This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. Each year is annotated with a significant event as a reference point.
2000s
- 2003 in literature -
- 2002 in literature - Atonement - Ian McEwan
- 2001 in literature - Life of Pi - Yann Martel
- 2000 in literature - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published, and creator Charles Schulz dies soon after
1900s
- 1999 in literature - Chocolat - Joanne Harris
- 1998 in literature - A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe
- 1997 in literature - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling
- 1996 in literature - Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt
- 1995 in literature - The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
- 1994 in literature - The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
- 1993 in literature - Pleading Guilty - Scott Turow
- 1992 in literature - The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
- 1991 in literature - Such a Long Journey - Rohinton Mistry
- 1990 in literature - Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
1980s
- 1989 in literature - The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
- 1988 in literature - Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
- 1987 in literature - Beloved - Toni Morrison
- 1986 in literature - The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis
- 1985 in literature - The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- 1984 in literature - White Noise - Don DeLillo
- 1983 in literature - On Wings of Eagles - Ken Follett
- 1982 in literature - The Color Purple - Alice Walker
- 1981 in literature - Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving
- 1980 in literature - A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
1970s
- 1979 in literature - Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
- 1978 in literature - The World According to Garp - John Irving
- 1977 in literature - The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch
- 1976 in literature - Triton - Samuel R. Delany
- 1975 in literature - Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow
- 1974 in literature - Carrie - Stephen King
- 1973 in literature - Burr - Gore Vidal
- 1972 in literature - Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
- 1971 in literature - The End of Summer - Rosamunde Pilcher
- 1970 in literature - Deliverance - James Dickey
1960s
- 1969 in literature - Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth
- 1968 in literature - Airport - Arthur Hailey
- 1967 in literature - Wild Season - Allan W. Eckert
- 1966 in literature - Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
- 1965 in literature - Herzog - Saul Bellow
- 1964 in literature - Little Big Man - Thomas Berger
- 1963 in literature - Planet of the Apes (La Planète des Singes) - Pierre Boulle
- 1962 in literature - Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
- 1961 in literature - Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
- 1960 in literature - To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
1950s
- 1959 in literature - Hawaii - James A. Michener
- 1958 in literature - Masters of Deceit - J. Edgar Hoover
- 1957 in literature - The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss
- 1956 in literature - Les racines du ciel - Romain Gary
- 1955 in literature - A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
- 1954 in literature - Lord of the Flies - William G. Golding
- 1953 in literature - The High and the Mighty - Ernest K. Gann
- 1952 in literature - Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett
- 1951 in literature - The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
- 1950 in literature - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
1940s
- 1949 in literature - Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
- 1948 in literature - The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
- 1947 in literature - The Diary of Anne Frank
- 1946 in literature - The Iceman Cometh - Eugene O'Neill
- 1945 in literature - Gigi - Colette
- 1944 in literature -
- 1943 in literature - The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
- 1942 in literature - The Stranger - Albert Camus
- 1941 in literature - The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
- 1940 in literature - Native Son - Richard Wright
1930s
- 1939 in literature - The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
- 1938 in literature - Out of the Silent Planet - C. S. Lewis
- 1937 in literature - Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
- 1936 in literature - Life magazine is first published
- 1935 in literature -
- 1934 in literature - First Flash Gordon comic strip published
- 1933 in literature - God's Little Acre - Erskine Caldwell
- 1932 in literature - Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
- 1931 in literature - The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
- 1930 in literature - Not Without Laughter - Langston Hughes
1920s
- 1929 in literature - A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf
- 1928 in literature -
- 1927 in literature - A la recherche du temps perdu (final installment) - Marcel Proust
- 1926 in literature - The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
- 1925 in literature - The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 1924 in literature -
- 1923 in literature -
- 1922 in literature - Ulysses - James Joyce
- 1921 in literature -
- 1920 in literature - The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
1910s
- 1919 in literature -
- 1918 in literature - First Pulitzer Prizes awarded
- 1917 in literature -
- 1916 in literature -
- 1915 in literature - Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
- 1914 in literature -
- 1913 in literature - Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
- 1912 in literature -
- 1911 in literature - Encyclopaedia Britannica published
- 1910 in literature - Howards End - E. M. Forster
1990s
- 1909 in literature - Balthazar - Anatole France
- 1908 in literature - Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maude Montgomery
- 1907 in literature -
- 1906 in literature -
- 1905 in literature - White Fang - Jack London
- 1904 in literature - Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
- 1903 in literature - The Souls of Black Folk - W. E. B. DuBois
- 1902 in literature - The Virginian - Owen Wister
- 1901 in literature - First Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Sully Prudhomme
- 1900 in literature - Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser
1890s
- 1899 in literature - The School and Society - John Dewey
- 1898 in literature -
- 1897 in literature - Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling
- 1896 in literature -
- 1895 in literature - Almayer's Folly - Joseph Conrad
- 1894 in literature -
- 1893 in literature - The Scream - Edvard Munch
- 1892 in literature -
- 1891 in literature -