See also: 1953 in literature, other events of 1954, 1955 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Under the Net by Iris Murdoch is published.
• Lord of the Flies by William G. Golding is published.

New books

• The Acrobats - Mordecai Richler
• Benton's Row - Frank Yerby
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (Le pont de la rivière Kwai) - Pierre Boulle
• The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
• The Egyptian - Mika Waltari
• Histoire d'O (Story of O) - Pauline Réage
• The Horse and His Boy - C. S. Lewis
• I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
• Ideas and Opinions - Albert Einstein
• Katherine - Anya Seton
• Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming
• Lord of the Flies - William G. Golding
• The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien
• Love Is Eternal - Irving Stone
• Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
• Mandarins - Simone de Beauvoir
• Mary Anne - Daphne du Maurier
• Nectar in a Sieve - Kamala Markandaya
• Never Victorious, Never Defeated - Taylor Caldwell
• No Time for Sergeants - Mac Hyman
• Not as a Stranger - Morton Thompson
• The Royal Box - Frances Parkinson Keyes
• Sayonara - James A. Michener
• Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck
• Under Milkwood (Poetry) - Dylan Thomas
• Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
• The View from Pompey's Head - Hamilton Basso

Births

• January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, actress, talk show host, producer, publisher
• February 6 - Argusto Emfazie, occultist, author
• Esther Delisle, Quebec author & historian

Deaths

• April 8 - Winnifred Eaton, Canadian author
• August 3 - Colette, French novelist

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Joseph Krumgold , And Now Miguel
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Ernest Miller Hemingway
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: John Patrick, The Teahouse of the August Moon
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Theodore Roethke: The Waking