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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1938.

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Events

  • January
  • The John Dos Passos trilogy U.S.A. is published, containing his novels The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936).
  • Samuel Beckett is stabbed in the chest in Paris and nearly killed.
  • February 21 – The gay American writer and composer Paul Bowles marries the lesbian American writer Jane Auer at a Reformed Church in Manhattan.
  • March 7 – Samuel Beckett's first completed novel Murphy is published in London.
  • July 11 – The first live drama adaptation in Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air series on CBS Radio in the United States is broadcast: Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  • August – Muslims protest in London against passages they see as disrespectful to their religion in H. G. Wells' A Short History of the World (1922).
  • September 13 – The first production in Britain of a play by Bertolt Brecht, Mrs Carrar's Rifles, opens at the Unity Theatre, London.
  • October 30 – Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds (with script by Howard Koch) is broadcast in The Mercury Theatre on the Air series.
  • December 24 – Jorge Luis Borges is injured in an accident and develops blood poisoning. While recovering the following year he will write the first short story in his later characteristic style.
  • Uncertain dates
  • The first complete performance of both parts of Goethe's Faust (1808/32) is given at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.
  • The avant-garde musician and theoretician Pierre Schaeffer begins his writing career as an essayist for a number of French musical journals.

New books

Fiction

  • Margery Allingham – The Fashion in Shrouds
  • Eric Ambler
  • Cause for Alarm
  • Epitaph for a Spy
  • Vladimir Bartol – Alamut
  • Anthony Berkeley – Not to Be Taken
  • Elizabeth Bowen – The Death of the Heart
  • Dorothy Bowers – Postscript to Poison
  • Lynn Brock – The Silver Sickle Case
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan and the Forbidden City
  • Taylor Caldwell – Dynasty of Death
  • Victor Canning – Mr. Finchley Goes to Paris
  • John Dickson Carr
  • The Four False Weapons, Being the Return of Bencolin
  • To Wake the Dead
  • The Crooked Hinge
  • The Judas Window (as Carter Dickson)
  • Death in Five Boxes (as Carter Dickson)
  • Peter Cheyney
  • Can Ladies Kill?
  • The Urgent Hangman
  • Agatha Christie
  • Hercule Poirot's Christmas
  • Appointment with Death
  • Albert Cohen – Nailcruncher
  • Freeman Wills Crofts
  • Antidote to Venom
  • The End of Andrew Harrison
  • J.J. Connington
  • For Murder Will Speak
  • Truth Comes Limping
  • René Daumal – A Night of Serious Drinking (La Grande Beuverie)
  • Cecil Day-Lewis – The Beast Must Die
  • John Dos Passos – The Big Money (completing the U.S.A. trilogy)
  • Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca
  • Lawrence Durrell – The Black Book
  • Mircea Eliade – Marriage in Heaven (Nuntă în cer)
  • William Faulkner – The Unvanquished
  • Rachel Field – All This and Heaven Too
  • C. S. Forester
  • A Ship of the Line
  • Flying Colours
  • Anthony Gilbert – Treason in My Breast
  • Julien Gracq – The Castle of Argol (Au château d'Argol)
  • Robert Graves – Count Belisarius
  • Graham Greene – Brighton Rock
  • Walter Greenwood
  • Only Mugs Work
  • The Secret Kingdom
  • Cyril Hare – Death Is No Sportsman
  • Xavier Herbert – Capricornia
  • Robin Hyde – The Godwits Fly (semi-autobiographical)
  • Michael Innes – Lament for a Maker
  • Margaret Kennedy – The Midas Touch
  • Alan Kennington – She Died Young
  • Emilio Lussu – Un anno sull'altopiano
  • C. S. Lewis – Out of the Silent Planet
  • Norman Lindsay – Age of Consent
  • Ngaio Marsh
  • Artists in Crime
  • Death in a White Tie
  • Gladys Mitchell – St Peter's Finger
  • Vladimir Nabokov
  • The Gift (Дар)
  • Invitation to a Beheading (Приглашение на казнь; serialization concludes)
  • E. Phillips Oppenheim – The Colossus of Arcadia
  • Kate O'Brien – Pray for the Wanderer
  • John O'Hara – Hope of Heaven
  • Ellery Queen
  • The Devil to Pay
  • The Four of Hearts
  • Graciliano Ramos – Vidas Secas (Barren Lives)
  • Ayn Rand – Anthem
  • Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – The Yearling
  • Clayton Rawson – Death from a Top Hat
  • Joseph Roth – The Emperor's Tomb
  • Jean-Paul Sartre – Nausea (La Nausée)
  • Georges Simenon
  • The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By
  • Marie of the Port
  • Esphyr Slobodkina – Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business
  • Eleanor Smith – The Spanish House
  • Howard Spring – My Son, My Son
  • John Steinbeck – The Long Valley
  • Rex Stout – Too Many Cooks
  • Cecil Street
  • The Bloody Tower
  • Death at Low Tide
  • Invisible Weapons
  • Kressmann Taylor – Address Unknown (short story)
  • Phoebe Atwood Taylor
  • The Annulet of Gilt
  • Banbury Bog
  • The Cut Direct (as by Alice Tilton)
  • Murder at the New York World's Fair (as by Freeman Dana)
  • B. Traven – The Bridge in the Jungle
  • S. S. Van Dine – The Gracie Allen Murder Case
  • – Na krásné samotě
  • Henry Wade – Released for Death
  • Winifred Watson – Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
  • Evelyn Waugh – Scoop
  • Ethel Lina White – Step in the Dark
  • T. H. White – The Sword in the Stone
  • Gale Wilhelm – Torchlight to Valhalla
  • Francis Brett Young – Dr. Bradley Remembers

Children and young people

  • BB (Denys Watkins-Pitchford) – Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox
  • Claire Huchet Bishop – The Five Chinese Brothers
  • Enid Blyton – The Secret Island
  • Eleanor Graham – The Children Who Lived in a Barn
  • Joan Kahn – "Ladies and Gentlemen," said the Ringmaster
  • Eric Knight – Lassie Come-Home
  • Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – The Yearling
  • Kate Seredy – The White Stag
  • Noel Streatfeild – The Circus Is Coming
  • T. H. White – The Sword in the Stone
  • John F. C. Westerman – John Wentley Takes Charge (first in the John Wentley trilogy)
  • Ursula Moray Williams – Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse

Drama

<onlyinclude>

  • Jean Anouilh – Thieves' Carnival (Le Bal des Voleurs)
  • Robert Ardrey – Casey Jones
  • Max Catto – They Walk Alone
  • Paul Claudel – L'Histoire de Tobie et de Sara (The History of Tobit and Sara, first version)
  • M. J. Farrell – Spring Meeting
  • Patrick Hamilton – Gaslight
  • H.M. Harwood – The Innocent Party
  • Esther McCracken – Quiet Wedding
  • Kaj Munk – Han sidder ved Smeltediglen (He sits by the melting pot)
  • Michael Pertwee – Death on the Table
  • J. B. Priestley – When We Are Married
  • Gordon Sherry – The Bare Idea
  • Robert E. Sherwood – Abe Lincoln in Illinois
  • Dodie Smith – Dear Octopus
  • Stephen Spender – Trial of a Judge
  • Lesley Storm – Tony Draws a Horse
  • Arnold Sundgaard
  • Spirochete: A History
  • with Marc Connelly – Everywhere I Roam
  • Rodolfo Usigli – El gesticulador
  • Theodore Ward – Big White Fog
  • Thornton Wilder – Our Town
  • Emlyn Williams – The Corn is Green
  • Tennessee Williams – Not About Nightingales (written; first performed 1998)
  • W. B. Yeats – Purgatory</onlyinclude>

Poetry

  • Alfred Kreymborg – The Planets: A Modern Allegory (radio play in verse)
  • Mary Pettibone Poole – A Glass Eye at a Keyhole

Non-fiction

  • Crane Brinton – The Anatomy of Revolution
  • Hall Caine (died 1931) – Life of Christ
  • Cyril Connolly – Enemies of Promise
  • Geoffrey Faber – The Romance of a Bookshop 1904–1938
  • Robert Newton Flew – Jesus and His Church. A study of the idea of the Ecclesia in the New Testament
  • Edgar Innes Fripp (died 1931) – Shakespeare, Man and Artist
  • Elie Halévy – The Era of Tyrannies
  • Johan Huizinga – Homo Ludens
  • Agnes Hunt – This Is My Life (autobiography of pioneer orthopedic nurse)
  • C. L. R. James – The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
  • Claude Scudamore Jarvis – Desert and Delta. An account of modern Egypt
  • Jomo Kenyatta – Facing Mount Kenya
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh – Listen! The Wind
  • Robert McAlmon – Being Geniuses Together, 1920–1930
  • Thomas Mann – The Coming Victory of Democracy
  • George Orwell – Homage to Catalonia
  • Nichita Smochină – Republica Moldovenească a Sovietelor (The Moldavian Republic of Soviets)
  • Derek A. Traversi – An Approach to Shakespeare
  • H. G. Wells – World Brain
  • Virginia Woolf – Three Guineas

Births

  • January 2 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian short story writer (died 2023)
  • January 5 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (also known as James Ngigi), Kenyan novelist (died 2025)
  • January 6 – Mario Rodríguez Cobos ("Silo"), Argentine author and spiritualist (died 2010)
  • January 13 – Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Indian novelist, children's author and poet (died 2019)
  • January 20 – Liz Calder, English publisher and editor
  • February 7 – Andrea Newman, English novelist and screenwriter (died 2019)
  • February 9 – Jovette Marchessault, French Canadian writer and artist (died 2012)
  • February 12
  • Judy Blume, American children's author
  • Tor Obrestad, Norwegian novelist, poet and documentary writer (died 2020)
  • February 22 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, essayist and novelist
  • March 1 – Michael Kurland, American author of sci-fi and detective fiction
  • March 14 – Eleanor Bron, English humorous writer and actress
  • March 24 – Ian Hamilton, English critic, biographer and poet (died 2001)
  • March 27 – Hansjörg Schneider, Swiss novelist (died 2016)
  • April 20 – Chiung Yao, Taiwanese romance novelist (died 2024)
  • April 25 – John Nagenda, Ugandan writer and sportsman (died 2023)
  • April 30 – Larry Niven, American sci-fi author
  • May 13 – Norma Klein, American author (died 1989)
  • May 15 – Nancy Garden, American author (died 2014)
  • May 16 – Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian literature critic, television host and sexologist (died 2018)
  • May 25
  • Raymond Carver, American short-story writer and poet (died 1988)
  • Margaret Forster, English novelist and biographer (died 2016)
  • May 26 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian novelist and playwright
  • June 5
  • Allan Ahlberg, English children's author (died 2025)
  • M. K. Wren (Martha Kay Renfroe), American novelist (died 2016)
  • June 16 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist
  • June 24 – Lawrence Block, American crime fiction writer
  • June 26 – Maria Velho da Costa, Portuguese writer (died 2020)
  • July 15 – Josephine Cox, English novelist (died 2020)
  • July 19
  • Nicholas Bethell, English historian and politician (died 2007)
  • Dom Moraes, Indian poet and columnist (died 2004)
  • Tom Raworth, English poet (died 2017)
  • Mary-Kay Wilmers, American-born editor
  • July 28 – Robert Hughes, Australian critic and historian (died 2012)
  • August 15 – Janusz Zajdel, Polish writer (died 1985)
  • August 21 – Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Australian novelist (died 2019)
  • August 25 – Frederick Forsyth, English thriller writer (died 2025)
  • August 30 – Dorota Terakowska, Polish writer and journalist, author of fantasy books for children and young adults (died 2004)
  • September 3 – Caryl Churchill, English dramatist
  • September 12 – Richard Booth, Welsh bookseller (died 2019)
  • September 15 – Charles L. Mee, American dramatist
  • September 18 – Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer (died 2007)
  • September 19 – Keorapetse Kgositsile, South African Poet Laureate (died 2018)
  • October 12 – Anne Perry (Juliet Marion Hulme), English historical novelist (died 2023)
  • October 13 – Hugo Young, English journalist (died 2003)
  • October 16 – Allan Massie, Singapore-born Scottish writer (died 2026)
  • October 17 – Les Murray, Australian poet (died 2019)
  • November 3 – Terrence McNally, American playwright (died 2020)
  • November 4 – Daniel Snowman, English non-fiction writer and historian
  • December 14 – Leonardo Boff (Genézio Darci Boff), Brazilian philosopher and theologian
  • December 21 – Frank Moorhouse, Australian journalist, author and screenwriter (died 2022)
  • December 31 – Basudeb Dasgupta, Bengali novelist (died 2005)
  • unknown date – Gabriel Ruhumbika, Tanzanian novelist

Deaths

  • January 4 – Paola Drigo, Italian writer (born 1876)
  • January 16 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (Sarat Chandra Chattergee), Bengali novelist (born 1876)
  • January 19 – Branislav Nušić, Serbian novelist and dramatist (born 1864)
  • January 29 – Armando Palacio Valdés, Spanish novelist and critic (born 1853)
  • February 13 – Momčilo Nastasijević, Serbian poet, novelist and dramatist (born 1894)
  • March 6 – Eva Allen Alberti, American dramatics teacher (born 1856)
  • March 27 – Helen M. Winslow, American editor, author and publisher (born 1851)
  • March 31 – Willem Kloos, Dutch poet and critic (born 1859)
  • April 19 – Sir Henry Newbolt, English poet (born 1862)
  • April 21 – Lady Ottoline Morrell, English literary hostess (born 1873)
  • May 26 – James Forbes, Canadian American dramatist and screenwriter (born 1871)
  • June 9 – Ovid Densusianu, Romanian poet, philologist and literary historian (born 1873)
  • June 26
  • James Weldon Johnson, American politician, poet and activist (born 1871)
  • E. V. Lucas, English essayist and biographer (born 1868)
  • July 21 – Owen Wister, American Western fiction writer and historian (born 1860)
  • August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre director (born 1863)
  • August 26 – Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Albanian poet and writer (tuberculosis, born 1911)
  • September 15 – Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (tuberculosis, born 1900)
  • October 3 – Olivia Shakespear, British novelist, playwright and patron of the arts (born 1863)
  • October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and literary critic (born 1881)
  • December 13 – Virginia Frazer Boyle, American author and poet (born 1863)
  • December 23 – Robert Herrick, American realist novelist (born 1868)
  • December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech science fiction author and dramatist (pneumonia, born 1890)
  • December 27 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet and essayist (in detention, born 1891)

Awards

  • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Noel Streatfeild, The Circus Is Coming
  • Hawthornden Prize – David Jones, In Parenthesis
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: C. S. Forester, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Sir Edmund Chambers, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • Newbery Medal for children's literature: Kate Seredy, The White Stag
  • Newdigate prize: Michael Thwaites
  • Nobel Prize in Literature: Pearl S. Buck
  • Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Thornton Wilder, Our Town
  • Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marya Zaturenska, Cold Morning Sky
  • Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Phillips Marquand, The Late George Apley

References

  • Popular Books of 1938 at Goodreads