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The year
1978 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, also known as the Diagram Prize, is a humorous literary award that is given annually to the book with the oddest title. The prize is named after the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London, and The Bookseller, a...
, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles is created. The first winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.
New books
- Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife, and is also known for his novelisations of film scripts...
- Splinter of the Mind's EyeSplinter of the Mind's Eye is a science fiction novel; it is a sequel to both Star Wars and its novelization Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker...
- John L. Parker - Once a Runner
Once a Runner is a novel by American author John L. Parker Jr. and was first published in 1978 by Cedarwinds . In Once a Runner, Parker illustrates the hard work and dedication that is required of an elite runner. Since its publication, the novel has become a cult classic for competitive runners...
- Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism...
- Jake's ThingJake's Thing is a satirical novel written by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1978 by Hutchinson, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year....
- Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is an English novelist, literary critic, professor, and short story writer. He is the son of Sir Kingsley Amis. His works include such novels as Money , London Fields and The Information...
- Success
- Richard Bach
Richard David Bach is an American writer. He is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-sellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah, and others. His books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely...
- Illusions
- Beryl Bainbridge
Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge, DBE is an English novelist.A five-time nominee for the Booker Prize, Bainbridge has never won. She has nonetheless been described as "a national treasure".- Biography :...
- Young AdolfYoung Adolf is a novel written by author Beryl Bainbridge, and first published in 1978 by Duckworth. Presented as biographical fiction, the book's main character is 23-year-old Adolf Hitler. Hitler visits relatives in England, where he gets into serious trouble with the English.-Further reading:*...
- Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic....
- 1985
- Taylor Caldwell
Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell was an Anglo-American novelist and prolific author of popular fiction, also known by the pen names Marcus Holland and Max Reiner, and by her married name of J. Miriam Reback....
- Bright Flows The River
- Chantal Chawaf
Chantal Chawaf is a French writer.She was born in Paris, during the World War II. During her childhood, she studied art and literature. She travelled in Europe before living in the Middle East for some years. When she returned to France, she started publishing in 1974 at the Editions des Femmes,...
- Rougeâtre
- John Cheever
John William Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts,...
- The Stories of John CheeverThe Stories of John Cheever is a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever. It contains some of his most famous stories, including "The Enormous Radio," "Goodbye, My Brother," "The Country Husband," "The Five-Forty-Eight" and "The Swimmer." It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction...
- Brian Cleeve
Brian Brendon Talbot Cleeve, was a prolific writer and popular TV broadcaster. Son of an Irish father and English mother, he was born and raised in England. In his early thirties he moved to Ireland where he lived for the remainder of his life. In late middle age he underwent a profound spiritual...
- Judith
- Mary Elizabeth Counselman
Mary Elizabeth Counselman was an American writer of short stories and poetry.- Biography :Mary Elizabeth Counselman was born on November 19, 1911. She later moved to Gainesville, Georgia where her father was a faculty member at the Riverside Military Academy. She attended Alabama College . Ms...
- Half in ShadowHalf in Shadow is a collection of stories by author Mary Elizabeth Counselman. It was released in 1978 by Arkham House and was the author's first hardcover book. It was published in an edition of 4,288 copies...
- L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography...
- The Best of L. Sprague de Camp
The Best of L. Sprague de Camp is a 1978 collection of writings by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday and in paperback by Ballantine Books the same year...
- The Great Fetish
The Great Fetish is a science fiction novel by L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in two parts, as "Heretic in a Balloon" and "The Witches of Manhattan", in the issues for winter, 1977, and January/February, 1978, respectively...
- L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography...
, Lin CarterLinwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St Petersburg, Florida...
and Björn NybergBjörn Emil Oscar Nyberg, born September 11 1929, is a Swedish fantasy author best known for his additions to the series of Conan stories begun by Robert E. Howard. His primary contribution to the saga was The Return of Conan , which was revised for publication by L. Sprague de Camp. He lives in...
- Conan the SwordsmanConan the Swordsman is a 1978 collection of seven fantasy short stories and associated pieces written by L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg featuring Robert E. Howard's seminal sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in paperback by Bantam Books. The book has...
- Samuel R. Delany
Samuel Ray "Chip" Delany, Jr. is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and nonfiction essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
- Empire: A Visual Novel
- Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo is an American author whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
- Running Dogs
- Phyllis Eisenstein
Phyllis Eisenstein is an author of science fiction/fantasy stories. She was born in Chicago in 1946, and has lived there for most of her life. She published her first two works in 1969, the first in collaboration with her husband Alex...
- Born to ExileBorn to Exile is a Fantasy novel by author Phyllis Eisenstein. It was published by Arkham House in 1978 in an edition of 4,148 copies. It was Eisensteins's first book...
- J. G. Farrell - The Singapore Grip
The Singapore Grip is a novel by the author J.G. Farrell, and was published in 1978.Broadly satirical in nature, it details events during the beginning of World War Two and the Japanese invasion of Singapore....
- Howard Fast
Howard Melvin Fast was a Jewish American novelist and television writer, who wrote also under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...
- Second Generation
- Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a British author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold a total of 100 million copies. Four of his works have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list : The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple and World Without End.-Early life:Follett was...
- Eye of the NeedleEye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the...
- Ernest J. Gaines - In My Father's House
- Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
- Die Flunder - (The Flounder)
- Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
- The Human FactorThe Human Factor is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into a 1979 film, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.-Plot summary:...
- Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison , an American and Irish science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
- The Stainless Steel Rat Wants YouJames Bolivar DiGriz, aka "Slippery Jim", aka The Stainless Steel Rat is the hero of a series of humorous science fiction novels written by Harry Harrison.-Synopses: there have been ten books in the Stainless Steel Rat series....
- John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...
- The World According to GarpThe World According to Garp is John Irving's fourth novel. Published in 1978, the book was a bestseller for several years.A movie adaptation starring Robin Williams was released in 1982, with a screenplay written by Steve Tesich.-Plot:...
- Marshall Jevons
Marshall Jevons is a fictitious crime writer invented and used by William Breit and Kenneth G. Elzinga, professors of economics at Trinity University, San Antonio and the University of Virginia, respectively....
- Murder at the MarginMurder at the Margin is a whodunnit written by U.S. economists William Breit and Kenneth G. Elzinga using the joint pseudonym Marshall Jevons...
- Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare is an Albanian writer/novelist. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the French Académie des Sciences morales et Politique, where he replaced the famous philosopher Karl Popper...
- Ura Me Tri Harqe (The Three-Arched BridgeThe Three Arched Bridge is a 1978 novel by Ismail Kadare. The story concerns the construction of a strategically important Balkan bridge in 1377 in the waning days of the Byzantine Empire, as the Ottomans were advancing into southeastern Europe. Though the scope is historical in this sense, the...
)
- Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American writer of contemporary horror fiction, science fiction, fantasy literature, and screenplays. An estimated 300–350 million copies of King's novels and short story collections have been sold, and many of his stories have been adapted for film, television, and...
- The StandThe Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It re-works the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
- Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American writer of contemporary horror fiction, science fiction, fantasy literature, and screenplays. An estimated 300–350 million copies of King's novels and short story collections have been sold, and many of his stories have been adapted for film, television, and...
- Night ShiftNight Shift is the first collection of short stories by Stephen King, first published in 1978. Many of King's most famous short stories were included in this collection.-Stories collected:-Details:...
(collection of short storiesA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
, including Children of the Corn"Children of the Corn" is a short story by Stephen King, originally published in 1977 in Penthouse, and in in King's collection Night Shift.- Plot summary :...
)
- Christopher Koch
Christopher John Koch AO Australian novelist, was born in Hobart in 1932. He has twice won the Miles Franklin Award. In 1995 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for contribution to Australian literature....
- The Year of Living DangerouslyThe Year of Living Dangerously is a 1982 Peter Weir film adapted from the novel of the same name by its author Christopher Koch, Weir, and David Williamson. The story is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno...
- Judith Krantz
Judith Krantz , is an American novelist who writes in the romance genre. Her works include Scruples, Princess Daisy, and Till We Meet Again.-Early years:...
- ScruplesScruples is a 1978 novel by Judith Krantz. A direct sequel, Scruples Two, was published in 1992.The novel details the life story of protagonist Wilhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop , as she evolves from the overweight "poor relation" in an aristocratic Boston Brahmin family to become a thin, stylish...
- Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science...
- A Swiftly Tilting PlanetA Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet.In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace Murry, a very advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into an adolescent...
- Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 25 thriller novels. There are more than 290 million copies of his books in print, and they have been translated into 32 languages...
- The Holcroft CovenantThe Holcroft Covenant is a 1978 novel by Robert Ludlum. In 1985 it was made into a film of the same name.- Plot :The novel concerns Noel Holcroft, New York architect—and secretly the son of Heinrich Clausen, chief economic advisor to the Third Reich. At some point in the 1970s, Holcroft is...
- John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonald was an American author.A prolific writer of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida, MacDonald's best-known works include the popular and critically-acclaimed Travis McGee series, and his novel The Executioners, which was adapted into the film...
- The Empty Copper SeaThe Empty Copper Sea is the seventeenth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. Macdonald. In it, McGee looks in to the suspicious drowning of Hub Lawless in a boating accident. His $2 million insurance policy leads some to believe he has faked his death.Sam Elliott played McGee in the...
- Ian MacClennan - Billy Bobby
- David Malouf
David George Joseph Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000, and his 1993 novel, Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award , and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.- Personal life :Malouf was...
- An Imaginary LifeAn Imaginary Life is a 1978 novella written by David Malouf.It tells the story of the Roman poet Ovid, during his exile in Tomis.Whilst there, Ovid lives with the natives, although he doesn't understand their language; and forms a bond with a wild boy who is found after having been brought up by...
- Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan, CBE, FRSA, FRSL, is a Booker Prize-winning English novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:McEwan was born in Aldershot, the son of Rose Lilian Violet and David McEwan. He spent much of his childhood in East Asia, Germany and North Africa, where his father, a Scottish army...
- The Cement GardenThe Cement Garden is a 1978 novel by Ian McEwan. It was adapted into a 1993 film of the same name by Andrew Birkin, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Andrew Robertson. A quote from the script is featured in the introduction to the 2001 Madonna song "What It Feels Like for a Girl"...
- James A. Michener
James Albert Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well...
- ChesapeakeChesapeake is a novel by James A. Michener, published by Random House in 1978. The story deals with several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area, from 1583 to 1978.-Plot summary:----...
- Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro is a Canadian short-story writer, winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work, and three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction...
- Beggar Maid
- Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien is an American novelist who mainly writes about his experiences in the Vietnam War and the impact the war had on the American soldiers who fought there...
- Going After CacciatoGoing After Cacciato is a war novel written by author Tim O'Brien and winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 1979. This complex novel is set during the Vietnam War and is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Paul Berlin...
- Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker is an American crime writer. His most famous works are the Spenser series, which was dramatized as a television series, Spenser: For Hire, on the ABC network during the late 1980s. His works incorporate considerable knowledge about the Boston metropolitan area.-Biography:Parker...
- The Judas GoatThe Judas Goat is the fifth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1978.-Plot summary:A somewhat recluse millionaire, Hugh Dixon, hires Spenser to find the members of a terrorist group that bombed a London restaurant where he and his family were dining, resulting in the deaths of his...
- Elizabeth Peters - Street of the Five Moons
- Belva Plain
Belva Plain is a best-selling American author of mainstream women's fiction. She was born in New York City, New York.-Biography:Belva Plain is a third-generation Jewish American who was raised in New York City...
- EvergreenIn botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaves all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
- Mario Puzo
Mario Gianluigi Puzo was a two time Academy Award-winning Italian American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, especially The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film with Francis Ford Coppola.-Biography:Puzo was born in a poor family of Neapolitan immigrants...
- Fools DieFools Die is a 1978 novel by Mario Puzo. Played out in the worlds of gambling, publishing and the film industry, Merlyn and his brother Artie obey their own code of honor in the ferment of contemporary America, where law and organized crime are one and the same...
- Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is a prolific English crime writer, acclaimed for her fine psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
- A Sleeping LifeA Sleeping Life is a crime-novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1978. It features her popular investigator Detective Inspector Wexford, and is the tenth novel in the series...
- Hubert Selby Jr. - Requiem for a Dream
- Whitley Strieber
Louis Whitley Strieber is an American writer best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger and for Communion, a non-fiction account of his perceived experiences with non-human entities...
- The WolfenThe Wolfen , the debut novel by Whitley Strieber, tells the story of two police detectives in New York City who, while investigating the violent deaths of two policemen in a junk yard, discover that a pack of intelligent and savage wolf-like creatures are stalking the city...
- Thomas Sullivan - Diapason
- Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, best known as a writer of historical fiction. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote "for children of all ages from nine to ninety."Sutcliff...
- Song for a Dark Queen
- John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
- Coup
- Philip Van Rensselaer
Philip Van Rensselaer is a member of the Rensselaer family of New York. He recounted his experiences in several books, including That Vanderbilt Woman and Rich Was Better ....
- That Vanderbilt Woman
- Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk is a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.- Biography :...
- War and RemembranceWar and Remembrance is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in 1978, which is the sequel to The Winds of War. It continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on 15 December 1941 and ending on 6 August 1945. This article mainly describes the mini-series...
- Richard Yates
Richard Yates was an American novelist and short story writer, known for his exploration of mid-20th century life.-Biography:...
-A Good SchoolA Good School is a novel by Richard Yates first published in 1978. It is set at a fictional Connecticut prep school in the early 1940s and relates the coming of age of a group of mainly WASP boys who at the same time prepare themselves, if half-heartedly, to go to war immediately after graduation...
- Frank Yerby
Frank Garvin Yerby was an African American historical novelist. He is best known as the first African American to write a best-selling novel and to have a book purchased by a Hollywood studio for a film adaptation...
- Hail the Conquering HeroHail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards....
- Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels. He won the Nebula award three times and the Hugo award six times , including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995)...
- The Courts of ChaosThe Courts of Chaos is the fifth book in the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.This book ends the original series narrated by Corwin. The next series begins with Trumps of Doom following his son, Merlin, as the protagonist....
New drama
- David Hare
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Biography :Hare was born David Rippon in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Theodore Rippon, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing College and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
- PlentyPlenty is a play by David Hare about British post-war disillusion. Susan Traherne, a former secret agent, is a woman conflicted by the contrast between her past, exciting triumphs — she had worked behind enemy lines as a Special Operations Executive courier in Nazi-occupied France during World War...
- Ira Levin
Ira Levin was an American author, dramatist and songwriter.-Professional life:Levin attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. At Drake, he regularly played poker with other notables, such as Martin Erlichman and Eugene Schulman...
- DeathtrapDeathtrap is a 1978 play by Ira Levin that involves many plot twists. It was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and holds the record as the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway...
- Mary O'Malley
Mary O'Malley was an Irish playwright, the founder of Belfast’s Lyric Players Theatre.-Life:At the age of thirteen, whilst stopping off in Dublin, on the way to begin her first year at Loreto Convent, Navan, she attended the Abbey Theatre...
- Once a Catholic
Poetry
- Robert Minhinnick
Robert Minhinnick is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator.Minhinnick was born in Neath, and now lives in Porthcawl. He studied at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University of Wales, Cardiff. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth and...
- A Thread in the Maze
- John Tripp
John Tripp was an Anglo-Welsh poet and short-story writer.Born in Bargoed, Wales, he worked for the BBC as a journalist with the BBC, and later became a civil servant. He edited the literary magazine, Planet, and was a popular performance poet...
- Collected Poems
Non-fiction
- Roger Caron
Roger "Mad Dog" Caron is a Canadian bank robber and the author of the influential 1978 prison memoir Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars...
- Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars
- Lord David Cecil
Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, usually known as Lord David Cecil, CH , was an English aristocrat, literary scholar, biographer and academic...
- A Portrait of Jane Austen
- Charlotte Chandler
Charlotte Chandler is an American biographer and playwright who has written biographies of Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Alfred Hitchcock...
- Hello, I Must Be Going!Hello, I Must Be Going is a 1978 biography of Groucho Marx by Charlotte Chandler. The biography was written towards the end of Groucho's life , and chronicles many interviews between Chandler and Groucho. Anecdotes and stories of Groucho's life and career as a star of stage and screen are...
- Christina Crawford
Christina Crawford is an American writer and actress, best known as the author of Mommie Dearest, an exposé of alleged child abuse by her mother, actress Joan Crawford.- Early life and education :...
- Mommie DearestMommie Dearest is a memoir and exposé written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of actress Joan Crawford. The book was published in 1978.The book depicts Christina's childhood and her relationship with her mother....
- Gerald Durrell
Gerald Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author, and television presenter...
- The Garden of the GodsThe Garden of the Gods is the third book in the autobiographical Corfu trilogy by naturalist and author, Gerald Durrell , following My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts, and Relatives.Summary----...
- John Gall - Systemantics
Systemantics is a text by John Gall in which he proposes several "laws" of systems' failures. Systemantics is a play on words on semantics and systems display antics....
- H. R. Haldeman
Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and for his role in events leading to the Watergate burglaries and the Watergate scandal — for which he was found guilty of...
- The Ends of Power
- Mollie Katzen
Mollie Katzen is an American chef, cookbook author and artist. She is best known for her vegetarian cookbook, the Moosewood Cookbook , inspired by the Moosewood Restaurant collective she helped create near Cornell University and Ithaca College...
- Moosewood CookbookThe Moosewood Cookbook is a recipe book written by Mollie Katzen when she was a member of the Moosewood collective in Ithaca, New York. The original edition, published in 1978 by the then-fledgeling Ten Speed Press in California, was hand-lettered and imaginitively illustrated by Katzen and...
- Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
- The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
- David Rorvik
David Rorvik is an American journalist and novelist who authored the 1978 book In His Image: the Cloning of a Man, in which he claimed to have been part of a successful endeavor to create a clone of a human being....
- In His Image: The Cloning of a Man
Births
- June 26 - Eric Shapiro
Eric Shapiro is an American author of novels, short stories, and essays, as well as a feature filmmaker.-Biography:Eric Shapiro was born in Freehold, New Jersey...
, novelist
- Ju;y 23 - Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Born in Cooperstown, New York, Groff has a degree from Amherst College and an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin–Madison...
, author
- date unknown
- David Llewellyn
David Llewellyn , is a Welsh novelist. He grew up in Pontypool and graduated from Dartington College of Arts in 2000. His first novel, Eleven, was published by Seren Press in 2006. His second novel, Trace Memory, a spin-off of the BBC drama series Torchwood was published in March 2008. Everything...
, screenwriter
- Rachel Trezise
Rachel Trezise is a Welsh author, born in Cwmparc, Rhondda.-Background and career:Trezise studied at the University of Glamorgan and University of Limerick in Ireland. Her first novel, In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl, released in 2002 while she was still as a student, received broad critical acclaim...
, novelist and short story writer
Deaths
- January 12 - Robert Harbin
Robert Harbin was a British magician and writer. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the Zig Zag Girl...
, author of many books on origamiis the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper....
- March 1 - Paul Scott
Paul Mark Scott was a British novelist, playwright, and poet, best known for his monumental tetralogy the Raj Quartet. His novel Staying On won the Booker Prize for 1977.-Early life:...
, Raj Quartet author
- March 24 - Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
, science fiction writer
- April 14 - F. R. Leavis
Frank Raymond Leavis CH was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught and studied for nearly his entire life at Downing College, Cambridge.-Early life:...
, literary critic
- May 1 - Sylvia Townsend Warner
Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner was an English novelist and poet.-Life:Sylvia Townsend Warner was born at Harrow on the Hill, the only child of George Townsend Warner and his wife Eleanora Hudleston...
, poet and novelist
- May 12 - Louis Zukofsky
Louis Zukofsky was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. He was co-founder and primary theorist of the Objectivist group of poets and was to be an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in America and abroad.-Early life and writings:He was born in...
, modernist poet
- September 15 - Edmund Crispin
Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, an English crime writer and composer.- Life and work :...
, crime writer
- September 28 - Pope John Paul I
Pope John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
, author of Illustrissimi under his real name of Albino Luciani
- November 15 - Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, anthropologist and author
- date unknown - Walter C. Alvarez
Walter Clement Alvarez was an American doctor of Spanish descent. He authored several dozen books on medicine, and wrote Introductions and Forewords for many others. Alvarez was known for his dry wit....
, medical author
Awards
- Nobel Prize for Literature: Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish-born Jewish American Nobel Prize-winning author and one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement.- Early life :...
- Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, also known as the Diagram Prize, is a humorous literary award that is given annually to the book with the oddest title. The prize is named after the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London, and The Bookseller, a...
is first awarded. The winner is Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.
Canada
- See 1978 Governor General's Awards
Each winner of the 1978 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-English Language:*Fiction: Alice Munro, Who Do You Think You Are?...
for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
France
- Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
: Patrick ModianoPatrick Modiano is a French language novelist born 30 July 1945 in Boulogne-Billancourt of a father of Jewish Italian origins and a Belgian mother, Louisa Colpijn...
, Rue des boutiques obscures
- Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match their talent." In 1970 the Prix Médicis étranger, a foreign prize, was added to award a writer...
French: Georges PerecGeorges Perec was a highly-regarded French novelist, filmmaker and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group.-Life:...
, La vie mode d'emploi
- Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match their talent." In 1970 the Prix Médicis étranger, a foreign prize, was added to award a writer...
International: Aleksandr ZinovyevAleksandr Aleksandrovich Zinovyev was an internationally recognised Russian logician, sociologist and writer....
, L’Avenir radieux - RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an English author and philosopher, best known for her novels about sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100...
, The Sea, The SeaThe Sea, the Sea is the 19th novel by Iris Murdoch. It won the Booker Prize in 1978.-Plot summary:The Sea, the Sea is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs...
- Cholmondeley Award
The Cholmondeley Award is an annual award for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966...
: Christopher HopeChristopher Hope is a South African novelist and poet who is known for his controversial works dealing with racism and politics in South Africa.-Life:...
, Leslie NorrisGeorge Leslie Norris , was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. Up to 1974 he earned his living as a college lecturer, teacher and headmaster...
, Peter ReadingPeter Reading is a prolific English poet. He is known for his choice of ugly subject matter, and use of classical metres. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry describes his verse as strongly anti-romantic, disenchanted and usually satirical.-As a poet :His first collection was...
, D.M. Thomas, R.S. Thomas
- Eric Gregory Award
The Eric Gregory Award is given by the Society of Authors to British poets under 30 on submission. The awards are up to a sum value of £24000 annually.-Winners:*2009: Liz Berry, James Brookes, Swithun Cooper, Alex McRae, Sam Riviere...
: Ciaran CarsonCiarán Carson, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a poet and novelist. He lives in Belfast.-Early years:Ciarán Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family. He attended St Marys CBGS Belfast before proceeding to Queen's University, Belfast to read for a degree in English...
, Peter Denman, Christopher ReidChristopher Reid is a British poet, essayist, cartoonist, and writer. He has been nominated twice for the Whitbread Awards in 1996 and in 1997. A contemporary of Martin Amis, he was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He is one of the exponents of Martian poetry which employs unusual metaphors to...
, Paul Wilkins, Martyn A. Ford, James Sutherland-Smith
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for fiction: Maurice GeeMaurice Gee , is one of New Zealand's most distinguished novelists and was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Plumb.-Life:...
, Plumb
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for biography: Robert GittingsRobert William Victor Gittings CBE , was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and minor poet...
, The Older Hardy
United States
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction, Peter Taylor
For other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer....
- Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years...
: Vonda McIntyreVonda Neel McIntyre is an American science fiction author.-Biography:Vonda N. McIntyre, daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, earned a degree in biology from the University of Washington in 1970. That same year, she attended the Clarion Writers Workshop, founded at the Clarion...
, DreamsnakeDreamsnake is a 1978 science fiction novel written by Vonda McIntyre. Dreamsnake won the 1979 Hugo Award, the 1978 Nebula Award, and the 1979 Locus Award. The novel follows a healer on a journey while she seeks to replace one of her healer snakes. Nuclear war, biotechnology, alternate sex...
- Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
for children's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres. Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century...
: Katherine PatersonKatherine Paterson is an American author of books for children.- Birth and early education:Paterson was born in Jiangsu, China to Christian missionaries George and Mary Womeldorf. Her father was a principal at Sutton 690, a school for girls, and traveled throughout China as part of his missionary...
, Bridge to Terabithia
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than being the calendar...
: Donald L. CoburnDonald L. Coburn is an American dramatist. He received the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play, The Gin Game.Coburn was born in Baltimore, Maryland to parents who divorced two years later. He graduated from high school in 1957, then served in the U.S. Navy from 1958 to 1960...
, The Gin Game
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It replaced the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.* 1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener...
: James Alan McPhersonJames Alan McPherson is a United States short story writer and essayist, and a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973.-Biography:...
, Elbow RoomElbow Room is a 1977 short story collection by American author James Alan McPherson. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1978.-External links:*...
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
: Howard NemerovHoward Nemerov was American poet, twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, Collected Poems
Elsewhere
- Premio Nadal
Premio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino. It has been awarded every year on January 6 since 1944...
: Germán Sánchez Espeso, Narciso
- Viareggio Prize
The Viareggio Literary Prize is a prestigious Italian literary award, whose first edition was in 1930, and is named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio...
: Antonio Altomonte, Dopo il presidente