1970 in literature

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

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

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: 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 for Drama: Charles Gordone, No Place To Be Somebody
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Jean Stafford, Collected Stories
• Pulitzer Prize for 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