1964 in literature

The year 1964 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

*Jean-Paul Sartre becomes head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners(ODIPP).
*Michael Moorcock becomes editor of the science fiction magazine "New Worlds".
*W. H. Auden describes his "Vision of Agape" (June 1933) in his preface to the anthology "The Protestant Mystics".
*Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" is allowed to circulate legally in the United States by the U.S. Supreme Court three decades after its original publication in France.

New books

*Chinua Achebe - "Arrow of God"
*Lloyd Alexander - "The Book of Three"
*Poul Anderson - "Time and Stars"
*Louis Auchincloss - "The Rector of Justin"
*J. G. Ballard - "The Terminal Beach"
*Simone de Beauvoir - "A Very Easy Death" ("Une Mort très douce")
*Saul Bellow - "Herzog"
*Thomas Berger - "Little Big Man"
*Leigh Brackett
**"People of the Talisman"
**"The Secret of Sinharat"
*Ray Bradbury - "The Machineries of Joy"
*John Braine - "The Jealous God"
*John Brunner
**"To Conquer Chaos"
**"The Whole Man"
*Sara Bulette - "The Splendid Belt of Mr. Big"
*Edgar Rice Burroughs - "Tarzan and the Madman"
*J. Ramsey Campbell - "The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants"
*A. J. Cronin - "A Song of Sixpence"
*Roald Dahl - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
*Len Deighton - "Funeral in Berlin"
*August Derleth editor - "Over the Edge"
*Ralph Ellison - "Shadow and Act"
*Ian Fleming
**"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
**"You Only Live Twice"
*William Golding - "The Spire"
*Ernest Hemingway - "A Moveable Feast"
*Carl Jacobi - "Portraits in Moonlight"
*B. S. Johnson - "Albert Angelo"
*Richard E. Kim - "The Martyred"
*H. P. Lovecraft - "At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels"
*Ruth Manning-Sanders - "A Book of Dwarfs"
*John D. MacDonald - "A Purple Place For Dying"
*Sterling North - "Rascal"
*Vladimir Nabokov - "The Defense"
*Jan Pfloog - "The Farm Book"
*Anthony Powell - "The Valley of Bones"
*Mario Puzo - "Fortunate Pilgrim"
*Ellery Queen - "And On the Eighth Day"
*Ruth Rendell - "From Doon With Death"
*Hubert Selby Jr. - "Last Exit to Brooklyn"
*Shel Silverstein - "The Giving Tree"
*Clark Ashton Smith - "Tales of Science and Sorcery"
*Wilbur Smith - "When the Lion Feeds"
*Rex Stout - "Trio for Blunt Instruments"
*Rex Stout - "A Right to Die"
*Leon Uris - "Armageddon"
*Jack Vance
**"The Houses of Iszm"
**"The Killing Machine"
**"Star King"
*Gore Vidal - "Julian"
*Irving Wallace - "The Man"
*Raymond Williams - "Second Generation"
*Maia Wojciechowska - "Shadow of a Bull"

New drama

*Brian Friel - "Philadelphia Here I Come!"
*Joe Orton - "Entertaining Mr Sloane"

Poetry

*Joseph Payne Brennan - "Nightmare Need"
*Leonard Cohen - "Flowers for Hitler"
*Philip Larkin - "The Whitsun Weddings"
*Donald Wandrei - "Poems for Midnight"
*"Up The Line To Death: The War Poets 1914-1918" (anthology)

Non-fiction

*Eric Berne - "Games People Play"
*Allan Bloom with Harry V. Jaffa - "Shakespeare's Politics"
*L. Sprague deCamp - "Elephant"
*L. Sprague deCamp and Catherine Crook de Camp - "Ancient Ruins and Archaeology"
*Dick Gregory - "Nigger: An Autobiography"
*John F. Kennedy - "A Nation of Immigrants" (published posthumously)
*Martin Luther King, Jr. - "Why We Can't Wait"
*Herbert Marcuse - "One-Dimensional Man"
*Marshall McLuhan - ""
*Evelyn Waugh - "A Little Learning"

Births

*March 7 - Bret Easton Ellis, author
*July 3 - Joanne Harris, author

Deaths

*January 17 - T.H. White, author
*February 3 - Clarence Irving Lewis, philosopher
*February 25 - Grace Metalious, writer "Peyton Place"
*April 14 - Rachel Carson, environmentalist author
*April 18 - Ben Hecht, screenwriter
*May 13 - Hamilton Basso, novelist and journalist
*August 3 - Flannery O'Connor
*August 12 - Ian Fleming, "James Bond" author
*September 18 - Sean O'Casey, dramatist
*November 21 - Leah Bodine Drake, poet
*December 21 - Carl Van Vechten

Awards

* Nobel Prize for literature - Jean-Paul Sartre

Canada

* See 1964 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

* Prix Goncourt: Georges Conchon, "L'Etat sauvage"
* Prix Médicis: Monique Wittig, "L’Opoponax"

United Kingdom

* Eric Gregory Award: Robert Nye, Ken Smith, Jean Symons, Ted Walker
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Frank Tuohy, "The Ice Saints"
* James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Elizabeth Longford, "Victoria R.I."
* Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: R. S. Thomas

United States

* American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Lillian Hellman
* Hugo Award: Clifford D. Simak, "Way Station"
* Newbery Medal for children's literature: Emily Cheney Neville, "It's Like This, Cat"
* Pulitzer Prize for Drama: "no award given"
* Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: "no award given"
* Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Louis Simpson: "At The End Of The Open Road"

Elsewhere

*Premio Nadal: Alfredo Martínez Garrido, "El miedo y la esperanza"
* Viareggio Prize: Giuseppe Berto, "Il male oscuro"