This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1944.
Events
February 6 – The première of Jean Anouilh's tragedy Antigone takes place at the Théâtre de l'Atelier in Nazi-occupied Paris. March 19 – The première of Pablo Picasso's play Desire Caught by the Tail (Le Désir attrapé par la queue) is a private reading in Paris by the author that includes Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Valentine Hugo and Raymond Queneau. The play was directed by Albert Camus. May – The première of Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist drama No Exit is held at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Nazi-occupied Paris. June 1 and 5 – The first and (modified) second lines respectively of Paul Verlaine's 1866 poem Chanson d'automne ("Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne / Bercent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone") are broadcast by the Allies over BBC Radio Londres among coded messages to the French Resistance to prepare for the D-Day landings (second broadcast at 22:15 local time). June D-Day landings and Invasion of Normandy: The English soldier-poet Keith Douglas is killed; William Golding commands Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) 460 at Gold Beach; Vernon Scannell (as John Bain) experiences the incident that gives rise to the poem "Walking Wounded" (1965) and is wounded; J. D. Salinger, having landed on Utah Beach, works on an early version of The Catcher in the Rye during lulls in the fighting; Dennis B. Wilson writes the poem that appears as Elegy of a Common Soldier in 2012; Kingsley Amis and John Wyndham serve as signallers; Alexander Baron's experiences of the invasion form the basis of his novel From the City, From the Plough (1948). The final edition of the Breton nationalist newspaper L'Heure Bretonne is published. August – With the Liberation of Paris, Jean Genet's novel Notre Dame des Fleurs (1943) can begin to circulate openly. September 14 – Laurence Olivier takes the title rôle in the production of Richard III that opens at The Old Vic in London. October The contents of the Załuski Library are destroyed during the planned destruction of Warsaw by its Nazi occupiers. The teenage Günter Grass, having volunteered for active service, is drafted into the Waffen-SS. October 2 After a few months' internment at Drancy and Birkenau, Benjamin Fondane is one of 700 prisoners put to death in the gas chamber – the last such killings before Birkenau is evacuated. Upon selection, Fondane is heard joking about the irony of his misfortune. Dylan Thomas is to be best man at the wedding of a friend and fellow Welsh poet, Vernon Watkins, in London, but fails to turn up. November 9 – Collaborationist Georges Suarez becomes the first journalist executed during the épuration légale in France. November 22 – Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V is released in the UK, and is the first film of a Shakespeare play to be produced in colour. November 23 – Arthur Miller's play The Man Who Had All the Luck (written in 1940) has its Broadway première at the Forrest Theatre in New York City, but runs for only four performances. December 26 – Tennessee Williams' semi-autobiographical "memory play" The Glass Menagerie, adapted from a short story, is premièred at the Civic Theatre in Chicago. undated The English actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal arrives in India for the first time with the Entertainments National Service Association, touring Patrick Hamilton's drama Gaslight; from 1947 Kendal's touring repertory company "Shakespeareana" will perform Shakespeare in towns and villages across India for some decades. George Orwell's critical essay "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dalí" is printed in this year's issue of the British annual miscellany The Saturday Book but the publisher (Hutchinson) subsequently decides that it must be suppressed on grounds of obscenity and it is accordingly physically cut out of each copy.
New books
Fiction Samuel Hopkins Adams – Canal Town Jorge Amado – Terras do Sem Fim (The Violent Land) Esther Averill – The Cat Club Vaikom Muhammad Basheer – Balyakalasakhi H. E. Bates – Fair Stood the Wind for France Saul Bellow – Dangling Man Jorge Luis Borges – Ficciones Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon – No Nightingales Christianna Brand – Green for Danger John Brophy – Target Island John Bude – Death in White Pyjamas John Dickson Carr Till Death Do Us Part He Wouldn't Kill Patience (as Carter Dickson) Joyce Cary – The Horse's Mouth Louis-Ferdinand Céline – Guignol's Band Peter Cheyney The Dark Street They Never Say When Agatha Christie Death Comes as the End Towards Zero Absent in the Spring (as Mary Westmacott) Colette – Gigi J.J. Connington – Jack-in-the-Box Edmund Crispin – The Case of the Gilded Fly A. J. Cronin – The Green Years Esther Forbes – Johnny Tremain Anthony Gilbert – The Scarlet Button Walter Greenwood – Something in My Heart L. P. Hartley – The Shrimp and the Anemone John Hersey – A Bell for Adano Georgette Heyer – Friday's Child Dorothy B. Hughes – The Delicate Ape Margaret Irwin – Young Bess Charles R. Jackson – The Lost Weekend Pamela Hansford Johnson – The Trojan Brothers Kalki Krishnamurthy – Sivagamiyin Sapatham (சிவகாமியின் சபதம், The Vow of Sivagami) Pär Lagerkvist – Dvärgen Margaret Landon – Anna and the King of Siam (semi-fictionalised biography, basis for 1951 musical The King and I) Anne Morrow Lindbergh – The Steep Ascent E. C. R. Lorac Checkmate to Murder Fell Murder H. P. Lovecraft – Marginalia Curzio Malaparte – Kaputt W. Somerset Maugham – The Razor's Edge Oscar Micheaux – The Case of Mrs. Wingate Gladys Mitchell – My Father Sleeps Alberto Moravia – Agostino (Two Adolescents) Gunnar Myrdal – An American Dilemma Anaïs Nin – Under a Glass Bell Ernest Raymond – For Them That Trespass Rafael Sabatini – King in Prussia Anna Seghers Transit "Der Ausflug der toten Mädchen" (The Excursion of the Dead Girls, short story) Anya Seton – Dragonwyck Clark Ashton Smith – Lost Worlds Eleanor Smith – Magic Lantern Howard Spring – Hard Facts Philip Van Doren Stern – The Greatest Gift (first trade publication) Rex Stout – Not Quite Dead Enough Cecil Street – Death Invades the Meeting Phoebe Atwood Taylor (as Alice Tilton) – Dead Ernest Donald Wandrei – The Eye and the Finger Henry S. Whitehead – Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales Martin Wickremasinghe – Gamperaliya Vaughan Wilkins – Being Met Together Valentine Williams – Courier to Marrakesh Kathleen Winsor – Forever Amber
Children and young people Esther Averill – The Cat Club Enid Blyton – The Island of Adventure Robert Bright – Georgie Alice Dalgliesh – The Silver Pencil Eleanor Estes – The Hundred Dresses Pipaluk Freuchen – Ivik, den faderløse (translated as Eskimo Boy) Eric Linklater – The Wind on the Moon Feodor Rojankovsky – The Tall Book of Nursery Tales Margery Sharp – Cluny Brown Tasha Tudor – Mother Goose
Drama Jean Anouilh – Antigone Reginald Beckwith – A Soldier for Christmas Ugo Betti – Corruzione al Palazzo di giustizia (Corruption in the Palace of Justice, written) Bertolt Brecht – The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis), written Mary Chase – Harvey Daphne du Maurier – The Years Between Balwant Gargi – Lohākuṭ (Blacksmith) Philip King – See How They Run Max Otto Koischwitz – Vision of Invasion (broadcast propaganda) Esther McCracken – No Medals J. B. Priestley – How Are They at Home? Harold Purcell – The Rest is Silence Terence Rattigan – Love In Idleness (rewriting of Less Than Kind) Lawrence Riley – Time to Kill Jean-Paul Sartre – No Exit (Huis Clos) John Van Druten – I Remember Mama Franz Werfel – Jacobowsky and the Colonel (Jacobowsky und der Oberst) Tennessee Williams – The Glass Menagerie
Poetry James K. Baxter – Beyond the Palisade Paul Éluard – Au Rendez-vous allemand (To the German Rendezvous) Five Young American Poets, volume 3, containing work by Eve Merriam, John Frederick Nims, Jean Garrigue, Tennessee Williams and Alejandro Carrión Nicholas Moore – The Glass Tower Francis Brett Young – The Island
Non-fiction Charles William Beebe – Book of Naturalists F. Brunea-Fox – Orașul Măcelului (City of Slaughter) Aleister Crowley – The Book of Thoth Friedrich Hayek – The Road to Serfdom Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno – Dialectic of Enlightenment (Dialektik der Aufklärung) Gunnar Myrdal – An American Dilemma Beverley Nichols – Verdict on IndiaMihir Bose: "A Hatred for Hindus", History Today (Vol 66/12, December 2016), p. 3. Karl Polanyi – The Great Transformation L. T. C. Rolt – Narrow Boat Charles Stevenson – Ethics and Language G. M. Trevelyan – English Social History: a survey of six centuries from Chaucer to Queen Victoria
Births January 8 – Terry Brooks, American writer of fantasy fiction January 17 – Jan Guillou, Swedish author January 21 – Jack Abbott, American writer (suicide 2002) January 24 – David Gerrold, American screenwriter and novelist February 7 – Witi Ihimaera, New Zealand Māori writer February 9 – Alice Walker, American novelist and poet February 11 – Joy Williams, American fiction writer February 14 Carl Bernstein, American journalist Alan Parker, English director and writer (died 2020) February 16 – Richard Ford, American novelist February 18 – Elizabeth Nunez, Trinidadian-born American novelist (died 2024) February 27 Ken Grimwood, American writer (died 2003) Roger Scruton, English philosopher and writer (died 2020)Sir Roger Scruton, conservative philosopher of wide accomplishments – obituary April 18 – Kathy Acker, American postmodernist experimental novelist and punk poet (died 1997) April 25 – Mohammed ben Abdallah, Ghanaian playwright (died 2025) May 13 – Armistead Maupin, American novelist May 17 – Uldis Bērziņš, Latvian poet and translator May 18 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist (died 2001) June 5 John Fraser, Canadian journalist Nigel Rees, English writer and broadcaster June 9 - Jeanne DuPrau, American writer July 21 – Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian-born novelist and children's writer (died 2017) August 10 – Barbara Erskine, English novelist August 18 – Paula Danziger, American young adult novelist (died 2004) August 19 – Bodil Malmsten, Swedish writer (died 2016) August 22 – Tom Leonard, Scottish dialect poet August 30 – Molly Ivins, American journalist (died 2007) September 19 – Ismet Özel, Turkish poet September 24 – Eavan Boland, Irish poet (died 2020) October 2 – Vernor Vinge, American science fiction novelist October 5 – Tomás de Jesús Mangual, Puerto Rican journalist (died 2011) November 7 – Peter Wilby, English journalist November 24 – Eintou Pearl Springer, Trinidadian poet November 28 – Rita Mae Brown, American writer and political activist December 1 – Tahar Ben Jelloun, French Moroccan-born novelist December 2 – Botho Strauß, German writer and dramatist December 9 – Ki Longfellow, American novelist December 15 – Elizabeth Arnold, English children's writer December 17 – Jack L. Chalker, American science fiction novelist (died 2005) December 21 – James Sallis, American novelist, poet and biographer (died 2026) unknown dates Ishtiaq Ahmad, prolific Urdu-language espionage fiction writer (died 2015) Margaret Busby, Ghanaian-born British publisher Shena Mackay, Scottish-born novelist Patrick O'Connell, Canadian poet (died 2005)
Deaths January 6 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist (born 1857) January 7 – Napoleon Lapathiotis, Greek lawyer and poet (born 1888) January 8 – Joseph Jastrow, Polish American psychologist (born 1863) January 15– Armand Praviel, French poet, novelist, and journalist (born 1875) January 31 – Jean Giraudoux, French dramatist (born 1882) February – David Vogel, Hebrew poet (killed in Auschwitz concentration camp, born 1891) February 2 – Jane Agnes Stewart, American author, editor, and contributor to periodicals (born 1860) February 9 – Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux, English-born poet, biographer and novelist (born 1857) February 10 – Israel Joshua Singer, Yiddish novelist (born 1893) February 12 – Olive Custance, Lady Alfred Douglas, English poet (born 1874)