See also: 1954 in literature, other events of 1955, 1956 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• First issue of the "Guinness Book of Records" published.
• The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy is published.
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in Paris. However, it took until 1958 to be published in United States.

New books

• The Acceptance World - Anthony Powell
• Andersonville - MacKinlay Kantor
• Auntie Mame - Patrick Dennis
• Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer
• Birdman of Alcatraz - Thomas E. Gaddis
• Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan
• The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
• The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov
• Essays in the Public Philosophy - Walter Lippmann
• The Ginger Man - J. P. Donleavy
• A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
• Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
• The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne - Brian Moore
• The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit - Sloan Wilson
• Marjorie Morningstar - Herman Wouk
• Moonraker - Ian Fleming
• No Time for Sergeants - Mac Hyman
• Not As a Stranger - Morton Thompson
• Notes of a Native Son - James Baldwin
• The October Country - Ray Bradbury
• Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo
• The Quiet American - Graham Greene
• Scuffy the Tugboat - Gertrude Crampton
• Something of Value - Robert Ruark
• The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
• Ten North Frederick - John O'Hara
• The Tontine - Thomas B. Costain
• The Tree of Man - Patrick White
• Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein

Births

• January 12 - Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
• January 13 - Jay McInerney, writer
• February 8 - John Grisham, novelist
• June 20 - Tor Nørretranders, science author
• September 6 - Raymond Benson, novelist
• November 23 - Steven Brust, fantasy author

Deaths

• January 20 - Robert P. Tristram Coffin , poet, essayist, novelist
• June 19 - Adrienne Monnier, French poet and publisher
• August 2 - Wallace Stevens, poet (b. 1879)
• August 12 - Thomas Mann

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Meindert DeJong, The Wheel on the School
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Halldór Kiljan Laxness
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Tennessee Williams, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: William Faulkner - A Fable
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems