See also: 1957 in literature, other events of 1958, 1959 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.
• First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published.
• The Caretaker , a drama by Harold Pinter is published.

New books

• The Affluent Society - John Kenneth Galbraith
• Anatomy of a Murder - Robert Traver
• Around the World with Auntie Mame - Patrick Dennis
• Balthazar - Lawrence Durrell
• Bird of Fire - Helen White
• Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
• Candy - Maxwell Kenton
• Crazy in Berlin - Thomas Berger
• Culture and Society 1780-1950 - Raymond Williams
• The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
• Dr. No - Ian Fleming
• The Enemy Camp - Jerome Weidman
• A Fly Went By - Mike McClintock
• From the Terrace - John O'Hara
• Ice Palace - Edna Ferber
• The Leopard - Giusseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa
• Masters of Deceit - J. Edgar Hoover
• Our Man in Havana - Graham Greene
• Playback - Raymond Chandler
• Red Alert - Peter George
• Venetia – Georgette Heyer
• Victorine - Frances Parkinson Keyes
• The Winthrop Woman - Anya Seton
• Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
• Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories - Dr. Seuss
• Young Caesar - Rex Warner

Births

• November 19 - Christiane Wiese, née von Reden, wife and mother

Deaths

• February 4 - Henry Kuttner, science fiction author
• April 7 - Elliot Paul, American writer
• May 5 - James Branch Cabell, fantasy fiction author
• September 11 - Robert W. Service, poet

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Harold Keith , Rifles for Watie
• Nobel Prize for literature: Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Ketti Frings , Look Homeward, Angel
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James Agee - A Death In The Family
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Robert Penn Warren: Promises: Poems 1954-1956