The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.
1956 Literary Facts
Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s Der Besuch der alten Dame: Ein tragische Komoedie; mit einem Nachwort (The Visit) is produced
Matt Cohen publishes Korsoniloff
Leonard Cohen publishes Let Us Compare Mythologies
Juan Ramón Jiménez receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Farley Mowat publishes Lost in the Barrens
Naguib Mahfouz publishes Bayn al-qasrayn Palace Walk: The Cairo Trilogy, I
Meyer Levin publishes Compulsion
Paer Lagerkvist publishes Sibyllan (The Sibyl)
Italo Calvino publishes Fiabe italiane: Raccolte della tradizione popolare durante gli ultimi cento anni e transcritte in lingua dai vari dialetti (Italian Fables)
Agatha Christie publishes Dead Man’s Folly
Mario Benedetti publishes Poemas de la oficina
John Osborne publishes Look Back in Anger
Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night is produced
S. J. Perelman’s screenplay Around the World in Eighty Days is adapted for a major motion picture by United Artists
Elizabeth Bishop receives Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Poems—North & South and A Cold Spring
Mongo Beti publishes Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (The Poor Christ of Bomba)
John Ashbery publishes Some Trees
Aime Cesaire publishes Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (Return to My Native Land)
Jean Genet’s Le Balcon (The Balcony) is published
Allen Ginsberg publishes Howl and Other Poems
Elie Wiesel publishes Un Di Velt Hot Geshvign (Night)
Richard Wilbur publishes Things of This World: Poems
The Cuban Revolution is waged; Marxist forces under Fidel Castro depose Fulgencio Batista
Transatlantic cable telephone service is established
In his “secret speech,” Nikita Khrushchev denounces former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin before the 20th Communist Party Congress in Moscow
Hungary revolts against Soviet rule; the uprising is suppressed by Soviet troops and tanks
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser siezes the Suez Canal from the French and British
Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan win independence
British and French forces bomb Egyptian airfields in response to the Suez Crisis
In response to the Suez Crisis, Israel sends in troops to occupy the Sinai Peninsula
Sudan, Morocco, and Tunisia become independent nations
C. S. Lewis publishes Till We Have Faces
MacKinlay Kantor receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Andersonville
Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich receive the Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Diary of Anne Frank
Sir Winston Churchill publishes A History of the English-speaking Peoples in four volumes
Theodore Sturgeon and Jean Shepherd, writing under the pseudonym Frederick R. Ewing, publish I, Libertine, a novel based upon a successful radio hoax perpetuated by Shepherd
Wright Morris publishes The Field of Vision
Lynda Barry is born
H. L. Mencken dies
Explore: The American Language, H. L. Mencken, H.L. Mencken's portrayal and implications about Southerners in "Sahara of the Bozart."
A. A. Milne dies
Explore: A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Leonora Speyer dies
Louis Bromfield dies
Max Beerbohm dies
Explore: Max Beerbohm
Patricia Cornwell is born
Explore: Black Notice, Patricia Cornwell
Walter de la Mare dies
Explore: Walter de la Mare, The Listeners, Collected Poems
Michael Arlen dies
Tony Kushner is born
Explore: Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, Tony Kushner
Bertolt Brecht dies
Explore: Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, Bertolt Brecht
Owen Davis dies
Carrie Fisher is born
Pío Baroja dies
Explore: Pío Baroja
Larry Duplechan is born