1932 in literature

Template:Short description Template:Year nav topic5 Template:Use British English This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1932.

Events

March – Captain W. E. Johns' character Biggles (James Bigglesworth) is introduced as an English World War I pilot in the short story "The White Fokker", in the first, April, issue of Popular Flying magazine, edited by Johns. The first Biggles collection, The Camels Are Coming, ensues in April.
April 23 – To mark Shakespeare's birthday:
- The Royal Shakespeare Company's new theatre opens at Stratford-upon-Avon.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Folger Shakespeare Library opens in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

April 26 – The 32-year-old American poet Hart Crane, in a state of alcoholic depression, throws himself overboard from the Orizaba between Mexico and New York; his body is never recovered.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

May – The first issue appears of the English journal of literary criticism Scrutiny: a quarterly review, edited by F. R. Leavis.
June 28 – Alice Hargreaves, the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, meets the publisher Peter Llewelyn Davies, the inspiration for Peter Pan, at a Lewis Carroll centenary exhibition in a London bookshop.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
July – W. B. Yeats leases Riversdale house in the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham and publishes Words for Music Perhaps, and Other Poems.<ref name=cocel>Template:Cite book</ref>
Summer
- The Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, is established as a regular venue in London by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.
- The first performances at the Minack Theatre, an open-air venue on the coast of Cornwall (England), include The Tempest.
October 3 – The Times newspaper of London introduces the Times New Roman typeface devised by Stanley Morison.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
October – Nineteen Irish writers led by Yeats and George Bernard Shaw form an Academy of Irish Letters that opposes the Censorship of Publications Board.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
November 16 – Compton Mackenzie is prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act in the U.K. for material in his Greek Memories.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
December
- The issue of Weird Tales magazine with this month's cover date in the United States includes Robert E. Howard's short story "The Phoenix on the Sword", the first published appearance of Conan the Barbarian.<ref>Vol. 20 #6. Template:Cite book</ref>
- E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.
- Shortly after publication, the first copies of Graham Greene's novel Stamboul Train, published by Heinemann in London, are withdrawn and the text altered after a threat of libel action by J. B. Priestley.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
unknown dates
- Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is written in Paris and rejected by several publishers.
- Serialisation of the first three volumes of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel And Quiet Flows the Don («Тихий Дон») concludes in the Soviet magazine October.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The New Poetry (Thơ mới) period begins in Vietnamese literature, marked by an article and a poem from Phan Khôi.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Aussie: The Australian Soldiers' Magazine ceases publication.<ref>Carter, David (2008). ""'Esprit De Nation' and Popular Modernity: Aussie Magazine 1920–1931"". History Australia. 5:3: 74.1–74.22.</ref>
- Una Dillon founds Dillons Booksellers in London.<ref>Template:Cite odnb</ref>

New books

Poetry

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

W. H. Auden – The Orators
Hart Crane – The Broken Tower
Cecil Day-Lewis – From Feathers To Iron<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
An "Objectivist's" Anthology
Boris Pasternak – The Second Birth

Non-fiction

Adrian Bell – The Cherry Tree
Henri Bergson – The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion)
Emil Brunner – The Divine Imperative: a study in Christian ethics (Gebot und die Ordnungen)
F. J. Harvey Darton – The Story of English Children's Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life
Bernard DeVoto – Mark Twain's America
T. S. Eliot – Selected Essays, 1917-1932<ref>The Times, 16 September 1932; Some New Books</ref>
Constantin Gane – Trecute vieți de doamne și domnițe (Bygone Lives of Queens and Princesses; first volume)Template:Cn
J. B. S. Haldane – The Causes of Evolution
Annabel Jackson – A Victorian Childhood
Kepelino (died c. 1878) – Kepelino's Traditions of Hawaii (translation of Moolelo Hawaii, 1868)
Hugh Kingsmill – Frank Harris
F. R. Leavis – New Bearings in English Poetry
Q. D. Leavis – Fiction and the Reading Public
Beverley Nichols – Down the Garden Path
Walter B. Pitkin – Life Begins at Forty
Stith Thompson – Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (begins publication)
E. C. Titchmarsh – The Theory of Functions
Florence White – Good Things in England (food)
S. Fowler Wright – The Life of Sir Walter Scott

Births

January 2 – Jean Little, Canadian children's fiction author (died 2020)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

January 5 – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist and semiotician (died 2016)
January 18 – Robert Anton Wilson, American novelist and playwright (died 2007)
January 19 – George MacBeth, Scottish poet and novelist (died 1992)
February 7 – Gay Talese, American literary journalist
February 9 – Roderick Cook, English actor and playwright (died 1990)
February 15 – Troy Kennedy Martin, Scottish scriptwriter (died 2009)
February 16 – Aharon Appelfeld, Israeli novelist and poet (died 2018)
February 20 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino journalist, playwright and author (died 2007)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 4 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist poet and travel writer (died 2007)
March 18 – John Updike, American novelist and poet (died 2009)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

March 31 – John Jakes, American historical novelist (died 2023)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
April 5
- Bora Ćosić, Yugoslav-born Croatian-German writer
- Fănuș Neagu, Romanian novelist, journalist, and short story writer (died 2011)
April 8 – Joan Lingard, Scottish novelist (died 2022)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

April 10 – Adrian Henri, English poet (died 2000)
April 13 – Barney Simon, South African writer, playwright and director (died 1995)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

May 7 – Jenny Joseph, English poet (died 2018)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

May 24 – Arnold Wesker, English dramatist (died 2016)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

June 5 – Christy Brown, Irish autobiographer and poet (died 1981)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

June 6 – Sara Banerji, English author and sculptor
June 11 – Athol Fugard, South African playwright and novelist (died 2025)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
June 18 – Geoffrey Hill, English poet (died 2016)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
July 17 – Karla Kuskin, American children's writer and illustrator (died 2009)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
July 18 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet and writer (died 2017)
July 22 – Tom Robbins, American novelist (died 2025)
August 16 – Christopher Okigbo, Nigerian poet (died 1967)
August 17 – V. S. Naipaul, Trinidad-born novelist (died 2018)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
August 27 – Antonia Fraser, English biographer, novelist and historian<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
September 7 – Malcolm Bradbury, English novelist (died 2000)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
September 9 – Alice Thomas Ellis, English novelist, essayist and cookery book author (died 2005)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

October 24 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet, playwright and fiction writer (died 2008)
October 27 – Sylvia Plath, American poet (suicide 1963)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
October 31 – Katherine Paterson, Chinese-American author<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

December 5 – Jacques Roubaud, French poet, writer, and mathematician (died 2024)

Deaths

January 6 – Iacob Negruzzi, Romanian poet, columnist and memoirist (born 1842)
January 12 – Ella Hepworth Dixon, English writer, novelist and editor (born 1857)
January 21 – Lytton Strachey, English biographer (cancer, born 1880)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 28 – F. M. Mayor, English novelist (born 1872)
February 4 – Mona Caird, English novelist, essayist and feminist (born 1854)
February 10 – Edgar Wallace, English crime writer (diabetes, born 1875)
February 15 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress and playwright (born 1865)
March 16 – Harold Monro, British poet and poetry bookshop proprietor (alcohol-related, born 1879)<ref>Dominic Hibberd: "Monro, Harold Edward (1879–1932)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 Retrieved 16 October 2024</ref>
April 20 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician and philosopher (born 1858)
April 22 – Ferenc Oslay, Hungarian-Slovene historian, writer and irredenta (born 1883)
April 23
- Evelyn Everett-Green, English novelist and children's writer (born 1856)
- Laura Kieler, Norwegian novelist and dramatic inspiration (born 1849)
April 27 – Hart Crane, American poet (suicide, born 1899)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

May 22 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, Irish dramatist (born 1852)
June 17 – Sir John Quick, Australian politician and author (born 1852)
July 6 – Kenneth Grahame, Scottish-born children's and short-story writer (born 1859)
July 20 – René Bazin, French novelist (born 1853)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
July 22 – J. Meade Falkner, English novelist and poet (born 1858)
July 23 – Emma Pow Bauder, American novelist, evangelist, missionary, and reformer (born 1848)
August 29 – Raymond Knister, Canadian writer (drowned, born 1899)
August 30 – Emma Wolf, American novelist (born 1865)<ref name="JWA2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

September 5 – Paul Bern, German-American screenwriter (suicide, born 1889)
September 24 – Rose Combe, French writer and railway worker (born 1883)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
October 5 – Christopher Brennan, Australian poet (born 1870)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
October 14 – Ahmed Shawqi, Egyptian poet (born 1868)
November 11 – Georgina Fraser Newhall, Canadian author (b. 1860)
November 13 – Catherine Isabella Dodd, English education writer and novelist (born 1860)
November 15 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American writer (born 1858)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
November 23 – Henry S. Whitehead, American genre novelist (gastric ailment, born 1882)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

date unknown — Hester M. Poole, American writer, poet, art critic (born 1833/34)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Awards

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Helen de Guerry Simpson, Boomerang
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Stephen Gwynn, The Life of Mary Kingsley
Newbery Medal for children's literature: Laura Adams Armer, Waterless Mountain
Nobel Prize in Literature: John Galsworthy
Prix Goncourt: Guy Mazeline, Les Loups<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Ira Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: George Dillon, The Flowering Stone
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Year in literature article categories

1932 in literature

Contents

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References

Navigation menu

1932 in literature

Events

New books

Fiction

Children and young people

Drama

Poetry

Non-fiction

Births

Deaths

Awards

References

Navigation menu

Search