Literature from the 1950s

[Dark Muse]

While I know there must be books published in the 1950's that I have read, for some reason I cannot bring to any immediately to mind, and granted I do not necessarily look up the publication date of every book I read, I unusually have a good idea of when the books I read were published and I often do get curious and look up their pub dates. I read a lot of 20th century literature and I have distinct recollections of books I have read from the early 1900s-1940s, and I have distinct recollections of things I have read from the 1960s and later, but the whole period of the 1950s I have trouble brining to mind what books were published during this era.

I know one of my all time favorites "The Catcher in the Rye" was published in the 50s and I know of a few other books, but on the whole I draw a blank when considering literature from this period of time.

So I would like recommendations on good literature which came out of the 1950s

[MANICHAEAN]

Hi.

Newly published books I remember reading from the 60's were:

1. Catch 22 Joseph Heller. (Funniest book I have ever read.)

2. One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich. A.Solzhenitsyn. (First time I ever read any Russian work.)

3. The Master & the Margarita. M.Bulgakov. (Could not finish it as I found it too disturbing!)

4. The Third Policeman. Flann O'Brian. (Vivid Irish imagination.)

Hope that helps. Good to see you back on the main pages again.

Best regards

M.

[MANICHAEAN]

Sorry. Read it wrong. Did 60's for 50's

[Dark Muse]

Hope that helps. Good to see you back on the main pages again.

Thank you, you are right it has been a while since I have popped up here.

In regards to the mistake, when I was trying to figure out books I may have read from the 50s, to be fair Heller, did start writing Catch-22 in the 50s, though it was not published until the early 60s.

And as a lover of Russian Lit I will have to check out One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich.

So thanks for the recommendations even if off by 10 years :p

[Charles Darnay]

The Crucible, if you have not read it, is great.

There are a couple of Hemingway novels from the 50s - I think "Old Man and the Sea" and "Across the River and Into the Trees".

"The Recognitions" by Gaddis, if you are into the postmodern.

[Dark Muse]

The Crucible, if you have not read it, is great.

There are a couple of Hemingway novels from the 50s - I think "Old Man and the Sea" and "Across the River and Into the Trees".

"The Recognitions" by Gaddis, if you are into the postmodern.

I read The Crucible in high school, and I loved it. I love Hemingway but did not realize that any of his works were published in the 50s.

[mortalterror]

1959 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (Germany)
1958 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italy)
1957 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia)
1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac (USA)
1957 Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs by Adonis (Syria)
1956 Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (USA)
1956 Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill (USA)
1956 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil)
1955 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Russia)
1955 The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens (USA)
1955 Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
1954 Sunstone by Octavio Paz (Mexico)
1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Britain)
1953 Gimpel, the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland)
1953 Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
1952 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (USA)
1952 The Shield of Achilles by W.H. Auden (Britain)
1952 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (USA)
1952 The Financial Expert by R.K. Narayan (India)
1951 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (Britain)
1951 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (USA)
1951 Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (France)
1950 Canto General by Pablo Neruda (Chile)
1950 The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco (Romania)

[Dark Muse]

1959 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (Germany)
1958 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italy)
1957 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia)
1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac (USA)
1957 Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs by Adonis (Syria)
1956 Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (USA)
1956 Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill (USA)
1956 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil)
1955 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Russia)
1955 The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens (USA)
1955 Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
1954 Sunstone by Octavio Paz (Mexico)
1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Britain)
1953 Gimpel, the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland)
1953 Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
1952 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (USA)
1952 The Shield of Achilles by W.H. Auden (Britain)
1952 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (USA)
1952 The Financial Expert by R.K. Narayan (India)
1951 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (Britain)
1951 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (USA)
1951 Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (France)
1950 Canto General by Pablo Neruda (Chile)
1950 The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco (Romania)

Great list. Love the diversity, maybe I can use some of these recommendations to help with my Around the World in 80 Books challenge.

[KCurtis]

Thank you, you are right it has been a while since I have popped up here.

In regards to the mistake, when I was trying to figure out books I may have read from the 50s, to be fair Heller, did start writing Catch-22 in the 50s, though it was not published until the early 60s.

And as a lover of Russian Lit I will have to check out One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich.

So thanks for the recommendations even if off by 10 years :p

What about Saul Bellow? Oh, I just looked at the list mortal terror posted, thorough.

[Dark Muse]

What about Saul Bellow? Oh, I just looked at the list mortal terror posted, thorough.

I have actually read a couple of his works and enjoyed them. When I was trying to recall works I have read published from this time, I had thought about him, but I was not sure off the top of my head if he published in the 50s, but that he might have been.

[AuntShecky]

John Cheever , Bernard Malamud, and John Updike published short stories in the 1950s. I believe that Bellow's early novels, such as Dangling Man and The Adventures of Augie March were first published in the 1950s. Another "John" -- O'Hara is the American novelist I most associate with the Fifties.


American dramatists who flourished in that decade were Arthur Miller and
Tennesse Williams. And I just found out, via the "Google machine" that O'Neill's two masterpieces, Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh were both first performed in the fifties, even though they had been written a decade or so earlier.

Don't forget the "Beat" poets of that decade as well.

[OrphanPip]

James Baldwin's first two novels, Go Tell it On the Mountain and Giovanni's Room, were published in the 50s.

[KCurtis]

I have actually read a couple of his works and enjoyed them. When I was trying to recall works I have read published from this time, I had thought about him, but I was not sure off the top of my head if he published in the 50s, but that he might have been.
I recently read The Adventures of Augie March, by Bellow. It was good.


James Baldwin's first two novels, Go Tell it On the Mountain and Giovanni's Room, were published in the 50s.

I'm glad you mentioned a black novelist. I have not read Go Tell it On the Mountain, maybe I should one day. Are there any other black novelists? There must be some, I can't think of any and I feel that there are not enough. I can't read Uncle Toms Cabin, too hard to read.

[Dark Muse]

I'm glad you mentioned a black novelist. I have not read Go Tell it On the Mountain, maybe I should one day. Are there any other black novelists? There must be some, I can't think of any and I feel that there are not enough. I can't read Uncle Toms Cabin, too hard to read.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was published in the 50s

[Emil Miller]

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell 1957- 1960

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene 1951

The Quiet American by Graham Greene 1955

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene 1958

[Desolation]

I'm glad you mentioned a black novelist. I have not read Go Tell it On the Mountain, maybe I should one day. Are there any other black novelists? There must be some, I can't think of any and I feel that there are not enough. I can't read Uncle Toms Cabin, too hard to read.

I'm embarrassingly under-read in black fiction...But the most often cited are James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison.

As far as general 50's literature goes, Beckett's "trilogy" of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable were released in the early 50's.

[OrphanPip]

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was published in the 50s as well. Langston Hughes was still publishing in the 50s also.

[PeterL]

Be sure to read everything that you can find by C. M. Kornbluth.

[larryF]

two big ones that havent been mentioned.

Jack Kerouac - On the Road(1957)
William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch(1959)


also:
John Cheever - The Wapshot Chronicle(1957)
Graham Greene - The Quiet American(1955)
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita(1955)
Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin(1957)
Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano(1952)
Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan(1959)

[Heteronym]

Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus (1959)

[mal4mac]

Brit. authors active in the 1950s:

Love Among the Ruins (1953) Evelyn Waugh
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis (1954)
The Quiet American Graham Greene (1955)
Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
Eating People is Wrong Malcolm Bradbury (1959)
The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham (1957)
The Genius and the Goddess Aldous Huxley (1955)
The Wind From Nowhere (1961) JG Ballard (worth stretching the time-scale for Ballard!)
Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark - various

[the facade]

I personally think that Ellison's "Invisible Man" is one of the most important works of the 20th-century.

[cafolini]

1959 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (Germany)
1958 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italy)
1957 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia)
1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac (USA)
1957 Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs by Adonis (Syria)
1956 Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (USA)
1956 Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill (USA)
1956 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa (Brazil)
1955 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Russia)
1955 The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens (USA)
1955 Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (Mexico)
1954 Sunstone by Octavio Paz (Mexico)
1954 Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Britain)
1953 Gimpel, the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland)
1953 Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
1952 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (USA)
1952 The Shield of Achilles by W.H. Auden (Britain)
1952 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (USA)
1952 The Financial Expert by R.K. Narayan (India)
1951 Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (Britain)
1951 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (USA)
1951 Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (France)
1950 Canto General by Pablo Neruda (Chile)
1950 The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco (Romania)

Excellent list. I should add The Rat Race, etc. Some of the best of the century were published in the 50's. The 50's launched the most intense social revolution that ever occurred in USA. It didn't become status quo until the 60's. But the roots are in the 50's. And those days were also the days when the famous generation gap began to be carved. In terms of music, the 50's were a most powerful bridge into the future.