See also: 1950 in literature, other events of 1951, 1952 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus.

• From Here to Eternity by James Jones is published.

• A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell is published. It is the first novel of his A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy.

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is published.

New books

• The Balance Wheel - Taylor Caldwell
• The Blessing - Nancy Mitford
• Boy at the Window - Owen Dodson
• The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
• The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
• The Cruel Sea - Nicholas Monsarrat
• The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
• The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
• Foundation - Isaac Asimov
• The Foundling - Cardinal Spellman
• From Here to Eternity - James Jones
• Lie Down In Darkness - William Styron
• The Loved and the Lost - Morley Callaghan
• Moses - Sholem Asch
• My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
• Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis
• A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell
• Return to Paradise - James A. Michener
• Spartacus - Howard Fast
• The Wanderer - Mika Waltari
• A Woman Called Fancy - Frank Yerby

Births

• August 20 - Greg Bear, science fiction author
• August 24 - Orson Scott Card, science fiction author
• December 22 - Charles de Lint, Canadian fantasy author and Celtic folk musician

Deaths

• February 7 - Sinclair Lewis, novelist
• February 13 - Lloyd C. Douglas, author
• February 19 - André Gide, author
• March 14 - Algernon Blackwood, writer
• March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, African-American, author & filmmaker

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Yates , Amos Fortune, Free Man
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Pär Fabian Lagerkvist
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Conrad Richter, The Town
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Carl Sandburg, Complete Poems