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1975 in literature

The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.
• Writing under the pseudonym of "Emile Ajar," author Romain Gary becomes the only person to ever win the Prix Goncourt twice.
• Hearing Secret Harmonies, the twelfth and final novel of the A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy by Anthony Powell is published.
• Milan Kundera emigrated to France.

New books

• Edward Abbey - The Monkey Wrench Gang
• Martin Amis - Dead Babies
• Saul Bellow - Humboldt's Gift
• Thomas Berger - Sneaky People
• Timothy L. Bottoms - Mr. Schutzer
• Malcolm Bradbury - The History Man
• Morley Callaghan - A Fine and Private Place
• Agatha Christie - Curtain
• James Clavell - Shogun
• Susan Cooper - The Grey King
• Michael Crichton - The Great Train Robbery
• A. J. Cronin - The Minstrel Boy
• Robertson Davies - World of Wonders
• L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - The Compleat Enchanter
• Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren
• August Derleth - Harrigan's File
• E. L. Doctorow - Ragtime
• William Gaddis - JR
• Romain Gary as Emile Ajar - La vie devant soi
• Arthur Hailey - The Moneychangers
• Thomas Harris - Black Sunday
• Georgette Heyer - My Lord John
• Jack Higgins - The Eagle Has Landed
• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Heat and Dust
• Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot
• J. Sheridan LeFanu - The Purcell Papers
• David Lodge - Changing Places
• Robert Ludlum - The Road to Gandolfo
• Gabriel García Márquez - El Otoño del Patriarca
• Bharati Mukherjee - Wife
• Gary Myers - The House of the Worm
• Tim O'Brien - Northern Lights
• Gerald W. Page, editor - Nameless Places
• Robert B. Parker - Mortal Stakes
• Elizabeth Peters - Crocodile on the Sandbank (the first in the Amelia Peabody series)
• Anthony Powell - Hearing Secret Harmonies
• James Purdy - In A Shallow Grave
• Judith Rossner - Looking for Mister Goodbar
• Nawal El Saadawi - Woman at Point Zero
• Paul Scott - A Division of the Spoils
• Anya Seton - Smouldering Fires
• Tom Sharpe - Blott on the Landscape
• Bob Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy (individual editions)
• M. P. Shiel - Xélucha and Others
• Rex Stout - A Family Affair
• Glendon Swarthout - The Shootist
• Joseph Wambaugh - The Choirboys
• Jack Vance - Showboat World
• Roger Zelazny - Sign of the Unicorn

Poetry

Main article: 1975 in poetry

• Lin Carter - Dreams from R'lyeh
• Leslie Norris - Mountains, Polecats, Pheasants and other Elegies

Non-fiction

• Philip Agee - Inside the Company: CIA Diary
• Kingsley Amis - Rudyard Kipling and His World
• Jacob Bronowski - The Ascent of Man
• L. Sprague de Camp
  • Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  • Lovecraft: a Biography
  • The Miscast Barbarian: a Biography of Robert E. Howard
• Paul Fussell - The Great War and Modern Memory
• Frank Belknap Long - Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nitghtside

Births

• January 13 - Daniel Kehlmann, novelist
• October 27 - Zadie Smith, novelist

Deaths

• January 15 - Sydney Goodsir Smith, poet, dramatist and novelist
• February 14 - Sir P. G. Wodehouse (b.1881), English comic novelist - creator of Jeeves and Wooster
• February 14 - Julian Huxley, biologist and author, brother of Aldous Huxley
• March 13 - Ivo Andrić (b.1892), Serbo-Croatian novelist - winner, 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature
• June 8 - Murray Leinster, science fiction writer
• September 20 - Saint-John Perse, poet
• October 5 - Constance Malleson, actress and writer
• October 22 - Arnold J. Toynbee, historian
• November 13 - R. C. Sherriff, dramatist
• November 19 - Elizabeth Taylor, novelist
• November 23 - Francis Webb, poet
• November 27 - Ross McWhirter, joint author of the Guinness Book of Records
• December 4 - Hannah Arendt, philosopher
• December 7 - Thornton Wilder, novelist and dramatist
• date unknown - Janko Glazer, (b.1893) - poet
• date unknown - Vojko Gorjan, (b.1949) - poet

Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Belles Lettres: Kenneth Burke
• Booker Prize: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Heat and Dust
• See 1975 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Cholmondeley Award: Jenny Joseph, Norman Maccaig, John Ormond
• Eric Gregory Award: John Birtwhistle, Duncan Bush, Val Warner, Philip Holmes, Peter Cash, Alasdair Paterson
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Karl Miller, Cockburn's Millennium
• Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Virginia Hamilton, M. C. Higgins, the Great
• Newdigate prize: Andrew Motion
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugenio Montale
• Premio Nadal: Francisco Umbral, Las ninfas
• Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary as Emile Ajar - La vie devant soi
• Prix Médicis French: Jacques Almira, Le Voyage à Naucratis
• Prix Médicis International: Steven Millhauser, La Vie trop brève d'Edwin Mulhouse - United States
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Edward Albee, Seascape
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Shaara - The Killer Angels
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gary Snyder - Turtle Island
• Viareggio Prize: Paolo Volponi, Il sipario ducale