This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1978.
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- March 8 – Douglas Adams' comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originates as a radio comedy broadcast on the U.K. BBC Radio 4.
- March – Philip Larkin ends his relationships with Maeve Brennan and Betty Mackereth.[1]
- April – James Blaylock's first published story, "The Ape-Box Affair", appears in Unearth magazine, pioneering steampunk fiction.[2]
- August 1 – Barbara Pym is a guest on Desert Island Discs.[3]
- October – The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, a humorous award given annually to books with unusual titles, is launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The first winner is Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.[4]
- November 15 – Harold Pinter's play Betrayal, inspired by a seven-year clandestine extramarital affair with BBC Television presenter Joan Bakewell, opens at the National Theatre in London, directed by Peter Hall and featuring Penelope Wilton and her husband at this time, Daniel Massey, with Michael Gambon.[5]
- December 15 – The Berlin State Library's new Haus Potsdamer Straße is opened in West Berlin's Kulturforum.[6]
- unknown date – Antonia White's 1933 novel Frost in May becomes the first in Virago Press's Modern Classics series of reissues of books by neglected women authors, published in the UK.[7]
Children and young people
- January 12 – Robert Harbin, South African-born author of books on magic (born 1908)
- March 1 – Paul Scott, English novelist, playwright and poet (born 1920)
- March 24 – Leigh Brackett, American science fiction writer (born 1915)
- April 14 – F. R. Leavis, English academic literary critic (born 1895)
- May 1 – Sylvia Townsend Warner, English poet and novelist (born 1893)
- May 12 – Louis Zukofsky, American modernist poet (born 1904)
- June 11 – Carola Oman, English historical novelist, biographer and children's writer (born 1897)
- June 18 – Walter C. Alvarez, American medical author (born 1884)
- August 11 – Berta Ruck, Indian-born Welsh romantic novelist (born 1878)[10]
- August 28 – Robert Shaw, English-born actor, novelist and playwright (born 1927)
- September 3 – Basil Willey, English academic literary critic (died 1897)
- September 9 – Hugh MacDiarmid (pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve), Scottish poet, journalist and essayist (born 1892)
- September 11 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident writer, broadcaster, playwright (born 1929)
- September 15 – Edmund Crispin (Robert Bruce Montgomery), English crime writer and composer (born 1921)
- September 28 – Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani), Italian author of Illustrissimi (born 1912)
- November 5 – N. Crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (born 1902)
- November 11 – Helena Boguszewska, Polish writer, columnist and a social activist (born 1883)
- November 15 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist and author (born 1901)[11]
- December 15 – Ionel Gherea, Romanian philosopher, essayist and novelist (born 1895)
United Kingdom
- Booker Prize: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: David Rees, The Exeter Blitz
- Cholmondeley Award: Christopher Hope, Leslie Norris, Peter Reading, D.M. Thomas, R.S. Thomas
- Eric Gregory Award: Ciarán Carson, Peter Denman, Christopher Reid, Paul Wilkins, Martyn A. Ford, James Sutherland-Smith
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Maurice Gee, Plumb
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Robert Gittings, The Older Hardy
Bradford, Richard (2004). First Boredom Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin. London: Peter Owen. p. 245. ISBN 0-7206-1147-4.