1948 in literature

Events

• The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

• The first volume of Sir Winston Churchill's "The Second World War[?]" (1948–1953) is published.

• The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene is published. In 2001, the book would be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

• The Naked and the Dead[?] by Norman Mailer is published. In 2001, the book would be listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

New Books

• The American Political Tradition[?] - Richard Hofstadter[?]
• Catalina[?] - W. Somerset Maugham
• Cry, the Beloved Country[?] - Alan Paton
• The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline[?] - Isaac Asimov
• The Golden Warrior[?] - Hope Muntz[?]
• Guard of Honor[?] - James Gould Cozzens[?]
• The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
• The Hearth and the Eagle[?] - Anya Seton
• The House of Sleep[?] - Anna Kavan[?]
• The Ides of March[?] - Thornton Wilder
• John Aubrey and His Friends[?] - Anthony Powell
• Joseph and His Brothers[?] - Thomas Mann
• Last Of The Conquerors[?] - William Gardner Smith[?]
• The Living Is Easy[?] - Dorothy West[?]
• The Mask of Circe[?] - C. L. Moore
• Melissa (novel)[?] - Taylor Caldwell
• My Glorious Brothers[?] - Howard Fast
• The Naked and the Dead[?] - Norman Mailer
• Parris Mitchell of King's Row[?] - Henry Bellamann[?]
• Seraph On The Sewanee[?] - Zora Neale Hurston
• The Twenty-One Balloons[?] - William Pène du Bois
• The White Goddess - Robert Graves
• The World is Not Enough[?] - Zoe B. Oldenbourg[?]
• The Young Lions[?] - Irwin Shaw[?]

Births

• February 5 - Christopher Guest, actor, writer, director, composer
• February 28 - Mike Figgis[?], director, writer, composer
• March 17 - William Gibson, writer

Deaths

Awards

• Newberry Medal for children's literature: William Pene du Bois[?], The Twenty-One Balloons
• Nobel Prize for literature: Thomas Stearns Eliot
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James A. Michener - Tales of the South Pacific
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: W. H. Auden: The Age of Anxiety