See also: 1948 in literature, other events of 1949, 1950 in literature, list of years in literature.
Events
- Arthur C. Clarke becomes Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts
- Bertrand Russell receives the Order of Merit.
- Jean-Paul Sartre completes his Les Chemins de la Liberté (The Roads to Freedom) trilogy.
New books
- Nelson Algren - The Man with the Golden Arm
- Martha E. Von Almedingen - The Golden Sequence
- Miguel Ángel Asturias - Men of Maize
- Jorge Luis Borges - The Aleph
- Elizabeth Bowen - The Heat of the Day
- Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
- Fredric Brown - The Screaming Mimi
- Pearl S. Buck - The Angry Wife
- Dorothy Bussy - Olivia (published anonymously)
- Taylor Caldwell - Let Love Come Last
- Agatha Christie - Crooked House
- Foster Fitzsimmons - Bright Leaf
- A. B. Guthrie, Jr. - The Way West
- John Hawkes - Cannibal
- Marguerite Henry - King of the Wind
- Hermann L. Hunter - The Miracles of the Red Altar Cloth
- Alfred Q. Jarrette - Beneath The Sky
- Franz Kafka - The Trial
- Marghanika Laski - Little Boy Lost
- H.P. Lovecraft - Something About Cats and Other Pieces
- Nancy Mitford - Love in a Cold Climate
- C. L. Moore - Beyond Earth's Gates
- John O'Hara - A Rage To Live
- George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Ruth Park - Poor Man's Orange
- Karel Poláček - There Were Five of Us (Czech Bylo nás pět)
- Harold Robbins - The Dream Merchants
- Willard W. Savoy - Alien Land
- Jack Schaefer - Shane
- Anna Seghers - Die Toten Bleiben Jung
- Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice
- Jack Story - Trouble with Harry
- Edward Streeter - Father of the Bride
- Gwyn Thomas - All Things Betray Thee
- Mika Waltari - The Egyptian
- S. Fowler Wright - The Throne of Saturn
- Frank Yerby - Pride's Castle
New drama
Poetry
- Carlos de Oliveira - Descida aos Infernos
Non-fiction
- Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
- Marc Bloch - Strange Defeat; a Statement of Evidence Written in 1940
- Thomas B. Costain - The Conquering Family, also known as The Conquerors (First book in the Plantagenet Series, also known as The Pageant of England)
- John Gunther – Death Be Not Proud
- Margaret Mead - Male and Female
- Audie Murphy - To Hell and Back
Births
- January 26 - Jonathan Carroll, American author of fantasy fiction
- March 26 - Patrick Süskind, German novelist
- April 11 - Dorothy Allison, novelist and campaigner
- June 5 - Ken Follett, novelist
- July 15 - Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
- August 3 - Peter Gutmann, journalist
- November 2 - Lois McMaster Bujold, American author of science fiction and fantasy
- October 5 - Peter Ackroyd, English author
- December 24 - Alberto Pérez-Gómez, architectural historian
- date unknown
- Mark D. Devlin, memoirist
- David Gilmour, novelist
- Juan Gonzalez, investigative journalist
- Bonnie Greer, dramatist
- John Guy, historian and biographer
- John Harris, political author
- Jimmy McGovern, screenwriter
Deaths
- January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, U.S. book publisher
- February 11 - Axel Munthe, Swedish author
- April 24 - Willa Cather, author
- May 6 - Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet, playwright and Nobel Laureate
- June 10 - Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize winning author
- June 14 - Russell Doubleday, U.S. author and publisher
- August 16 - Margaret Mitchell, "Gone with the Wind" author
- September 19 - Will Cuppy, U.S. humorist
- December 7 - Rex Beach - U.S. author
- December 28 - Hervey Allen - U.S. author
Awards
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: Marguerite Henry, King of the Wind
- Nobel Prize for literature - William Faulkner
- Premio Nadal: Jose Suárez Carreño, Las últimas horas
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: James Gould Cozzens, Guard of Honor
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Peter Viereck, Terror and Decorum