1970 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1970.

Events

• January 16 – The new Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus is inaugurated with a performance of Georg Büchner's Dantons Tod.
• June 17 – Première of David Storey's play Home at the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson.
• July 7 – Death of English publisher Sir Allen Lane (b. 1902). On August 21 his paperback imprint Penguin Books is acquired by Pearson.
• August 27 – RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Royal Shakespeare Company premieres its revolutionary production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Brook, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
• November 20 – Playwright Fadil Paçrami becomes Chairman of the Parliament of Albania.
• November 25 – In Tokyo, Japanese author and Tatenokai militia leader Yukio Mishima (45) and his followers take over the headquarters of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in an attempted coup d'état. After Mishima's speech fails to sway public opinion towards his right-wing politics, including restoration of the powers of the Emperor, he commits seppuku (public ritual suicide).
• December 5 – Dario Fo premières his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Morte accidentale di un anarchico) at Varese in Italy.
• Deliverance by American poet James Dickey published. In 2001, the book will be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.
• Bohumil Hrabal's books Domácí úkoly and Poupata are suppressed by the authorities in Czechoslovakia.

New books

• Dritëro Agolli – Komisari Memo ("Commissar Memo")
• Poul Anderson – Tau Zero
• Richard Bach – Jonathan Livingston Seagull
• Nina Bawden – The Birds on the Trees
• Thomas Berger – Vital Parts
• Thomas Bernhard – The Lime Works (Das Kalkwerk)
• Pierre Berton – The National Dream
• Judy Blume – Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
• Jim Bouton – Ball Four
• Melvyn Bragg – A Place in England
• Wallace Breem – Eagle in the Snow
• Jimmy Breslin – The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
• Taylor Caldwell – Great Lion of God
• John Dickson Carr – The Ghosts' High Noon
• Agatha Christie – Passenger to Frankfurt
• Roald Dahl – Fantastic Mr Fox
• 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
• José Donoso – The Obscene Bird of Night (El obsceno pájaro de la noche)
• Lawrence Durrell – Nunquam
• Vincent Eri – The Crocodile
• Nuruddin Farah – From a Crooked Rib
• J. G. Farrell – Troubles
• Shirley Hazzard – The Bay of Noon
• Anne Hébert – Kamouraska
• Ernest Hemingway – Islands in the Stream
• Susan Hill – I'm the King of the Castle
• Pamela Hansford Johnson – The Honours Board
• Uwe Johnson – Jahrestage ("Anniversaries"; begins publication)
• Anna Kavan – Julia and the Bazooka
• Jaan Kross – Between Three Plagues (part 1)
• Halldór Laxness - Innansveitarkronika
• Ira Levin – This Perfect Day
• H. P. Lovecraft – The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions
• John D. MacDonald – The Long Lavender Look
• Eric Malpass – Oh My Darling Daughter
• Ruth Manning-Sanders – A Book of Devils and Demons
• Yukio Mishima – The Decay of the Angel (天人五衰, Tennin Gosui, last book in The Sea of Fertility tetralogy)
• Brian Moore – Fergus
• Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye
• Larry Niven – Ringworld
• John Jay Osborn, Jr. – The Paper Chase
• 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
• Leon Uris – QB VII
• Jack Vance – The Pnume
• Gore Vidal – Two Sisters
• E. B. White – The Trumpet Of The Swan
• Patrick White – The Vivisector
• Venedikt Yerofeyev – Moscow-Petushki (Moscow to the end of the line; samizdat publication)
• Roger Zelazny – Nine Princes in Amber

New 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
• Welcome Msomi – uMabatha
• Terence Rattigan – A Bequest to the Nation
• Anthony Shaffer – Sleuth

Poetry

Main article: 1970 in poetry

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

Non-fiction

• Theodor W. Adorno (posthumously) – Aesthetic Theory (Asthetische Theorie)
• Dee Brown – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
• James MacGregor Burns – Roosevelt: The Soldier Of Freedom
• Henri Charrière – Papillon
• Edward De Bono – Lateral Thinking: creativity step by step
• August Derleth – Thirty Years of Arkham House, 1939-1969: A History and Bibliography
• Germaine Greer – The Female Eunuch
• Helene Hanff – 84 Charing Cross Road
• Arthur Janov – The Primal Scream
• Norman Mailer – Of a Fire on the Moon
• Dumas Malone – Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801-1805
• Mahathir bin Mohamad – The Malay Dilemma
• Kate Millet – Sexual Politics
• Nancy Mitford – Frederick the Great
• Albert Speer – Inside the Third Reich
• Alvin Toffler – Future Shock

Births

• January 1 – Alex Garland, English novelist
• March 12 – Dave Eggers, American writer, editor and publisher
• June 6 – Sarah Dessen, American novelist
• 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
• Unknown date – Nathan Englander, American short story 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)
• March 11 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American writer (born 1889)
• 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 12 – Nelly Sachs, Jewish German poet and dramatist (born 1891)
• June 2 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian modernist poet and writer (born 1888)
• June 7 – E. M. Forster, English novelist (born 1879)
• June 16 – Elsa Triolet, French novelist (born 1896)
• July 15 – Eric Berne, Canadian-born psychiatrist and author (heart attack, born 1910)
• September 1 – François Mauriac, French novelist (born 1885)
• September 28 – John Dos Passos, American novelist (born 1896)
• November 25 – Yukio Mishima, 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

• 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