See also: 1952 in literature, other events of 1953, 1954 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.

• February 19 - Censorship: The State of Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.

• After five years as an English Teacher, Frederick Buechner moves to New York to become a full time writer.

• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin 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 face of popular literature is transformed with the publication of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.

New books

• The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow
• Battle Cry - Leon Uris
• Beyond This Place - A.J. Cronin
• The Bridges at Toko-Ri - James A. Michener
• Casino Royale - Ian Fleming
• Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
• The Cornerstone - Zoe B. Oldenbourg
• The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
• Désirée - Annemarie Selinko
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin
• Heartsnatcher - Boris Vian
• The High and the Mighty - Ernest K. Gann
• A Kiss Before Dying - Ira Levin
• The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
• Lord Vanity - Samuel Shellabarger
• Madame de Pompadour - Nancy Mitford
• Maud Martha - Gwendolyn Brooks
• The Night of the Hunter - Davis Grubb
• The Present and the Past - Ivy Compton-Burnett
• The Robe - Lloyd C. Douglas
• Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
• The Silver Chair - C. S. Lewis
• The Sojourner - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• Time and Time Again - James Hilton
• The Unconquered - Ben Ames Williams
• The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham

Births

• March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, author

Deaths

• April 4 - Rachilde (Marguerite Vallette-Eymery), French author
• November 8 - John van Melle, South African author
• November 9 - Dylan Thomas, poet and author
• November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• November 30 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ann Nolan Clark, Secret of the Andes
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Inge, Picnic
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Archibald MacLeish: Collected Poems 1917-1952