1976 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1976.

Events

June 21 – The Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, is opened as a multiracial venue by Barney Simon.
September 3 – Novelist Antonio di Benedetto is released from prison after 18 months of imprisonment and torture under the National Reorganization Process (military dictatorship) in Argentina.
September 9 – The Royal Shakespeare Company starts a noted production of Shakespeare's Macbeth at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the leading roles, directed by Trevor Nunn.
October 25 – The Royal National Theatre on London's South Bank opens in premises designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, with a performance of Goldoni's 18th-century comedy Il Campiello.
unknown dates
Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers is established in new premises at Nanterre.
Mary Ronnie became the world's first female national librarian, at the National Library of New Zealand.

New books

Fiction

Brian Aldiss – The Malacia Tapestry
Kingsley Amis – The Alteration
Isaac Asimov – The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
Margaret Atwood – Lady Oracle
Elliott Baker – Klynt's Law
Nina Bawden – Afternoon of a Good Woman
Martin Bax – The Hospital Ship.
Ann Beattie – Chilly Scenes of Winter
Peter Benchley – The Deep
Jack M. Bickham – Twister
Michael Bishop – And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees
John Blackburn – The Face of the Lion
Lady Caroline Blackwood – The Stepdaughter
Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac – La lèpre
Ben Bova
City of Darkness
The Multiple Man
Ray Bradbury – Long After Midnight
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Drums of Darkness
The Shattered Chain (tenth in the Darkover series)
John Braine – Waiting for Sheila
William F. Buckley – Saving the Queen (the first Blackford Oakes thriller)
Eleanor Alice Burford
The Passionate Enemies (writing as Jean Plaidy)
The Plantagenet Prelude (writing as Jean Plaidy)
The Pride of the Peacock (writing as Victoria Holt)
Saraband for Two Sisters (writing as Philippa Carr)
Anthony Burgess – Beard's Roman Women
Taylor Caldwell – Ceremony of the Innocent
Ramsey Campbell – The Height of the Scream
Rosemary Carter
Forests of the Dragon
Man of the Wild
Jack L. Chalker – A Jungle of Stars
Vera Chapman – The King's Damosel
James Hadley Chase – Do Me a Favour, Drop Dead
C. J. Cherryh
Brothers of Earth (first in the Hanan Rebellion duology)
Gate of Ivrel (first in The Morgaine Cycle)
Agatha Christie – Sleeping Murder
Arthur C. Clarke (edited by Angus Wells) – The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937 – 1955
Jon Cleary – A Sound of Lightning
Theodore R. Cogswell (co-writing with Charles A. Spano, Jr.) – Spock, Messiah!
Michael Collins – The Blood-Red Dream
Catherine Cookson
The Slow Awakening (writing as Catherine Merchant)
The Tide of Life
Michael Crichton – Eaters of the Dead
Clive Cussler – Raise the Titanic!
Lionel Davidson – The Sun Chemist
Dorothy Salisbury Davis – A Death in the Life
Len Deighton – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy
Samuel R. Delany – Triton
Colin Dexter – Last Seen Wearing (second in the Inspector Morse series)
Philip K. Dick (co-written with Roger Zelazny) – Deus Irae
Peter Dickinson – King and Joker
Gordon R. Dickson – The Dragon and the George
Jane Donnelly
Dark Pursuer
The Intruder
The Silver Cage
Rosalyn Drexler (written as Julia Sorel)
Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (TV film novelization)
Rocky (film novelization)
Michel Droit – La Mort du connétable
Allen Drury – A God Against the Gods
Lois Duncan – Summer of Fear
Allan W. Eckert – The HAB Theory
Clive Egleton – State Visit
Charles Einstein – The Blackjack Hijack
Buchi Emecheta – The Bride Price
Marian Engel – Bear
Paul Erdman – The Crash of '79
John Farris – The Fury
Dick Francis – In the Frame
Brian Freemantle – The November Man
Alan Dean Foster (ghostwritten as George Lucas) – Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
Paula Fox – The Widow's Children
Dick Francis – In the Frame
Christopher Frank – The Dream of the Mad Monkey (Le Rêve du singe fou)
Morton Freedgood (written as John Godey) – The Talisman
John Gardner
Moriarty
To Run a Little Faster
Brian Garfield – Gundown
Hugh Garner – The Intruders
Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar) – Hocus Bogus (Pseudo)
Noel Gerson
Neptune
Special Agent
William Goldman – Magic
Richard Gordon – Doctor on the Job (fourteenth in the Doctor series)
Winston Graham – The Four Swans (sixth in the Poldark series)
Gerald Green – The Hostage Heart
Peter Van Greenaway – Suffer! Little Children
Sam Greenlee – Baghdad Blues
Judith Guest – Ordinary People
Joe Haldeman – Mindbridge
Alex Haley – Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Donald Hamilton – The Retaliators (seventeenth in the Matt Helm series)
Harry Harrison – Skyfall
Sterling Hayden – Voyage: A Novel of 1896
Marcy Heidish – A Woman Called Moses
Frank Herbert – Children of Dune
James Herbert – The Survivor
James Herriot – Vets Might Fly (fifth in the James Herriot series)
George V. Higgins – The Judgment of Deke Hunter
Jack Higgins – Storm Warning
Reginald Hill – Another Death in Venice
Helen Hodgman – Blue Skies
Robert Holdstock
Eye Among the Blind
The Graveyard Cross
Magic Man
On the Inside
The Time Beyond Age
Travellers
Cecelia Holland
Floating Worlds
Velda Johnston
Deveron Hall
The Frenchman
Gayl Jones – Eva's Man
Thomas Keneally – Season in Purgatory
Warren Kiefer – The Pontius Pilate Papers
Dean Koontz
Prison of Ice (writing as David Axton)
Night Chills
William Kotzwinkle – Doctor Rat
Michael Kurland – Tomorrow Knight
Derek Lambert (writing as Richard Falkirk) – Blackstone Underground (fifth in the Blackstone series)
Louis L'Amour
The Rider of Lost Creek
To the Far Blue Mountains
Where the Long Grass Blows
Ursula K. Le Guin – Orsinian Tales
Elsie Lee
The Nabob's Widow
Roommates
John Lee – The Ninth Man
Tanith Lee – Don't Bite the Sun
Stanisław Lem – The Chain of Chance
Elmore Leonard – Swag
Rhoda Lerman – The Girl That He Marries
Ira Levin – The Boys from Brazil
Roger Longrigg – The Babe in the Wood
Robert Ludlum – The Gemini Contenders
Richard A. Lupoff
The Crack in the Sky
Lisa Kane
Sandworld
The Triune Man
Ross Macdonald – The Blue Hammer (eighteenth and final novel in the Lew Archer series)
Alistair MacLean – The Golden Gate
George R. R. Martin – A Song for Lya
Eugene McCabe – Victims: A Tale from Fermanagh
Helen McCloy – The Changeling Conspiracy
Barbara Mertz
Legend in Green Velvet (writing as Elizabeth Peters)
Patriot's Dream (writing as Barbara Michaels)
Nicholas Meyer – The West End Horror
James Mills – The Seventh Power
Thomas F. Monteleone – The Time Connection
Robin Moore
Dubai
The Establishment (co-written with Harold Shumate)
Hotel Tomayne
The Kaufman Snatch
The Pearl Harbor Cover-Up (co-written with Frank Schuler)
The Season (co-written with Patricia Hornung)
The Terminal Connection
Valency Girl (co-written with Susan Deitz)
Michael Moorcock
The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the 20th Century
The End of All Songs
Moorcock's Book of Martyrs
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Time of the Hawklords (co-writing as with Michael Butterworth)
Ryū Murakami – Almost Transparent Blue
Fănuș Neagu – Frumoșii nebuni ai marilor orașe ("Those Beautiful Lunatics of the Great Cities")
Christopher Nicole
Dark Passage (writing as Andrew York)
Mistress of Darkness
Guillotine (writing as Mark Logan)
Tricolour (writing as Mark Logan)
Larry Niven
The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton
A World Out of Time
Frederick Nolan – The Mittenwald Syndicate
Andrew J. Offutt
Beautiful Bitch (writing as John Cleve)
Chieftain of Andor
Disciplined! (writing as Jeff Morehead)
The Erogenous Zone (writing as John Cleve)
Succulent Line-Up (writing as John Cleve)
Serena, Darling (writing as John Cleve)
The Submission of Claudine (writing as Turk Winter)
Triple Play! (writing as Jeff Morehead)
The Undying Wizard (second volume in the Cormac Mac Art continuation series
T. V. Olsen
Day of the Buzzard
Westward They Rode
Robert B. Parker – Promised Land
James Patterson – The Thomas Berryman Number
Gary Paulsen
The Death Specialists
The Implosion Effect
Samuel Anthony Peeples – The Man Who Died Twice
Doris Piserchia – A Billion Days of Earth
Denis Pitts – The Predator
Dudley Pope – Ramage's Diamond (seventh in the Ramage series)
Timothy Powers – The Skies Discrowned
Terry Pratchett – The Dark Side of the Sun
Richard Price – Bloodbrothers
Christopher Priest – The Space Machine
Bill Pronzini
Freebooty (writing as Jack Foxx)
Games
The Running of Beasts (with Barry N. Malzberg)
Manuel Puig – Kiss of the Spider Woman
Simon Raven – The Survivors
Piers Paul Read – Polonaise
Ishmael Reed – Flight to Canada
Douglas Reeman
Passage to Mutiny (ninth in the Richard Bolitho series, writing as Alexander Kent)
Surface with Daring
Ruth Rendell
A Demon in My View
The Fallen Curtain
Anne Rice – Interview with the Vampire
Harold Robbins – The Lonely Lady
Tom Robbins – Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Rosemary Rogers – Wicked Loving Lies
William Rotsler (written as John Ryder Hall) – Futureworld (film novelization)
Lawrence Sanders
The Tangent Factor
The Tangent Objective
Pamela Sargent – Cloned Lives
Elizabeth Savage – The Girls from the Five Great Valleys
Hubert Selby Jr. – The Demon
David Seltzer – The Omen (film novelization)
Tom Sharpe – Wilt
Bob Shaw
Cosmic Kaleidoscope
A Wreath of Stars
Sidney Sheldon – A Stranger in the Mirror
Anne Rivers Siddons – Heartbreak Hotel
Alan Sillitoe – The Widower's Son
Robert Silverberg – Shadrach in the Furnace
Clifford D. Simak – Shakespeare's Planet
George Frederick Sims – The End of the Web
Upton Sinclair (died 1968) – The Coal War
Carolyn Slaughter – The Story of the Weasel
Guy N. Smith
The Ghoul (film novelization)
Night of the Crabs (first in the Crabs series)
Return of the Werewolf (second in the Werewolf by Moonlight series)
Wilbur Smith – Cry Wolf
Jerry Sohl
Blow-Dry (writing by Nathan Butler)
I, Aleppo
Muriel Spark – The Takeover
Judith St. George – The Secret in the Old House
Brian Stableford
The Face of Heaven (first in The Realms of Tartarus trilogy)
The Florians (first in the Daedalus Mission series)
The Mind-Riders
Christina Stead – Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife)
John Steinbeck – The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Fred Mustard Stewart – Six Weeks
Mary Stewart – Touch Not the Cat
David Storey – Saville
Jacqueline Susann – Dolores
Rosemary Sutcliff – Blood Feud
Douglas Sutherland – Strike!
Bernard Taylor – The Godsend
Elizabeth Taylor (died 1975) – Blaming
Mildred D. Taylor – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Emma Tennant – Hotel de Dream
Paul Theroux – The Family Arsenal
Craig Thomas – Rat Trap
Arthur Tofte – The Day the Earth Stood Still (film novelization)
Glen Tomasetti – Thoroughly Decent People: An Australian Folktale
Elleston Trevor (writing as Adam Hall) – The Kobra Manifesto (seventh in the Quiller series)
William Trevor – The Children of Dynmouth
Leon Uris – Trinity
Jack Vance – Maske: Thaery
Gore Vidal – 1876
Kurt Vonnegut – Slapstick
Frank Waldman – The Pink Panther Strikes Again (film novelization)
Alice Walker – Meridian
Irving Wallace – The R Document
Ian Watson – Orgasmachine
Alec Waugh – Married to a Spy
Angus Wells
The Burning Man (written as Andrew Quiller)
Death Wears Grey (written as Andrew Quiller)
The Golden Dead (written as Andrew Quiller)
The Land of Mist (written as Andrew Quiller)
The Return of a Man Called Horse (film novelization)
Vengeance Hunt (written as Andrew Quiller)
Morris West – The Navigator
Donald E. Westlake – Dancing Aztecs
Lionel White – Jailbreak
Patrick White – A Fringe of Leaves
Christopher Wood
The Further Adventures of Barry Lyndon by Himself
Seven Nights in Japan (written as John Drew) (film novelization)
Richard Woodley – The Bad News Bears (film novelization)
Colin Wilson – The Space Vampires
Gene Wolfe – The Devil in a Forest
Roger Zelazny
Bridge of Ashes
Doorways in the Sand
The Hand of Oberon (fourth in The Chronicles of Amber series)
My Name Is Legion

Children and young people

Raymond Abrashkin (with Jay Williams) – Danny Dunn Scientific Detective (fourteenth in the Danny Dunn series)
Richard Adams – The Tyger Voyage
Lynne Reid Banks
The Adventures of King Midas
The Farthest-Away Mountain
Marc Brown – Arthur's Nose (first in the Arthur Read series)
Mary Virginia Carey – The Mystery of Death Trap Mine (24th in the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series)
Betty Cavanna – Mystery of the Emerald Buddha
Michael Collins (as William Arden) – The Mystery of the Dancing Devil (25th in the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series)
Helen Cresswell – The Winter of the Birds
Vic Crume – The Shaggy D.A. (film novelization)
Peter Dickinson (illustrated by David Smee) – The Blue Hawk
Jack Gantos – Rotten Ralph (first in the Rotten Ralph series)
Roger Hargreaves (Mr. Men)
Mr. Bounce
Mr. Chatterbox
Mr. Dizzy
Mr. Impossible
Mr. Jelly
Mr. Funny
Mr. Fussy
Mr. Lazy
Mr. Mean
Mr. Muddle
Mr. Noisy
Janet Quin-Harkin (illustrated by Anita Lobel) – Peter Penny's Dance
Marguerite Henry (illustrated by Wesley Dennis) – A Pictorial Life Story of Misty
Diana Wynne Jones – Power of Three
Judith Kerr – Mog's Christmas (second in the Mog series)
Alexander Key – Jagger, the Dog from Elsewhere
E. L. Konigsburg – Father's Arcane Daughter
Richard Peck – Are You in the House Alone?
Florence Engel Randall – A Watcher in the Woods
William Rawls – Summer of the Monkeys
Maurice Sendak (co-writing with Matthew Margolis) – Some Swell Pup or Are You Sure You Want a Dog?
William Steig
Abel's Island
The Amazing Bone
Dr. Seuss
The Cat's Quizzer
Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him! (writing as Theo. LeSieg)
Ruth Plumly Thompson (illustrated by Dick Martin) – The Enchanted Island of Oz
Eve Titus – Basil in Mexico (fourth in the Basil of Baker Street series)
Gertrude Chandler Warner – Benny Uncovers a Mystery (19th in the Boxcar Children series)
Robert Westall – The Wind Eye
Paul Zindel – Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball!

Drama

Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Mugo – The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
Neil Simon – California Suite

Non-fiction

Bruce Bahrenburg – The Creation of Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong
James Herbert Brennan – An Occult History of the World
Lothar-Günther Buchheim – U-Boot-Krieg
Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene
Leonard Gribble
Famous Mysteries of Detection
Famous Mysteries of Modern Times
Tony Hillerman (editor) – The Spell of New Mexico
Christopher Keane – The Hunter
Arthur Koestler – The Thirteenth Tribe
Ron Kovic – Born on the Fourth of July
Daniel P. Mannix – We Who Are Not as Others
James A. Michener – Sports in America
Arthur Ransome (died 1967) – The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome (edited by Rupert Hart-Davis)
Teddy Stauffer – Forever is a Hell of a Long Time: An Autobiography
William Stevenson – A Man Called Intrepid
Bob Woodward (with Carl Bernstein) – The Final Days

Births

August 29 - Mieko Kawakami, Japanese novelist and poet
October 31 – Seth Abramson, American journalist and poet
unknown dates
Bora Chung, Korean short story writer and novelist

Deaths

January 12 – Agatha Christie, English crime writer (born 1890)
January 25 – Victor Ehrenberg, German historian (born 1891)
February 2 – Barbara Euphan Todd, English children's writer (born 1890)
February 12 – John Lewis, Welsh philosopher (born 1889)
March 5 – Charles Lederer, American screenwriter and film director (born 1910)
March 7 – Tove Ditlevsen, Danish poet and fiction writer (suicide, born 1917)
March 13 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist (born 1903)
April 2 – Taos Amrouche, Algerian novelist (born 1913)
April 28 – Richard Hughes, British novelist (born 1900)
May 7 – Alison Uttley, English writer of children's books (born 1884)
July 3 – Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Austrian poet, dramatist and fiction writer (born 1897)
July 15 – Paul Gallico, American novelist, short story and sports writer (born 1897)
August 9 – José Lezama Lima, Cuban writer and poet (born [1910)
August 29 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet (born 1899)
September 10 – Dalton Trumbo, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1905)
October 30 – Barbu Solacolu, Romanian poet, translator and economist (born 1897)
November 4 – Robert Speaight, English actor, biographer and essayist (born 1904)
November 6 – Patrick Dennis, American novelist (pancreatic cancer, born 1921)
November 23 – André Malraux, French novelist (born 1901)
December 21 – Munro Leaf, American children's author (born 1905)
December 22 – Martín Luis Guzmán, Mexican novelist and journalist (born 1887)
December 26 – Yashpal, Hindi novelist (born 1903)
December 29 – G. B. Edwards, Guernsey-born writer (born 1899)