1987 in literature

The year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

 * Tom Wolfe was paid $5 million for the film rights to his novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the most ever earned by an author, at the time.

Fiction

 * Chinua Achebe - Anthills of the Savannah
 * Peter Ackroyd - Chatterton (shortlisted for Booker Prize 1987)
 * Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
 * Martin Amis - Einstein's Monsters
 * Gilles Archambault - L'Obsédante obèse et autres agressions
 * Paul Auster - The New York Trilogy & In the Country of Last Things
 * Iain Banks - Consider Phlebas (as Iain M. Banks) and Espedair Street
 * Clive Barker - Weaveworld
 * Greg Bear - The Forge of God
 * William Boyd - The New Confessions
 * Truddi Chase - When Rabbit Howls
 * Tom Clancy - Patriot Games
 * Hugh Cook - The Wordsmiths and the Warguild and The Women and the Warlords
 * Bernard Cornwell - Redcoat and Sharpe's Rifles
 * Robert Crais - The Monkey's Raincoat
 * L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp - The Incorporated Knight
 * Jenny Diski - Rainforest
 * Jim Dodge - Not Fade Away
 * Roddy Doyle - The Commitments
 * Bret Easton Ellis - The Rules of Attraction
 * James Ellroy - Black Dahlia
 * John Gardner - No Deals, Mr. Bond
 * Kaye Gibbons - Ellen Foster
 * Ken Grimwood - Replay
 * Tom Holt - Expecting Someone Taller
 * Josephine Humphreys - Rich in Love
 * John Jakes - Heaven and Hell
 * Garrison Keillor - Leaving Home
 * Stephen King - Misery, The Tommyknockers, and The Eyes of the Dragon
 * Penelope Lively - Moon Tiger
 * Ian McEwan - The Child in Time
 * Betty Mahmoody - Not Without My Daughter
 * James A. Michener - Legacy (1987 novel)
 * Toni Morrison - Beloved
 * Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
 * V.S. Naipaul - The Enigma of Arrival
 * Michael Ondaatje - In the Skin of A Lion
 * Robert B. Parker - Pale Kings and Princes
 * Rosamunde Pilcher - The Shell Seekers
 * Peter Pohl - Vi kallar honom Anna
 * Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites and Mort
 * Paul Quarrington - King Leary
 * Edward Rutherfurd - Sarum
 * José Saramago - Baltasar and Blimunda
 * Leonardo Sciascia - Porte aperte
 * Michael Shea - Polyphemus
 * Sidney Sheldon - Windmills of the Gods
 * Lucius Shepard - The Jaguar Hunter
 * Carol Shields - Swann: A Mystery
 * Michael Slade - Ghoul
 * Danielle Steel - Fine Things and Kaleidoscope
 * Ruth Thomas - The Runaways
 * Scott Turow - Presumed Innocent
 * Andrew Vachss - Strega
 * Barbara Vine - A Fatal Inversion
 * Kurt Vonnegut - Bluebeard
 * Gene Wolfe - The Urth of the New Sun
 * Tom Wolfe - The Bonfire of the Vanities
 * Roger Zelazny - Sign of Chaos
 * Gary Paulsen - Hatchet
 * Jesse Lee Kercheval - The Dogeater

Non-fiction

 * Allan Bloom - The Closing of the American Mind
 * Bruce Chatwin - The Songlines
 * Bill Cosby - Time Flies
 * Andrea Dworkin - Intercourse
 * Paul Kennedy - The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000
 * Nien Cheng - Life and Death in Shanghai
 * Salman Rushdie - The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
 * Peter Wright - Spycatcher

Deaths

 * February 2 - Alistair MacLean, British thriller writer, heart attack
 * February 10 - William Rose, screenwriter
 * February 22 - Andy Warhol, artist, director, writer
 * March 4 - Maria Jolas, literary publisher
 * April 4 - C.L. Moore, science fiction author
 * April 11 - Erskine Caldwell, novelist
 * May 30 - Norman Nicholson, poet
 * September 25 - Emlyn Williams, dramatist
 * September 30 - Alfred Bester, science fiction writer
 * October 3 - Jean Anouilh, dramatist
 * October 8 - Roger Lancelyn Green, biographer and children's author
 * October 31 - Joseph Campbell, author and expert on mythology
 * November 29 - Gwendolyn MacEwen, Canadian poet
 * December 1 - James Baldwin, novelist
 * December 17 - Marguerite Yourcenar, novelist

Awards

 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Joseph Brodsky

Australia

 * The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Jim Sakkas, Ilias
 * C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Lily Brett, The Auschwitz Poems
 * Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Philip Hodgins, Blood and Bone
 * Mary Gilmore Prize: Jan Owen - Boy with Telescope

Canada

 * See 1987 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

 * Prix Goncourt: Tahar ben Jelloun, La Nuit sacrée
 * Prix Médicis French: Pierre Mertens, Les Éblouissements
 * Prix Médicis International: Antonio Tabucchi, Nocturne indien

United Kingdom

 * Booker Prize: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
 * Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Susan Price, The Ghost Drum
 * Cholmondeley Award: Wendy Cope, Matthew Sweeney, George Szirtes
 * Eric Gregory Award: Peter McDonald, Maura Dooley, Stephen Knight, Steve Anthony, Jill Maughan, Paul Munden
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: George Mackay Brown, The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories
 * James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Ruth Dudley Edwards, Victor Gollancz: A Biography
 * Whitbread Best Book Award: Christopher Nolan, Under the Eye of the Clock
 * Sunday Express Book of the Year: Brian Moore, The Colour of Blood

United States

 * Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: David Rivard, Torque
 * Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry: Howard Nemerov
 * American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Belles Lettres: Jacques Barzun
 * Frost Medal: Robert Creeley / Sterling Brown
 * Nebula Award: Pat Murphy, The Falling Woman
 * Newbery Medal for children's literature: Sid Fleischman The Whipping Boy
 * Pulitzer Prize for Drama: August Wilson, Fences
 * Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Peter Taylor, A Summons to Memphis
 * Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah

Elsewhere

 * Premio Nadal: Juan José Saer, La ocasión