See also: 1951 in literature, other events of 1952, 1953 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report .

• January 29 - James Jones wins the National Book Award for his 1951 novel, From Here to Eternity.

• November 25 - Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens in London

New books

• Adventures in Two Worlds - A.J. Cronin
• Arrow in the Blue - Arthur Koestler
• A Buyer's Market - Anthony Powell
• Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
• The Devils of Loudun - Aldous Huxley
• Drama from Ibsen to Eliot - Raymond Williams
• East of Eden - John Steinbeck
• Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov
• Giant - Edna Ferber
• The Gown of Glory - Agnes Sligh Turnbull
• Heaven and Earth - Carlo Coccioli
• The Hidden Flower - Pearl S. Buck
• The Houses in Between - Howard Spring
• The Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
• Island of Desire - Edith Templeton
• Judgment Night - C. L. Moore
• A Many-splendoured Thing - Han Suyin
• Martha Quest - Doris Lessing
• The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
• The Power of Positive Thinking - Norman Vincent Peale
• The Saracen Blade - Frank Yerby
• The Silver Chalice - Thomas B. Costain
• The Small Miracle - Paul Gallico
• Steamboat Gothic - Frances Parkinson Keyes
• Vermeer - Lawrence Gowing
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis
• Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

Births

• February 19 - Amy Tan, novelist
• February 29 - Tim Powers, American fantasy author
• March 11 - Douglas Adams, science fiction author
• Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, author of fantasy novels under the pennames Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm

Deaths

• February 19 - Knut Hamsun, author
• May 26 - Eugene Jolas, writer, literary translator and critic
• September 29 – George Santayana, writer
• November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski , Finnish poet

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Estes , Ginger Pye
• Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Joseph Kramm , The Shrike
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Herman Wouk - The Caine Mutiny
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems