See also: 1917 in literature, other events of 1918, 1919 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
New books
Births
- January 16
- February 1 - Dame Muriel Spark, author
- February 6 - Lothar-Günther Buchheim, author of Das Boot
- March 9 - Mickey Spillane, mystery writer
- July 14 - Arthur Laurents, novelist and screenwriter
- August 9 - Robert Aldrich, writer and filmmaker
- August 20 - Jacqueline Susann, best-selling novelist
- October 19 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher
- November 29 - Madeleine L'Engle, author of books for children & teens
- December 11 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer
- December 30 - Al Purdy, poet
- date unknown - Peter Opie, expert in children's literature
- date unknown - Nicholas Moore, poet
- date unknown - Theodore Cogswell, science fiction author
- date unknown - Roger Lancelyn Green, biographer
Deaths
- April 1 - Isaac Rosenberg, poet
- June 10 - Arrigo Boito, poet and composer
- June 26 - Peter Rosegger, poet
- October 5 - Robert Baldwin Ross, friend and literary executor of Oscar Wilde
- November 4 - Wilfred Owen, poet
- November 4 - Andrew Dickson White, diplomat and author
- November 9 - Guillaume Apollinaire, poet
- December 2 - Edmond Rostand, dramatist
- December 15 - Salvatore Farina, novelist
- date unknown - Francis George Fowler, expert on grammar and usage
Awards
