This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1937.
Events
January 9 – The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States. January 19 – BBC Television broadcasts The Underground Murder Mystery by J. Bissell Thomas from London, the first play to be written for television. February 6 – John Steinbeck's novella of the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men, appears in the United States. April – The Irish writers Elizabeth Bowen and Seán Ó Faoláin first meet, in London. May 14 – BBC Television broadcasts a 30-minute excerpt of Twelfth Night, the first known television broadcast of a Shakespeare piece. The cast includes Peggy Ashcroft and Greer Garson. May 21 – Penguin Books in the U.K. launches Pelican Books, a sixpenny paperback non-fiction imprint, with a two-volume edition of George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism. June The British science fiction magazine Tales of Wonder first appears. John Cowper Powys visits Sycharth, birthplace of Owain Glyndŵr, which inspires his 1940 novel Owen Glendower. June 30 – The New England Quarterly prints poems by a colonial American pastor, Edward Taylor (died 1729), discovered by Thomas H. Johnson. Summer – American-born writer Thomas Quinn Curtiss meets German-born novelist Klaus Mann in Europe and they start a relationship. July Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany is established around the Goethe Oak. Rex Ingamells and other poets initiate the Jindyworobak Movement in Australian literature, in the magazine Venture. The American academic librarian Randolph Greenfield Adams writes a controversial Library Quarterly essay, "Librarians as Enemies of Books", complaining of librarians downgrading books and scholarship in favor of other tasks. July 4 – The Lost Colony, a historical drama by Paul Green, is first performed at an outdoor theater in the place where it is set: Roanoke Island, North Carolina. July 31 – Stephen Vincent Benét's post-apocalyptic short story By the Waters of Babylon, inspired by April's Bombing of Guernica, is published in the U.S. The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods". September 10 – The Soviet playwright Sergei Tretyakov commits suicide while under sentence of death at Butyrka prison in Moscow as part of the Great Purge. September 21 – J. R. R. Tolkien's juvenile fantasy novel The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is published in England by George Allen & Unwin on the recommendation of young Rayner Unwin. September 29 – The French playwright Antonin Artaud is expelled from Ireland. October 6 – The fictional Mrs. Miniver appears in a column on domestic life by Jan Struther for The Times, London. November 11 (Armistice Day) BBC Television broadcasts Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff, 1928, set on the Western Front (World War I) in 1918, as the first full-length television adaptation of a stage play. Reginald Tate plays the lead, having long performed it in the theatre. Caesar, Orson Welles's modern-dress bare-stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, premieres as the first production of the Mercury Theatre in New York City. December 21 – Dr. Seuss's first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is published by Vanguard Press. unknown dates The National Library of Iran is inaugurated in Tehran. The future novelist Angus Wilson becomes a book cataloguer at the British Museum Library in London.
New books Fiction Felix Aderca – Orașele înecate (Sunken Cities) Shakib al-Jabiri – al-Naham (Greed) Eric Ambler – Uncommon Danger Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay – Chander Pahar (চাঁদের পাহড়, Mountain of the Moon) Vicki Baum – Love and Death in Bali (Liebe und Tod auf Bali) Anthony Berkeley – Trial and Error Georges Bernanos – Mouchette Ion Biberi – Oameni în ceață (People in the Fog) Karen Blixen – Out of Africa (published in US as by Isak Dinesen; published in Denmark as Den afrikanske farm) Phyllis Bottome – The Mortal Storm John Bude – The Cheltenham Square Murder Morley Callaghan – More Joy in Heaven John Dickson Carr (as Carter Dickson) – The Ten Teacups Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot stories Death on the Nile Dumb Witness Murder in the Mews Stuart Cloete – Turning Wheels J. J. Connington – A Minor Operation Murray Constantine – Swastika Night Freeman Wills Crofts – Found Floating A. J. Cronin – The Citadel James Curtis – There Ain't No Justice Ludovic Dauș – O jumătate de om (Half a Man) Cecil Day-Lewis – There's Trouble Brewing Pierre Drieu La Rochelle – Rêveuse bourgeoisie Lawrence Durrell (as Charles Norden) – Panic Spring Hans Fallada – Wolf Among Wolves (Wolf unter Wölfen) Max Frisch – An Answer from the Silence (Antwort aus der Stille) Zona Gale – Light Woman Anthony Gilbert The Man Who Wasn't There Murder Has No Tongue Witold Gombrowicz – Ferdydurke Cyril Hare – Tenant for Death Sadegh Hedayat – The Blind Owl (بوف کور, Boof-e koor) Ernest Hemingway – To Have and Have Not Robert Hichens – Daniel Airlie Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock – The Far-Distant Oxus Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God Michael Innes – Hamlet, Revenge! Margaret Irwin – The Stranger Prince Franz Kafka (posthumously translated by Willa and Edwin Muir) – The Trial (first English translation of Der Process) Irmgard Keun – After Midnight (Nach Mitternacht) Ronald Knox – Double Cross Purposes Kalki Krishnamurthy – Kalvaninn Kaadhali Halldór Laxness – Ljós heimsins (The Light of the World) – Part I, Heimsljós (World Light) Alexander Lernet-Holenia Der Mann im Hut Mona Lisa Meyer Levin – The Old Bunch E. C. R. Lorac Bats in the Belfry These Names Make Clues Ngaio Marsh – Vintage Murder A. E. W. Mason – The Drum Cameron McCabe – The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor Compton Mackenzie – The East Wind of Love (first in The Four Winds of Love series of six books) W. Somerset Maugham – Theatre Oscar Millard – Uncensored Gladys Mitchell – Come Away, Death R. K. Narayan – The Bachelor of Arts Elliot Paul – Life and Death of a Spanish Town Robert Prechtl – Titanic Ellery Queen – The Door Between Rafael Sabatini – The Lost King "Kurban Said" – Ali and Nino (Ali und Nino) Ruth Sawyer – Roller Skates Dorothy L. Sayers – Busman's Honeymoon Margery Sharp – The Nutmeg Tree Bruno Schulz – Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą) Naoya Shiga (志賀 直哉) – A Dark Night's Passing (暗夜行路, An'ya Kōro) "Siburapha" – Behind the Painting (ข้างหลังภาพ, Khang Lang Phap) Olaf Stapledon – Star Maker John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men Rex Stout – The Red Box Cecil Street Death at the Club Death in the Hopfields Death on the Board Murder in Crown Passage Proceed with Caution Antal Szerb – Journey by Moonlight (Utas és holdvilág) Phoebe Atwood Taylor Figure Away Octagon House Beginning with a Bash (as by Alice Tilton) Henry Wade – The High Sheriff Mika Waltari – A Stranger Came to the Farm (Vieras mies tuli taloon) Ethel Lina White – The Elephant Never Forgets Charles Williams – Descent into Hell Virginia Woolf – The Years Francis Brett Young Portrait of a Village They Seek a Country
Children and young people Enid Blyton – The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair C. S. Forester – The Happy Return (also as Beat to Quarters) Eve Garnett – The Family from One End Street Hergé – The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) Kornel Makuszyński – Argument About Basia (Awantura o Basię) Carola Oman – Robin Hood Arthur Ransome – We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea Kate Seredy – The White Stag Dr. Seuss – And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street J. R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit Laura Ingalls Wilder – On the Banks of Plum Creek Henry Winterfeld (as Manfred Michael) – Timpetill – Die Stadt ohne Eltern (Timpetill – Parentless City, translated 1963 as Trouble at Timpetill)
Drama Mrs. Bernie Angus – Brown Sugar Anthony Armstrong – Mile Away Murder Bertolt Brecht with Margarete Steffin – Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar (adapted from J. M. Synge's Señora Carrar's Rifles) Karel Čapek – The White Disease (Bílá nemoc) Paul Vincent Carroll – Shadow and Substance Jeffrey Dell – Blondie White Reginald Denham and Edward Percy Smith The Last Straw Suspect Ian Hay – The Gusher Ben Hecht – To Quito and Back Margaret Kennedy – Autumn Arthur Kober – "Having Wonderful Time" Richard Llewellyn – Poison Pen W. P. Lipscomb – Thank You, Mr. Pepys! Robert McLellan – Jamie the Saxt Robert Morley – Goodness, How Sad J. B. Priestley I Have Been Here Before Time and the Conways Walter Charles Roberts – Red Harvest Gerald Savory – George and Margaret Dodie Smith – Bonnet Over the Windmill John Van Druten – Gertie Maude Louis Verneuil – The Train for Venice Hella Wuolijoki writing as Juhani Tervapää – Juurakon Hulda John Ferguson, editor – Seven Famous One-Act Plays (published)
Poetry
David Jones – In Parenthesis (part prose) Isaac Rosenberg (killed in action 1918) – Collected Works
Non-fiction Hilaire Belloc – The Crusades: the World's Debate Alf K. Berle and L. Sprague de Camp – Inventions and Their Management Robert Byron – The Road to Oxiana Jean Giono – Les Vraies Richesses Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich Carl Jung – Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process Walter Lippmann – The Good Society John Neal – American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824–1825) (edited by Fred Lewis Pattee) Manuel Chaves Nogales – A sangre y fuego: Héroes, bestias y mártires de España (Fire and sword: heroes, beasts and martyrs of Spain) George Orwell – The Road to Wigan Pier Eric Partridge – A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English N. Porsenna – Regenerarea neamului românesc (Regeneration of the Romanian People) A. L. Zissu – Logos, Israel, Biserica (Logos, Israel, The Church)
Births January 1 – John Fuller, English poet January 7 – Ian La Frenais, English television comedy writer January 8 – Leon Forrest, African-American novelist and essayist (died 1997) January 9 – Judith Krantz, American novelist (died 2019) January 13 – Jean D'Costa, Jamaican children's novelist January 14 – J. Bernlef, born Hendrik Jan Marsman, Dutch poet, novelist and translator (died 2012) January 22 – Joseph Wambaugh, American mystery novelist and non-fiction writer (died 2025) January 23 – Juan Radrigán, Chilean playwright (died 2016) February 7 – Doris Gercke, German writer (died 2025) February 11 – Maryse Condé, Guadeloupe historical fiction writer (died 2024) February 20 – George Leonardos, Greek journalist and novelist February 21 – Jilly Cooper, English author and journalist (died 2025) February 24 – Sonallah Ibrahim, Egyptian writer (died 2025) February 27 – Peter Hamm, German poet, author, journalist, editor and literary critic (died 2019) March 14 – Jan Karon (Janice Wilson), American novelist and children's writer March 15 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (died 2015) March 20 – Lois Lowry, American children's and young-adult writer April 10 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (died 2010) April 29 – Jill Paton Walsh (Gillian Bliss), English novelist (died 2020) May 8 – Thomas Pynchon, American novelist May 13 Roch Carrier, Canadian novelist and short-story writer Roger Zelazny, American writer of fantasy and science fiction (died 1995) May 20 – Maria Teresa Horta, Portuguese feminist poet, novelist, journalist and activist (died 2025) June 1 – Colleen McCullough, Australian novelist (died 2015) June 16 – Erich Segal, American novelist (died 2010) July 3 – Tom Stoppard (Tomáš Sträussler), Czech-born English dramatist (died 2025) July 6 – Bessie Head, South African-born Botswanan fiction writer (died 1986) August 3 – Peter van Gestel, Dutch writer (died 2019) August 5 – Carla Lane (Romana Barrack), English comedy writer (died 2016) August 19 Richard Ingrams, English editor Alexander Vampilov, Russian dramatist (drowned 1972) September 5 – Dick Clement, English television comedy writer September 23 – Jacques Poulin, Canadian novelist (died 2025) September 26 – Marina Colasanti, Brazilian writer (died 2025)