1971 in literature
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The year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles wins the UK's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.

New books

• Hiroshi Aramata - Teito Monogatari
• Denys Val Baker - The Face in the Mirror
• William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
• Richard Brautigan - Revenge of the Lawn
• Albert Camus - A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse)
• Brian Cleeve - Cry of Morning
• Gwen Davis - Touching
• L. Sprague de Camp - The Clocks of Iraz
• L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter - Conan the Buccaneer
• Walter de la Mare - Eight Tales
• August Derleth, editor - Dark Things
• E. L. Doctorow - The Book of Daniel
• Frederick Forsyth - The Day of the Jackal
• Dick Francis - Bonecrack
• Ernest J. Gaines - The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
• George Garrett - Death of the Fox
• John Gardner - Grendel (novel)
• Arthur Hailey - Wheels
• Anna Kavan - A Scarcity of Love
• Jerzy Kosinski - Being There
• John le Carré - The Naive and Sentimental Lover
• Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
• Stanisław Lem - Dzienniki gwiazdowe
• Brian Lumley - The Caller of the Black
• Antonine Maillet - La Sagouine
• Ruth Manning-Sanders - A Choice of Magic
• James A. Michener - The Drifters
• Nicholas Mosley - Natalie Natalia
• Alice Munro - Lives of Girls and Women
• V. S. Naipaul - In a Free State
• William F. Nolan - Space for Hire
• Rosamunde Pilcher - The End of Summer
• Anthony Powell - Books Do Furnish a Room
• Terry Pratchett - The Carpet People
• John Rawls - A Theory of Justice
• Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro - Sergeant Getulio
• Mordecai Richler - St. Urbain's Horseman
• Harold Robbins - The Betsy
• Leonardo Sciascia - Il contesto
• Hubert Selby Jr. - The Room
• Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
• Irving Stone - The Passions of the Mind
• Gay Talese - Honor Thy Father
• Tom Tryon - The Other
• John Updike - Rabbit Redux
• Herman Wouk - The Winds of War
• Roger Zelazny
  • The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
  • Jack of Shadows

New drama

• Peter Handke - Der Ritt über den Bodensee ("The Ride Across Lake Constance")
• John Mortimer - A Voyage Round My Father

Poetry

Main article: 1971 in poetry

• Maya Angelou - Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die
• Donald S. Fryer - Songs and Sonnets Atlantean
• Ted Hughes - Crow
• Alan Llwyd - Y March Hud ("The Magic Horse")
• Clark Ashton Smith - Selected Poems

Non-fiction

• Pierre Berton – The Last Spike
• Robert Coles
  • Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers, vol 2 of Children of Crisis – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
  • The South Goes North, vol 3 of Children of Crisis – Pulitzer Prize, 1973
• Brian J. Ford – Nonscience
• Robert Foster – The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
• Joan Garrity – The Sensuous Woman
• Xaviera Hollander – The Happy Hooker: My Own Story
• H. P. Lovecraft – Selected Letters III (1929-1931)
• Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel – Hess: A Biography
• Alison Plowden - Young Elizabeth
• B. F. Skinner – Beyond Freedom and Dignity
• Pierre Vallières – White Niggers of America (translation)

Births

• January 16 - Helen Darville, writer
• March 10 - Ugonna Wachuku, poet, creative writer, author
• May 28 - Richard Gunn, journalist and motoring writer
• July 17 - Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer
• December 19 - Tristan Egolf, novelist (d. 2005)

Deaths

• March 5 - Allan Nevins, journalist
• March 7 - Stevie Smith, poet
• April 10 - André Billy, French author
• May 19 - Ogden Nash, poet and humorist
• May 20 - Waldo Williams, Welsh language poet
• June 1 - Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian
• June 4 - Georg Lukács, philosopher and critic
• June 6 - Edward Andrade, poet and physicist
• July 4 - August Derleth, anthologist
• July 7 - Claude Gauvreau, poet and dramatist
• August 30 - Peter Fleming, travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming
• October 25 - Philip Gordon Wylie, novelist
• November 10 - Walter Van Tilburg Clark, novelist (The Ox-Bow Incident)
• December 22 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch writer
• December 25 - S. Foster Damon, critic and poet
• date unknown
  • Clifford Dyment, poet
  • St. John Greer Ervine, dramatist
  • Jacques Lusseyran, blind author

Awards

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Pablo Neruda

France

• Prix Goncourt: Jacques Laurent, Les Bêtises
• Prix Médicis: Pascal Lainé, L'Irrévolution

United Kingdom

• Booker Prize: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
• Cholmondeley Award: Charles Causley, Gavin Ewart, Hugo Williams
• Eric Gregory Award: Martin Booth, Florence Bull, John Pook, D. M. Warman, John Welch
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Nadine Gordimer, A Guest of Honour
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Julia Namier, Lewis Namier
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: Stephen Spender

United States

• Frost Medal: Melville Cane
• See 1971 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Larry Niven, Ringworld
• Nebula Award: Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Betsy Byars, Summer of the Swans
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Paul Zindel, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: William S. Merwin, The Carrier of Ladders

Elsewhere

• Akutagawa Prize: Azuma Mineo, Okinawan Boy
• Premio Nadal: José María Requena (El cuajarón
• Viareggio Prize: Ugo Attardi, L'erede selvaggio