See also: 1974 in literature, other events of 1975, 1976 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• Writing under the pseudonym of "Emile Ajar," author Romain Gary becomes the only person to ever win the Prix Goncourt twice.

• Hearing Secret Harmonies, the twelfth and final novel of the A Dance to the Music of Time duodecalogy by Anthony Powell is published.

• Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow is published.

New books

• The Ascent of Man - Jacob Bronowski
• Black Sunday - Thomas Harris
• The Choirboys - Joseph Wambaugh
• Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters (the first in the Amelia Peabody seris)
• Curtain - Agatha Christie
• Dead Babies - Martin Amis
• Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany
• The Eagle Has Landed - Jack Higgins
• A Fine and Private Place - Morley Callaghan
• The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton
• Hang That Nigger - Arthur Robinson
• Hearing Secret Harmonies - Anthony Powell
• Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• The History Man - Malcolm Bradbury
• Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy (individual editions) - Bob Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
• In A Shallow Grave - James Purdy
• CIA Diary - Philip Agee
• Looking for Mister Goodbar - Judith Rossner
• The Minstrel Boy - A.J. Cronin
• Mr. Schutzer - Timothy L. Bottoms
• The Moneychangers - Arthur Hailey
• Mortal Stakes - Robert B. Parker
• My Lord John – Georgette Heyer
• Northern Lights - Tim O'Brien
• Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
• The Road to Gandolfo - Robert Ludlum
• Rudyard Kipling and His World - Kingsley Amis
• 'Salem's Lot - Stephen King
• Shogun - James Clavell
• La vie devant soi - Romain Gary as Emile Ajar
• Woman at Point Zero - Nawal El Saadawi
• World of Wonders - Robertson Davies

Births

• October 27 - Zadie Smith, novelist

Deaths

• January 15 - Sydney Goodsir Smith, poet, dramatist and novelist
• February 14 - Sir P. G. Wodehouse (b.1881), English comic novelist - creator of Jeeves and Wooster
• February 14 - Julian Huxley, biologist and author, brother of Aldous Huxley
• March 13 - Ivo Andrić (b.1892), Serbo-Croatian novelist - winner, 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature
• June 8 - Murray Leinster, science fiction writer
• September 20 - Saint-John Perse, poet
• October 5 - Constance Malleson, actress and writer
• October 22 - Arnold J. Toynbee, historian
• November 13 - R. C. Sherriff, dramatist
• November 19 - Elizabeth Taylor, novelist
• November 23 - Francis Webb, poet
• November 27 - Ross McWhirter, joint author of the Guinness Book of Records
• December 4 - Hannah Arendt, philosopher
• December 7 - Thornton Wilder, novelist and dramatist
• date unknown - Janko Glazer, (b.1893) - poet
• date unknown - Vojko Gorjan, (b.1949) - poet

Awards

• Booker Prize: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Heat and Dust
• See 1975 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Nebula Award: Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Virginia Hamilton, M. C. Higgins, the Great
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugenio Montale
• Prix Goncourt: Romain Gary as Emile Ajar - La vie devant soi
• Prix Médicis French: Jacques Almira, Le Voyage à Naucratis
• Prix Médicis International: Steven Millhauser, La Vie trop brève d'Edwin Mulhouse - United States
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Edward Albee, Seascape
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Michael Shaara - The Killer Angels
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Gary Snyder - Turtle Island
• Viareggio Prize: Paolo Volponi, Il sipario ducale

1975 books

1975 en littérature | 1975 - literatura | Litteraturåret 1975