This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1969.

Events

February 8 – After 147 years, the last issue of The Saturday Evening Post in its original form appears in the United States.Bedingfield, Robert E. "February 8 Issue of Saturday Evening Post to Be Last", The New York Times, January 11, 1969. Accessed August 29, 2009. March 23 – German-born writer Assia Wevill, a mistress of the English poet Ted Hughes and ex-wife of the Canadian poet David Wevill, gasses herself and their 4-year-old daughter Alexandra Tatiana Elise "Shura" Wevill at her London home. April 22 – The first Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction is awarded to P. H. Newby for Something to Answer For. August – "Penelope Ashe", purported author of a bestselling novel, Naked Came the Stranger, is revealed as a group of Newsday journalists.The book was co-written by a group of twenty-four journalists which was led by the Newsday columnist Mike McGrady.McGrady's intention was to write a book that was both deliberately terrible and which contained a lot of descriptions of sex, to illustrate the point that the popular American literary culture had become mindlessly vulgar. The book fulfilled the authors' expectations and became a bestseller in 1969. Later that year, the co-writers revealed the hoax, spurring the book's popularity. unknown date – The Times Literary Supplement begins using the abbreviation "TLS" on its title page.

New books Fiction Eva Alexanderson – Kontradans (Counter-dance) Eric Ambler – The Intercom Conspiracy Jorge Amado – Tenda dos Milagres (Tent of Miracles) Kingsley Amis – The Green Man William H. Armstrong – Sounder Penelope Ashe – Naked Came the Stranger Margaret Atwood – The Edible Woman René Barjavel – Les Chemins de Katmandou Ray Bradbury – I Sing the Body Electric Melvyn Bragg – The Hired Man Christianna Brand – Court of Foxes William S. Burroughs – The Last Words of Dutch Schultz Victor Canning – Queen's Pawn Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Rigadoon Agatha Christie – Hallowe'en Party Michael Crichton – The Andromeda Strain John Cheever – Bullet Park A. J. Cronin – A Pocketful of Rye Henry de Montherlant – Les Garçons (The Boys) L. Sprague de Camp – The Golden Wind Philip K. Dick – Ubik Marion Eames – Y Stafell Ddirgel (The Secret Room) John Fowles – The French Lieutenant's Woman George MacDonald Fraser – Flashman Paul Gallico – The Poseidon Adventure Rumer Godden – In This House of Brede Edward Gorey The Epiplectic Bicycle The Iron Tonic Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt Sam Greenlee – The Spook Who Sat by the Door Günter Grass – Local Anaesthetic (Örtlich betäubt) Frank Herbert – Dune Messiah Raymond Hitchcock – Percy Richard Horn – Encyclopedia Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter – Conan of Cimmeria B. S. Johnson – The Unfortunates David H. Keller – The Folsom Flint and Other Curious Tales Derek Lambert Angels in the Snow The Kites of War Ursula Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness Elmore Leonard – The Big Bounce Doris Lessing – The Four-Gated City H. P. Lovecraft and Others – Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos John D. MacDonald – Dress Her in Indigo Félicien Marceau – Creezy Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) – Runaway Horses Michael Moorcock – Behold the Man C. L. Moore – Jirel of Joiry Vladimir Nabokov – Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle M. T. Vasudevan Nair – Kaalam ("Time") Patrick O'Brian – Master and Commander Don Pendleton – War Against The Mafia Chaim Potok – The Promise Manuel Puig – Little Painted Mouths Mario Puzo – The Godfather Ellery Queen – The Campus Murders Pauline Réage – Retour à Roissy Mordecai Richler – The Street Harold Robbins – The Inheritors Philip Roth – Portnoy's Complaint Gabriel Ruhumbika – Village in Uhuru Giorgio Scerbanenco I milanesi ammazzano al sabato Milano calibro 9 Irwin Shaw – Rich Man, Poor Man Dag Solstad – Irr! Grønt! Rex Stout – Death of a Dude Jacqueline Susann – The Love Machine Theodore Taylor – The Cay Colin Thiele – Blue Fin Jack Vance The Dirdir Emphyrio Servants of the Wankh Mario Vargas Llosa – Conversation in The Cathedral Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five Charity Waciuma – Daughter of Mumbi Irving Wallace – The Seven Minutes Keith Waterhouse – Everything Must Go Colin Wilson – The Philosopher's Stone Roger Zelazny Creatures of Light and Darkness Damnation Alley Isle of the Dead

Children and young people Rev. W. Awdry – Oliver the Western Engine (twenty-fourth in The Railway Series of 42 books by him and his son Christopher Awdry) Eric Carle – The Very Hungry Caterpillar Frances Carpenter – South American Wonder Tales Penelope Farmer – Charlotte Sometimes Rumer Godden – Operation Sippacik Gary Paulsen – Mr. Tucket (first in Mr. Tucket series) Barbara Sleigh – The Snowball William Steig – Sylvester and the Magic Pebble John Rowe Townsend – The Intruder Elfrida Vipont with Raymond Briggs – The Elephant and the Bad Baby Anne de Vries – Into the Darkness (first in the Reis door de nacht series of five books)

Drama Leilah Assunção – Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito (Speak Quietly or I’ll Scream) Aimé Césaire – Une Tempête Dario Fo – Mistero Buffo Athol Fugard – Boesman and Lena Joe Orton – What the Butler Saw (posthumously premiered and published)'Playgoers' Diary', The Stage, 23 January 1969, p.8. Michael Pertwee – She's Done It Again Dennis Potter – Son of Man (television) Dalmiro Sáenz – Quién yo? (Who me?) David Storey – In Celebration Paul Zindel – Let Me Hear You Whisper

Poetry

James Schuyler – Freely Espousing

Non-fiction Dean Acheson – Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Fernand Braudel – Ecrits sur l'Histoire (translated as On History, 1980) H. Rap Brown – Die Nigger Die! Henri Charrière – Papillon L. Sprague de Camp and George H. Scithers (editors) – The Conan Swordbook Antonia Fraser – Mary Queen of Scots Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen – The Little Red Schoolbook (Den Lille Røde Bog For Skoleelever) Pauline Kael – Going Steady Anton LaVey – The Satanic Bible Laurie Lee – As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning Dwight Macdonald – On Movies Desmond Morris – The Human Zoo Harold Perkin – The Origins of Modern English Society 1780–1880 Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull – The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong David Reuben – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)

Births January – Adrian Goldsworthy, Welsh military historian and novelist January 12 – David Mitchell, English novelist January 17 – Michael Moynihan, American journalist and publisher January 21 – M. K. Hobson, American speculative fiction author March – Jez Butterworth, English dramatist and screenwriter May 6 – Emmanuel Larcenet, French comics author May 6 – John Scalzi, American science-fiction author May 28 – Muriel Barbery, French novelist May 29 – Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津), Korean-born novelist (suicide 1995) June 13 – Virginie Despentes, French writer July 5 – Armin Kõomägi, Estonian author and screenwriter August 4 – Jojo Moyes, English journalist and romantic novelist September 12 – James Frey, American writer September 30 – Julianna Baggott, American novelist, essayist, and poet October 15 – Nora Ikstena, Latvian writer (died 2026) October 24 – Emma Donoghue, Irish-born Canadian novelist, dramatist, and academic November 13 – John Belluso, American dramatist (died 2006) November 22 – Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-born French author (died 2026) November 27 – Sidsel Dalen, Norwegian journalist and crime-fiction writer November 28 – Hanne Ørstavik, Norwegian novelist November 30 – David Auburn, American dramatist December 12 – Sophie Kinsella, English novelist (died 2025) unknown dates John Harris, English writer, journalist and critic Tom McCarthy, English novelist

Deaths January 11 – Richmal Crompton, English children's writer (born 1890) January 21 – Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (born 1895) March 9 – Charles Brackett, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1892) March 11 – John Wyndham, English science fiction novelist (born 1903) March 24 – Margery Fish, English gardening writer (born 1892) March 25 – Max Eastman, American writer (born 1883) March 26 – John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (suicide, born 1937) March 27 – B. Traven, presumed German-born novelist (unknown year of birth) April 6 – Gabriel Chevallier, French writer (born 1895) April 7 – Rómulo Gallegos, Venezuelan novelist and politician, 48th President of Venezuela (born 1884) May 4 – Osbert Sitwell, English novelist and poet (born 1892) July 24 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish playwright and novelist (born 1904) July 27 – Vivian de Sola Pinto, English poet and memoirist (born 1895) August 10 – Maurine Dallas Watkins, American journalist/play and screenwriter (born 1896) August 14 – Leonard Woolf, English political theorist (born 1880) August 27 – Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (born 1884) September 6 – Gavin Maxwell, Scottish naturalist and author (cancer, born 1914) September 17 – Greye La Spina, American dramatist and short story writer (born 1880) September 20 – Elinor Brent-Dyer, English children's writer (born 1894) September 22 – Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (born 1869) October 14 – August Sang, Estonian poet and literary translator (born 1914) October 21 – Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet (internal hemorrhage, born 1922) November 6 – Susan Taubes, Hungarian American writer and Jewish intellectual (suicide, born 1928) November 15 – Ignacio Aldecoa, Spanish writer (born 1925)

Awards Nobel Prize for Literature: Samuel Beckett

Canada See 1969 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.

France Prix Goncourt: Félicien Marceau, Creezy Prix Médicis: Hélène Cixous, Dedans

United Kingdom Booker Prize: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For Carnegie Medal for children's literature: K. M. Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud Cholmondeley Award: Derek Walcott, Tony Harrison Eric Gregory Award: Gavin Bantock, Jeremy Hooker, Jenny King, Neil Powell, Landeg E. White James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Stevie Smith

United States American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Drama: Tennessee Williams Hugo Award: Best Novel: John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar Best Novella: Robert Silverberg, Nightwings Nebula Award: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness Newbery Medal for children's literature: Lloyd Alexander, The High King Pulitzer Prize: Drama: Howard Sackler, The Great White Hope Fiction: N. Scott Momaday – House Made of Dawn Poetry: George Oppen: Of Being Numerous

Elsewhere Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels: Alexander Mitscherlich Miles Franklin Award: George Johnston, Clean Straw for Nothing Premio Nadal: Francisco García Pavón, Las hermanas coloradas Viareggio Prize: Fulvio Tomizza, L'albero dei sogni

References

External links Popular Books of 1969 at Goodreads Published 1969 Books at Goodreads 1969 Books at Goodreads