1977 in literature

The year 1977 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• February 20 - An episode of Doctor on the Go, co-written by Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman, marks the beginning of Adams' career writing for BBC radio.
• July 11 - The English magazine Gay News is found guilty of blasphemous libel for publishing a homoerotic poem, "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name" by James Kirkup. The case (Whitehouse v. Lemon) was brought on behalf of Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association at the Old Bailey in London. This is the first time a prosecution for this offence has been brought since 1921; as of 2013, it was still the last.^[1]
• Fall - Philosophy and Literature, an academic journal that explores the connections between literary and philosophical studies by presenting ideas on the aesthetics of literature, critical theory, and the philosophical interpretation of literature, is founded at Johns Hopkins University.
• V. S. Naipaul declines the offer of a CBE.
• Christopher Tolkien, with Guy Gavriel Kay, completes and publishes his late father's work, The Silmarillion.

New books

• Richard Adams – The Plague Dogs
• Jorge Amado – Tieta do Agreste
• Jay Anson – The Amityville Horror
• Margaret Atwood – Dancing Girls
• Richard Bach – Illusions
• Richard Bachman – Rage
• Gerd Brantenberg – Egalia's Daughters or The Daughters of Egalia
• Terry Brooks – The Sword of Shannara
• Andrés Caicedo – ¡Que viva la música! ("Let Music Live!")
• J. M. Coetzee – In the Heart of the Country
• Robin Cook – Coma
• Robert Coover – The Public Burning
• Basil Copper – And Afterward, the Dark
• L. Sprague de Camp
  • The Hostage of Zir
  • The Queen of Zamba
• L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – Conan of Aquilonia
• Michel Déon – The Foundling's War
• Philip K. Dick – A Scanner Darkly
• Joan Didion – A Book of Common Prayer
• Buchi Emecheta – The Slave Girl
• Howard Fast - The Immigrants
• Timothy Findley – The Wars
• Leon Forrest – The Bloodworth Orphans
• John Fowles – Daniel Martin
• Marilyn French – The Women's Room
• Pauline Gedge – Child of the Morning
• Günter Grass – The Flounder
• Mark Helprin – Refiner's Fire
• Shirley Hughes – Dogger
• Erica Jong – How to Save Your Own Life
• Elias Khoury – الجبل الصغير (al-Jabal al-saghir, "The Little Mountain")
• Stephen King – The Shining
• John le Carré – The Honourable Schoolboy
• Ernest Lehman – The French Atlantic Affair
• Robert Ludlum – The Chancellor Manuscript
• Brian Lumley – The Horror at Oakdeene and Others
• George R. R. Martin – Dying of the Light
• Colleen McCullough – The Thorn Birds
• Larry McMurtry – Terms of Endearment
• Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Enchantments and Curses
• Robert Merle – Fortune de France
• Toni Morrison – Song of Solomon
• Iris Murdoch – The Sea, the Sea
• Péter Nádas – The End of a Family Story
• Patrick O'Brian – The Mauritius Command
• Ellis Peters - A Morbid Taste for Bones
• Barbara Pym - Quartet in Autumn
• Ruth Rendell – A Judgement in Stone
• Alun Richards – Ennal's Point^[2]
• Harold Robbins – Dreams Die First
• Paul Scott – Staying On
• Erich Segal – Oliver's Story
• Irwin Shaw – Beggarman, Thief
• M. P. Shiel – Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk
• Sidney Sheldon – Bloodline
• Elizabeth Smart – A Bonus
• Remy Sylado – Gali Lobang Gila Lobang
• Craig Thomas – Firefox
• J. R. R. Tolkien – The Silmarillion
• Melvin Van Peebles – The True American, A Folk Fable
• Mario Vargas Llosa - Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (La tía Julia y el escribidor)
• P. G. Wodehouse – Sunset at Blandings (posthumous)
• Christopher Wood – James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me

New drama

• Robert Bolt – State of Revolution
• Tony Harrison (adapter) – The Mysteries
• Mike Leigh – Abigail's Party^[3]
• Heiner Müller – Die Hamletmaschine
• Dennis Potter – Brimstone and Treacle

Poetry

• Frank Belknap Long – In Mayan Splendor

Non-fiction

• Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. – The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business
• Bruce Chatwin – In Patagonia
• Robert Coles – Children of Crisis
  • vol. 4, Eskimos, Indians, Chicanos
  • vol. 5, The Privileged Ones: The Well-off and the Rich in America
• Patrick Leigh Fermor – A Time Of Gifts
• Jim Fixx – The Complete Book of Running
• Edith Holden (posthumous) – The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady^[4]
• Bharati Mukherjee and Clark Blaise – Days and Nights in Calcutta
• David M. Potter – The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861
• E. F. Schumacher – A Guide for the Perplexed
• Peter Ustinov – Dear Me

Births

• February 21 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
• September 15 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist

Deaths

• January 14 – Anaïs Nin, French-Cuban erotic novelist and diarist, 73
• February 27 – John Dickson Carr, American crime novelist, 70
• March 4
  • Andrés Caicedo, Colombian novelist and cinéaste, 25 (suicide by overdose)
  • Alexandru Ivasiuc, Romanian novelist, 43 (killed in 1977 Vrancea earthquake)
• March 15 - Hubert Aquin, French Canadian novelist, essayist and political activist, 47 (suicide by gunshot)
• April 7 – Jim Thompson, American pulp fiction author, 70
• April 11 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter, 77
• May 9 – James Jones, American novelist, 55 (congestive heart failure)
• July 2 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian/American novelist, 78
• September 4 – E. F. Schumacher, German-born economist and Small Is Beautiful author, 66
• September 12 – Robert Lowell, American poet, 60 (heart attack)
• October 27 – James M. Cain, American novelist and newspaperman, 85
• November 10 – Dennis Wheatley, English occult novelist, 80
• November 30
  • Miloš Crnjanski, Serbian poet and novelist, 84
  • Terence Rattigan, English dramatist, 66 (bone cancer)
• December 9 – Clarice Lispector, Brazilian novelist, 56 (ovarian cancer)
• December 22 – Frank Thiess, German novelist, 87
• date unknown
  • Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Argentine comic book writer, c.58 (forced disappearance)
  • Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, Punjabi novelist

Awards

• Nobel Prize in Literature: Vicente Aleixandre

Canada

• 1977 Governor General's Awards

France

• Prix Goncourt: Didier Decoin, John l'enfer
• Prix Médicis French: Michel Butel, L'Autre Amour
• Prix Médicis International: Héctor Bianciotti, Le Traité des saisons – Argentina

Spain

• Premio Miguel de Cervantes: Alejo Carpentier

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: Paul Mark Scott, Staying On
• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler
• Eric Gregory Award: Tony Flynn, Michael Vince, David Cooke, Douglas Marshall, Melissa Murray
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: George Painter, Chateaubriand: Volume 1 – The Longed-For Tempests
• Knighthood for services to the theatre: Peter Hall
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Norman Nicholson
• Whitbread Best Book Award: Beryl Bainbridge, Injury Time

United States

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for the Novel, Saul Bellow
• Nebula Award: Frederik Pohl, Gateway
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
• Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science: Gerard K. O'Neill, The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Michael Cristofer, The Shadow Box
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Merrill, Divine Comedies
• Pulitzer Prize for History: David M. Potter: The Impending Crisis, 1841-1861 (Completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher).
• Pulitzer Prize for Biography: John E. Mack: A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence

Rest of the World

• Miles Franklin Award: Ruth Park, Swords and Crowns and Rings
• Premio Nadal: José Asenjo Sedano, Conversación sobre la guerra
• Viareggio Prize: Davide Lajolo, Veder l'erba dalla parte delle radici

References