1949 in literature

See also: 1948 in literature, other events of 1949, 1950 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Death of a Salesman, a play by Arthur Miller
• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles is published.
• June 8 - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is published.

New books

• The Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges
• Alien Land - Willard W. Savoy
• The Angry Wife - Pearl S. Buck
• Beneath The Sky - Alfred Q. Jarrette
• Beyond Earth's Gates - C. L. Moore
• Cannibal - John Hawkes
• Crooked House - Agatha Christie
• The Egyptian - Mika Waltari
• The Golden Sequence - Martha E. Von Almedingen
• The Heat of the Day - Elixabeth Bowen
• King of the Wind - Marguerite Henry
• Let Love Come Last - Taylor Caldwell
• Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
• Male and Female - Margaret Mead
• The Man with the Golden Arm - Nelson Algren
• Men of Maize - Miguel Angel Asturias
• The Miracles of the Red Altar Cloth - Hermann L. Hunter
• Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
• Pride's Castle - Frank Yerby
• A Rage To Live - John O'Hara
• The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
• To Hell and Back - Audie Murphy
• Shane - Jack Schaefer
• The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
• A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
• Trouble with Harry - Jack Story

Births

• January 26 - Jonathan Carroll, American author of fantasy fiction
• November 2 - Lois McMaster Bujold, American author of science fiction and fantasy

Deaths

• January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, U.S. book publisher
• February 11 - Axel Munthe, Swedish author
• April 24 - Willa Cather, author
• May 6 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet & playwright
• June 10 - Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize winning author
• June 14 - Russell Doubleday, U.S. author and publisher
• September 19 - Will Cuppy, U.S. humorist
• December 28 - Hervey Allen - U.S. author

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Marguerite Henry , King of the Wind
• Nobel Prize for literature - William Faulkner
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Peter Viereck , Terror and Decorum