The Birthday Party
 * Saunders Lewis - Siwan
 * Arthur Miller - A View from the Bridge (revised version)
 * Yukio Mishima - Rokumeikan
 * Heiner Müller - The Scab
 * Eugene O'Neill - Long Day's Journey into Night
 * John Osborne - Look Back in Anger
 * Arnold Wesker - Chicken Soup with Barley (written)
 * Carl Zuckmayer - The Cold Light

Poetry

 * Aniara - Harry Martinson
 * Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg

Non-fiction

 * A. J. Liebling - The Sweet Science
 * Norman Mailer - The White Negro

Births

 * January 2 - Storm Constantine
 * March 23 - Steven Saylor, historical novelist
 * May 4 - David Guterson, journalist and novelist
 * May 20 - Boris Akunin, novelist and essayist
 * June 9 - Patricia Cornwell, crime novelist
 * October 9 - Robert Reed, science fiction author
 * October 13 - Chris Carter, screenwriter
 * November 26 - John McCarthy, journalist and kidnap victim
 * date unknown
 * James Belich, historian
 * Amy Gerstler, poet
 * Alexander Jablokov, American writer and novelist
 * Jack Womack, novelist

Deaths

 * January 14 - Sheila Kaye-Smith, novelist
 * January 29 - H L Mencken (b. 1880), writer
 * January 31 - A.A. Milne, dramatist and children's author
 * March 30 - Edmund Clerihew Bentley, novelist and inventor of the clerihew
 * May 20 - Max Beerbohm, humorist
 * June 22 - Walter de la Mare, poet
 * July 8 - Giovanni Papini, essayist, poet, novelist
 * August 14 - Bertolt Brecht, dramatist
 * September 6 - Michael Ventris, linguist
 * December 13 - Arthur Grimble, travel writer
 * December 25 - Robert Walser, novelist

Awards

 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle
 * Duff Cooper Prize: Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: St John Greer Ervine, George Bernard Shaw
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Jean Lee Latham, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
 * Nobel Prize for literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez
 * Premio Nadal: José Luis Martín Descalzo, La frontera de Dios
 * Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary for Les racines du ciel
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Diary of Anne Frank
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: MacKinlay Kantor - Andersonville
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems - North & South
 * Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Edmund Blunden