20th Century in Literature - Postwar Period

Postwar Period

The intermediate postwar period separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (1950s literature) is the floruit of the beat generation and the classical science fiction of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. This period also saw the publication of Samuel Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable, which enacted the dissolution of the self-identical human subject and inspired later novelists such as Thomas Bernhard, John Banville, and David Markson.

1950

• Scenes from Provincial Life by William Cooper (England) - the first of the British 1950s 'kitchen sink' novels

Genre fiction

• A Town Called Alice by Nevil Shute (England, Australia)
• Strangers On a Train by Patricia Highsmith (USA)

Non-fiction

• The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno (Germany, USA)

1951

• Molloy by Samuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (USA)
• Porius by John Cowper Powys (England)
• The Grass Harp by Truman Capote (USA)
• Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (France)

Non-fiction

• The Rebel by Albert Camus (France)

1952

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (USA)
• Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (USA)
• Go by John Clellon Holmes (USA) - the first Beat novel
• The Natural by Bernard Malamud (USA)
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Genre fiction

• The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham (England)
• The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (USA)

Plays

• The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco (Romania, France)

1953

• The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• Junkie and Queer by William S. Burroughs (USA)
• Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin (USA, France)
• The Outsider by Richard Wright
• The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
• Hurry on Down by John Wain (England) - the first 'angry young man' novel

Genre fiction

• Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (England, Jamaica) - first James Bond novel
• The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (England, Sri Lanka)
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov (USA) - trilogy, first volume published in 1951
• Prelude to a Certain Midnight by Gerald Kersh

Plays

• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

1954

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding (England)
• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (England) - the most famous 'angry young man' novel
• Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (England)
• Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (France)

Genre fiction

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (USA)
• Story of O by Pauline Réage (France)

Plays

• Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
• The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan (Ireland)

Non-fiction

• The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley

1955

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• One by David Karp (USA)
• The Quiet American by Graham Greene
• The Bread of Those Early Years by Heinrich Böll
• The Tree of Man by Patrick White (Australia)
• The Inheritors by William Golding
• The Voyeur by Alain Robbe-Grillet (France)
• The Genius and the Goddess by Aldous Huxley
• The Deer Park by Norman Mailer
• The Recognitions by William Gaddis (USA)
• Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal (Turkey)

Genre fiction

• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, first volume in 1954
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Plays

• Cat On a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
• Bus Stop by William Inge (USA)

Poetry

• The Less Deceived by Philip Larkin (England)

1956

• The Fall by Albert Camus
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon (Trinidad, England)
• A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren

Genre fiction

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (N Ireland) - seven volumes, first in 1950
• Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

Plays

• Look Back In Anger by John Osborne (England) - the first 'angry young man' play

Poetry

• Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (USA)

Non-fiction

• Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley

1957

• On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Canada, USA)
• Young Adam by Alexander Trocchi (Scotland)
• Room at the Top by John Braine (England)
• Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (Russia)
• Voss by Patrick White
• The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
• Second Thoughts by Michel Butor (France)
• Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
• Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
• Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland, USA) - short stories, originally published in Yiddish years earlier
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (USA)

Genre fiction

• On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Plays

• The Room and The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (England)
• Endgame by Samuel Beckett
• The Entertainer by John Osborne
• Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams
• The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Switzerland)

1958

• If This Is a Man by Primo Levi (Italy)
• Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote
• The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe (England)
• A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (England)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
• The Bell by Iris Murdoch
• Fowlers End by Gerald Kersh
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• Candy by Terry Southern (USA)

Genre fiction

• Exodus by Leon Uris (USA)
• Zimiamvian Trilogy by E. R. Eddison (England) - first volume in 1935
• Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans (England) and Ronald Searle (England, France) - tetrology, first book in 1954

Plays

• Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
• Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams

Non-fiction

• The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud (France)
• Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan

1959

• The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (Germany)
• Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
• The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart (France)
• Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (USA)
• Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau (France)
• In the Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
• Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse (England)
• The Long Day Wanes by Anthony Burgess (England) - trilogy, first volume published in 1956
• The Magic Christian by Terry Southern

Genre fiction

• The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake (England) - first volume in 1946
• The Getaway by Jim Thompson

Plays

• The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
• Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco