See also: 1915 in literature, other events of 1916, 1917 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New books
Births
- March 4 - Hans Eysenck, psychologist
- April 12 - Beverly Cleary, children's author
- April 15 - Helene Hanff, author
- May 21 - Harold Robbins (+ 1997)
- May 28 - Walker Percy (+ 1990)
- July 14 - Natalia Ginzburg, author
- September 13 - Roald Dahl, author
- September 19 - Giles Romilly, journalist
- October 3 - James Herriot, popular author of "vet" stories
- October 16 - David Gascoyne, author and poet
- December 17 - Penelope Fitzgerald, novelist
- date unknown - Mary Stewart, novelist
Deaths
- February 6 - Rubén Darío, writer
- February 28 - Henry James, writer
- May 3 - Patrick Pearse, poet and Irish nationalist leader
- May 13 - Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish humorist
- May 31 - Gorch Fock, poet and novelist
- August 8 - Lily Braun, feminist writer
- September 22 - Edward Wyndham Tennant, war poet
- October 7 - James Whitcomb Riley, poet
- October 25 - John Todhunter, poet and dramatist
- November 14 - Saki, author
- November 15 - Molly Elliot Seawell, novelist
- November 22 - Jack London, novelist
- November 27 - Emile Verhaeren, Symbolist poet
- date unknown - Mario de Sa-Carneiro, novelist and poet
- date unknown - Olindo Guerrini, poet
- date unknown - Émile Faguet, critic
- date unknown - Petar Kocic, poet
Awards
