The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.
1979 Literary Facts
Angela Carter publishes The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
John Joseph Mathews dies
Kathy Acker publishes New York City in 1979
Penelope Fitzgerald receives the Booker Prize for Offshore
John Cheever receives Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his The Stories of John Cheever
Lawrence Block publishes The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling
Barbara Chase-Riboud publishes Sally Hemings
Octavia E. Butler publishes Kindred
Barbara Taylor Bradford publishes A Woman of Substance
Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd is produced
Sam Shepard receives Obie Award for Buried Child
Sam Shepard receives the Pulitzer Prize in drama for Buried Child
William Styron publishes Sophie’s Choice
Peter Benchley publishes The Island
Maeve Binchy publishes Deeply Regretted By
Dannie Abse publishes Pythagoras
Douglas Adams publishes The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
V. C. Andrews publishes Flowers in the Attic
The London Review of Books begins publication
Joan Didion publishes The White Album
Tom Wolfe publishes The Right Stuff
Odysseus Elytis receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Robert Pinsky publishes An Explanation of America
Bernard Pomerance receives an Obie Award for The Elephant Man
Donald Justice publishes Selected Poems
Lanford Wilson publishes Talley’s Folly
Bernard Pomerance publishes The Elephant Man
Jean Rhys dies
Felice Picano publishes The Lure
Alice Hoffman publishes The Drowning Season
Patricia Matthews publishes The Night Visitor
Donald Justice receives the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Selected Poems
Philip Levine publishes Ashes: Poems New and Old
Dick Francis publishes Whip Hand
Norman Mailer receives the Pulitzer Prize in literature for The Executioner’s Song
Norman Mailer publishes The Executioner’s Song
Nuruddin Farah publishes Sweet and Sour Milk
Elizabeth Hardwick publishes Sleepless Nights
William X. Kienzle publishes The Rosary Murders
Allen Tate dies
Paul de Man publishes Allegories of Reading
The Galileo deep-space probe is launched
Voyager 1 discovers a faint ring of debris around Jupiter
A nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania attracts worldwide attention
Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female prime minister of the U.K.
The Shah of Iran is overthrown by Islamic militants incited by Ayatollah Khomeini, who sets up an Islamic oligarchy
During the Iranian Revolution, U.S. embassy staff are taken captive and held hostage for 444 days
The Salt II arms-limitation treaty is signed
Soviet forces invade Afghanistan and install a puppet regime in Kabul; after a long guerrilla war, the Soviets are ousted
Beth Henley’ drama Crimes of the Heart is first performed
Explore: Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley
René Marqués dies
Explore: René Marqués
Jean Stafford dies
Explore: In the Zoo, Bad Characters, Jean Stafford
Forrest Carter dies
Explore: The Education of Little Tree, Forrest Carter
Nicholas Monsarrat dies
Explore: The Cruel Sea
Dorothy Arzner dies
Elizabeth Bishop dies
Explore: The Fish, One Art, Elizabeth Bishop
S. J. Perelman dies
Explore: S. J. Perelman
Edward (Jeffrey Irving) Ardizzone dies