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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1970.

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See also: 1969 in literature, other events of 1970, 1971 in literature, list of years in literature.

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Events

  • January 16 – The Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus opens with a performance of Georg Büchner's Dantons Tod.
  • March – Magdalena Mouján's story "" ("We and Ours") in Basque is suppressed by the authorities in Francoist Spain.
  • June 10 – The English novelist Anthony Burgess delivers an inflammatory lecture, "Obscenity and the Arts", at the University of Malta; its reception leads to him leaving Malta. He has begun a novel that will become Earthly Powers (1980).
  • June 17 – The première of David Storey's play Home at the Royal Court Theatre, London, is directed by Lindsay Anderson and stars Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.
  • August 21 – The Penguin Books paperback imprint is acquired by Pearson PLC, following the death of its owner Sir Allen Lane.
  • August 27 – Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company introduces a revolutionary production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Peter Brook, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
  • November 20 – The playwright Fadil Paçrami becomes Chairman of the Parliament of Albania.
  • November 25 – In Tokyo, the Japanese author and Tatenokai militia leader Yukio Mishima (, 45) and others take over the headquarters of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in an attempted coup d'état. Mishima commits seppuku (public ritual suicide) when he fails to sway the public to his right-wing politics, which include restoring the powers of the Emperor.
  • December 5 – Dario Fo premières his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist () at Varese in Italy.
  • unknown dates
  • Len Deighton's Bomber, set on June 31 [sic.] 1943, becomes the first published novel to have been written on a word processor, an IBM MT/ST.
  • The novel Deliverance by the American poet James Dickey is published; it will go on to be named among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by an editorial board of the American Modern Library.
  • An unexpurgated edition of John Cleland's Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1748–1749) appears in the U.K. without legal challenge.
  • Bohumil Hrabal's books (Home Work) and (Buds) are suppressed by the communist authorities in Czechoslovakia.

New books

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Fiction

  • Dritëro Agolli – (Commissar Memo)
  • Poul Anderson – Tau Zero
  • Abdelhamid ben Hadouga - The South Wind (novel)
  • Thomas Berger – Vital Parts
  • Thomas Bernhard – The Lime Works ()
  • Melvyn Bragg – A Place in England
  • John Braine – Stay with Me Till Morning
  • Wallace Breem – Eagle in the Snow
  • Jimmy Breslin – The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
  • Agatha Christie – Passenger to Frankfurt
  • Robertson Davies – Fifth Business
  • L. Sprague de Camp
  • The Reluctant Shaman and Other Fantastic Tales
  • Warlocks and Warriors (ed.)
  • Samuel R. Delany – The Fall of the Towers (trilogy)
  • Michel Déon – Les Poneys sauvages
  • James Dickey – Deliverance
  • Joan Didion – Play It as It Lays
  • José Donoso – The Obscene Bird of Night ()
  • Lawrence Durrell – Nunquam
  • Vincent Eri – The Crocodile
  • Nuruddin Farah – From a Crooked Rib
  • J. G. Farrell – Troubles
  • Juan Goytisolo – Count Julian ()
  • Pierre Guyotat - Eden, Eden, Eden ()
  • L. P. Hartley – My Sisters' Keeper
  • Anne Hébert – Kamouraska
  • Ernest Hemingway – Islands in the Stream
  • Susan Hill – I'm the King of the Castle
  • Pamela Hansford Johnson – The Honours Board
  • Anna Kavan – Julia and the Bazooka
  • Jaan Kross – Between Three Plagues (part 1)
  • Halldór Laxness –
  • Ira Levin – This Perfect Day
  • Mario Levrero – La ciudad
  • H. P. Lovecraft – The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions
  • Peter Lovesey – Wobble to Death
  • John D. MacDonald – The Long Lavender Look
  • Eric Malpass – Oh My Darling Daughter
  • Ngaio Marsh – When in Rome
  • Yukio Mishima () – The Decay of the Angel (, ; last in The Sea of Fertility tetralogy)
  • Brian Moore – Fergus
  • Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye
  • Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk – Harpoon of the Hunter ()
  • Larry Niven – Ringworld
  • John Jay Osborn, Jr. – The Paper Chase
  • Abel Posse –
  • Mary Renault – Fire from Heaven
  • Kurban Said – Ali and Nino
  • Erich Segal – Love Story
  • Sidney Sheldon – The Naked Face
  • Clark Ashton Smith – Other Dimensions
  • Manuel Scorza – Drums for Rancas
  • Muriel Spark – The Driver's Seat
  • Mary Stewart – The Crystal Cave
  • Alan Sillitoe – A Start in Life
  • Leon Uris – QB VII
  • Jack Vance – The Pnume
  • Gore Vidal – Two Sisters
  • Patrick White – The Vivisector
  • Venedikt Yerofeyev – Moscow-Petushki (Moscow to the End of the Line; samizdat publication)
  • Roger Zelazny – Nine Princes in Amber

Children and young people

  • Lloyd Alexander – The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian
  • Rev. W. Awdry – Duke the lost Engine (twenty-fifth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry)
  • Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull
  • Nina Bawden – The Birds on the Trees
  • Judy Blume – Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
  • John Burningham – Mr Gumpy's Outing
  • Betsy Byars – Summer of the Swans
  • John Christopher (Sam Youd) – The Guardians (science fiction)
  • Roald Dahl – Fantastic Mr Fox
  • Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen – The God Beneath the Sea
  • Judith Kerr – Mog the Forgetful Cat (first in the Mog series of 17 books)
  • Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Devils and Demons
  • Dr. Seuss – Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
  • Ruth Park
  • The Muddle-Headed Wombat in the Springtime
  • The Muddle-Headed Wombat on the River
  • Bill Peet
  • The Whingdingdilly
  • The Wump World
  • Maurice Sendak – In the Night Kitchen
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer – A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw
  • E. B. White – The Trumpet Of The Swan
  • Annette Tison and Talus Taylor - Barbapapa

Drama

  • Ama Ata Aidoo – Anowa
  • Robert Bolt – Vivat! Vivat Regina!
  • Dario Fo – Accidental Death of an Anarchist
  • Michael Frayn – The Two of Us (4 1-act plays)
  • Trevor Griffiths – Occupations
  • Christopher Hampton – The Philanthropist
  • Lorraine Hansberry – Les Blancs
  • Welcome Msomi – uMabatha
  • Terence Rattigan – A Bequest to the Nation
  • Anthony Shaffer – Sleuth
  • Alexander Vampilov – Duck Hunting (, , published; first performed 1976)
  • Derek Walcott – Dream on Monkey Mountain

Poetry

  • L. Sprague de Camp – Demons and Dinosaurs
  • Ted Hughes – Crow

Non-fiction

  • Theodor W. Adorno (posthumously) – Aesthetic Theory (Asthetische Theorie)
  • Hannah Arendt – On Violence
  • Roland Barthes – S/Z
  • Pierre Berton – The National Dream
  • Jim Bouton – Ball Four
  • Dee Brown – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
  • James MacGregor Burns – Roosevelt: The Soldier Of Freedom
  • Henri Charrière – Papillon
  • Elizabeth David – Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen
  • Edward De Bono – Lateral Thinking: creativity step by step
  • August Derleth – Thirty Years of Arkham House, 1939-1969: A History and Bibliography
  • Michel Foucault – (The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences)
  • Germaine Greer – The Female Eunuch
  • Helene Hanff – 84 Charing Cross Road
  • Arthur Janov – The Primal Scream
  • Uwe Johnson – Anniversaries. From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl (; begins publication)
  • Hal Lindsey – The Late Great Planet Earth
  • Christopher Lloyd – The Well-Tempered Garden
  • Norman Mailer – Of a Fire on the Moon
  • Dumas Malone – Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1805
  • Mahathir Mohamad – The Malay Dilemma
  • Kate Millett – Sexual Politics
  • Nancy Mitford – Frederick the Great
  • Robin Morgan (ed.) – Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement
  • Harold Perkin – The Age of the Railway
  • J. B. Priestley – The Edwardians
  • Albert Speer – Inside the Third Reich
  • Alvin Toffler – Future Shock

Births

  • January 25 – Stephen Chbosky, American novelist and screenwriter
  • February 28 – Daniel Handler, American novelist
  • March 6 – Simona Vinci, Italian fiction writer
  • March 12 – Dave Eggers, American writer, editor and publisher
  • March 20 – Michele Jaffe, American author
  • March 26 – Martin McDonagh, British-born Irish playwright
  • May 20 – Dorthe Nors, Danish fiction writer
  • May 26 – Alex Garland, English novelist
  • June 6 – Sarah Dessen, American novelist
  • July 22 – Doug Johnstone, Scottish crime fiction writer
  • August 27 - Ann Aguirre, American speculative fiction writer
  • September 10 – Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (died 2004)
  • September 16 – Nick Sagan, American novelist and screenwriter
  • October 27 – Jonathan Stroud, English fantasy writer
  • November 7 – Chris Adrian, American novelist
  • November 24 – Marlon James, Jamaican novelist
  • November 27 – Han Kang, South Korean novelist
  • December 21 – Mohamedou Ould Salahi, Mauritanian author and former Guantánamo detainee
  • unknown dates
  • Raja'a Alem, Saudi Arabian writer
  • Roberta Dapunt, Italian poet
  • Nathan Englander, American novelist and short story writer
  • Neel Mukherjee, Indian novelist
  • Faruk Šehić, Bosnian poet and fiction writer

Deaths

  • January 10 – Charles Olson, American modernist poet (liver cancer, born 1910)
  • January 29 – B. H. Liddell Hart, English military historian (born 1895)
  • February 2 – Bertrand Russell, English philosopher (born 1872)
  • February 4 – Louise Bogan, American poet (born 1897)
  • February 20 – Sophie Treadwell, American dramatist and journalist (born 1885)
  • February 21 – Johannes Semper, Estonian writer, translator and politician (born 1892)
  • March 11 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American writer (born 1889)
  • March 15 – Arthur Adamov, Russian-French playwright (born 1908)
  • March 21 – Marlen Haushofer, Austrian novelist (born 1920)
  • March 29 – Vera Brittain, English novelist, memoirist and poet (born 1893)
  • April 11 – John O'Hara, American novelist (cardiovascular disease, born 1905)
  • May 7 – Jack Jones, Welsh novelist (born 1884)
  • May 12 – Nelly Sachs, Jewish German poet and dramatist (born 1891)
  • June 2 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian modernist poet and writer (born 1888)
  • June 3 – Ruth Sawyer, American children's writer and novelist (born 1880)
  • June 7 – E. M. Forster, English novelist (born 1879)
  • June 16 – Elsa Triolet, French novelist (born 1896)
  • July 7 – Allen Lane, English publisher (born 1902)
  • July 15 – Eric Berne, Canadian-born psychiatrist and author (heart attack, born 1910)
  • September 1 – François Mauriac, French novelist (born 1885)
  • September 25 – Erich Maria Remarque, German novelist (All Quiet On The Western Front) (born 1898)
  • September 28 – John Dos Passos, American novelist (born 1896)
  • October 18 – Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Irish language writer (born 1906)
  • November 23 – Alf Prøysen, Norwegian author, musician and children's writer (born 1914)
  • November 25 – Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫), Japanese author (seppuku, born 1925)
  • unknown date – Racey Helps, English children's author and illustrator (born 1913)

Awards

  • Nobel Prize for Literature: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Canada

  • See 1970 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France

  • Prix Goncourt: Michel Tournier, Le Roi des Aulnes
  • Prix Médicis French: Camille Bourniquel, Sélinonte ou la Chambre impériale
  • Prix Médicis International: Luigi Malerba, Saut de la mort

United Kingdom

  • Booker Prize: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
  • Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
  • Cholmondeley Award: Kathleen Raine, Douglas Livingstone, Edward Brathwaite
  • Eric Gregory Award: Helen Frye, Paul Mills, John Mole, Brian Morse, Alan Perry, Richard Tibbitts
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Lily Powell, The Bird of Paradise
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Jasper Ridley, Lord Palmerston
  • Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Roy Fuller

United States

  • Hugo Award:
  • Best Novella: Fritz Leiber, Ship of Shadows
  • Best Novella: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
  • Nebula Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
  • Newbery Medal for children's literature: William H. Armstrong, Sounder
  • Pulitzer Prize:
  • Drama: Charles Gordone, No Place To Be Somebody
  • Fiction: Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
  • Poetry: Richard Howard, Untitled Subjects

Elsewhere

  • Alfaguara Prize: Carlos Droguett, Todas esas muertes
  • Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal (together)
  • Miles Franklin Award: Dal Stivens, A Horse of Air
  • Premio Nadal: Jesús Fernández Santos, Libro de las memorias de las cosas
  • Viareggio Prize: Nello Saito, Dentro e fuori

Notes

References

  • Popular Books of 1970 at Goodreads