This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1952.
Quick Facts List of years in literature (table) ...
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- February – The historical periodical Past & Present is launched in Oxford, U.K.
- February 29 – Derek J. de Solla Price reveals his discovery of a lost medieval scientific work entitled Equatorie of the Planetis, initially attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Times Literary Supplement.[1]
- March 3 – J. L. Carr takes over as Headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will later feature in his novel The Harpole Report.[2]
- May – The works of André Gide are placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books by Pope Pius XII.[3]
- July 10 – The first issue of Mad appears, edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by William M. Gaines' EC Comics.
- August 12 – The Night of the Murdered Poets brings the execution of 13 Soviet Jews in Lubyanka Prison, Moscow, including several writers.
- September 6 – The Universal Copyright Convention is adopted at Geneva.
- October 17 – Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot is published in Paris as En attendant Godot by Les Éditions de Minuit.
- October 28 – E. E. Cummings delivers the first of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University.[4]
- November 25 – Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London. It will still be running as of 2021, next door at St Martin's Theatre from 1974.[5]
- unknown dates
Children and young people
- January 4 – Michele Wallace, American feminist author
- January 12 – Walter Mosley, American novelist
- January 21 – Louis Menand, American author and academic
- February 10 – Gail Rebuck, English publisher
- February 19
- February 29 – Tim Powers, American fantasy author
- March 5 – Robin Hobb (Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, Megan Lindholm), American fantasy author
- March 7 – William Boyd, Gold Coast-born Scottish novelist and screenwriter
- March 11 – Douglas Adams, English science fiction author (died 2001)
- March 13 – Ágnes Rapai, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
- March 23 – Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction author
- March 26 – T. A. Barron, American novelist
- May 5 – Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Nigerian author and poet
- May 31 – Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress (died 2016)[10]
- June 4 – Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwean writer (died 1987)
- June 7 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate
- June 20
- June 29 – Breece D'J Pancake (Breece Dexter Pancake), American short story writer (suicide 1979)
- July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, Indian-born Canadian novelist
- July 6 – Hilary Mantel, English novelist (died 2022)[11]
- July 10 – Candice F. Ransom, American children's and young-adult author
- July 18 – Per Petterson, Norwegian novelist
- August 28 – Rita Dove, American poet
- September 29 - Pete Hautman, American young-adult novelist
- October 18 – Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese author
- November 15 – Rick Atkinson, American journalist, historian and author
- November 21 – Pedro Lemebel, Chilean novelist
- December 19 – Sean O'Brien, English poet
- December 22 – Mick Inkpen, English children's writer and illustrator
- December 28 – Hemant Shesh, Indian Hindi writer[12]
- January 22 – Roger Vitrac, French poet and dramatist (born 1899)
- January 26 – Lodewijk van Deyssel, Dutch novelist (born 1864)
- January 28 – Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Ottoman-born Romanian humorist, novelist, editor, and journalist (spinal cancer, born 1874)
- February 7 – Norman Douglas, Austrian-born Scottish novelist (born 1868)
- February 13 – Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh), Scottish crime novelist (born 1896)
- February 19 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1859)
- March 1
- March 27 – Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Romanian short story writer and politician (born 1870)
- April 1 – Ferenc Molnár (Ferenc Neumann), Hungarian dramatist and novelist (born 1878)
- April 30 – Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș – Romanian art historian, ethnographer and journalist (born 1872)
- May 17 – Paul Bujor, Romanian politician, zoologist and short story writer (born 1862)
- May 26 – Eugene Jolas, American/French writer, literary translator and critic (born 1894)
- June 1 – John Dewey, American philosopher and psychologist (born 1859)
- July 1 – A. S. W. Rosenbach, American book collector (born 1876)
- July 8 – August Alle, Estonian writer (born 1890)
- August 9 – Jeffery Farnol, English historical novelist (born 1878)
- August 22 – H. J. Massingham, English countryside writer (born 1888)
- September 26 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist writing in English (born 1863)
- October 4 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist (born 1885)
- October 6 – Teffi (Nadezhda Alexandrovna Buchinskaya), Russian humorist (born 1872)
- November 3 – Louis Verneuil, French playwright (suicide, born 1893)
- November 4 – Gilbert Frankau, English novelist (born 1884)
- November 13 – Margaret Wise Brown, American children's author (embolism, born 1910)
- November 16 – Charles Maurras, French poet and critic (born 1868)
- November 18 – Paul Éluard, French surrealist poet (heart attack, born 1895)
- November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet (born 1893)
- December 6 – Cicely Hamilton, English dramatist and suffragist (born 1872)
