This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1952.
Events
- February â The historical periodical Past & Present is launched in Oxford, U.K.
- February 29 â Derek J. de Solla Price reveals his discovery of a lost medieval scientific work entitled Equatorie of the Planetis, initially attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Times Literary Supplement.
- March 3 â J. L. Carr takes over as Headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will later feature in his novel The Harpole Report.
- May â The works of André Gide are placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books by Pope Pius XII.
- July 10 â The first issue of Mad appears, edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by William M. Gaines' EC Comics.
- August 12 â The Night of the Murdered Poets brings the execution of 13 Soviet Jews in Lubyanka Prison, Moscow, including several writers.
- September 6 â The Universal Copyright Convention is adopted at Geneva.
- October 17 â Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot is published in Paris as En attendant Godot by Les ÃÂditions de Minuit.
- October 28 â E. E. Cummings delivers the first of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University.
- November 25 â Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London. It will still be running as of 2021, next door at St Martin's Theatre from 1974.
- unknown dates
- The publisher Diogenes Verlag is founded in Zürich, Switzerland, by Daniel Keel.
- The National Library of Burma is established in Rangoon.
New books
Fiction
Children and young people
Drama
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Poetry
Non-fiction
Births
- January 4 â Michele Wallace, American feminist author
- January 12 â Walter Mosley, American novelist
- January 21 â Louis Menand, American author and academic
- February 10 â Gail Rebuck, English publisher
- February 19
- RyÃ
« Murakami (æÂÂ丠é¾Â), Japanese novelist, essayist and filmmaker
- Amy Tan, American novelist
- February 29 â Tim Powers, American fantasy author
- March 5 â Robin Hobb (Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, Megan Lindholm), American fantasy author
- March 7 â William Boyd, Gold Coast-born Scottish novelist and screenwriter
- March 11 â Douglas Adams, English science fiction author (died 2001)
- March 13 â ÃÂgnes Rapai, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
- March 23 â Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction author
- March 26 â T. A. Barron, American novelist
- May 5 â Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Nigerian author and poet
- May 31 â Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress (died 2016)
- June 4 â Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwean writer (died 1987)
- June 7 â Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate
- June 20
- Vince Gotera, American poet and critic
- Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
- June 29 â Breece D'J Pancake (Breece Dexter Pancake), American short story writer (suicide 1979)
- July 3 â Rohinton Mistry, Indian-born Canadian novelist
- July 6 â Hilary Mantel, English novelist (died 2022)
- July 10 â Candice F. Ransom, American children's and young-adult author
- July 18 â Per Petterson, Norwegian novelist
- August 28 â Rita Dove, American poet
- September 29 - Pete Hautman, American young-adult novelist
- October 18 â Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese author
- November 15 â Rick Atkinson, American journalist, historian and author
- November 21 â Pedro Lemebel, Chilean novelist
- December 19 â Sean O'Brien, English poet
- December 22 â Mick Inkpen, English children's writer and illustrator
- December 28 â Hemant Shesh, Indian Hindi writer
Deaths
- January 22 â Roger Vitrac, French poet and dramatist (born 1899)
- January 26 â Lodewijk van Deyssel, Dutch novelist (born 1864)
- January 28 â Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Ottoman-born Romanian humorist, novelist, editor, and journalist (spinal cancer, born 1874)
- February 7 â Norman Douglas, Austrian-born Scottish novelist (born 1868)
- February 13 â Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh), Scottish crime novelist (born 1896)
- February 19 â Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1859)
- March 1
- Mariano Azuela, Mexican novelist, dramatist and critic (born 1873)
- Masao Kume (ä¹Â
ç±³ æ£éÂÂ), Japanese playwright, novelist and haiku poet (born 1891)
- March 27 â Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Romanian short story writer and politician (born 1870)
- April 1 â Ferenc Molnár (Ferenc Neumann), Hungarian dramatist and novelist (born 1878)
- April 30 â Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaàâ Romanian art historian, ethnographer and journalist (born 1872)
- May 17 â Paul Bujor, Romanian politician, zoologist and short story writer (born 1862)
- May 26 â Eugene Jolas, American/French writer, literary translator and critic (born 1894)
- June 1 â John Dewey, American philosopher and psychologist (born 1859)
- July 1 â A. S. W. Rosenbach, American book collector (born 1876)
- July 8 â August Alle, Estonian writer (born 1890)
- August 9 â Jeffery Farnol, English historical novelist (born 1878)
- August 22 â H. J. Massingham, English countryside writer (born 1888)
- September 26 â George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist writing in English (born 1863)
- October 4 â Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist (born 1885)
- October 6 â Teffi (Nadezhda Alexandrovna Buchinskaya), Russian humorist (born 1872)
- November 3 â Louis Verneuil, French playwright (suicide, born 1893)
- November 4 â Gilbert Frankau, English novelist (born 1884)
- November 13 â Margaret Wise Brown, American children's author (embolism, born 1910)
- November 16 â Charles Maurras, French poet and critic (born 1868)
- November 18 â Paul ÃÂluard, French surrealist poet (heart attack, born 1895)
- November 23 â Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet (born 1893)
- December 6 â Cicely Hamilton, English dramatist and suffragist (born 1872)
Awards
References