Fiction 1954

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien - The classic fantasy of Middle Earth consisting of three books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Written mostly during World War II Tolkien finished it in 1949, but questions of how best to publish the large work delayed it until 1954. Though much has been said about the meaning of it all - from drug addition to Nazi Germany - Tolkien himself explained it was his way of expressing his Catholic theology. J.R.R. Tolkien

Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Initially this classic book was poorly received and by 1956 went out of print but by the early 1960's it became recognized as one the great books of our time. The story of two groups of educated boys stranded on an island and falling into violent savagery. Lord of Flies

The Bridge on the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle - French novel of British prisoners of war under Japan in Indo China. A very fictionalized account that became a success as the move by the same name.

Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss - The long awaited follow up to the 1940 Horton Hatches the Egg. Theodor Seuss Geisel not only wrote but illustrated his long running series of well received children's books. The story revolves around the kindly elephant Horton who keeps a tiny planet the size of a speck of dust from harm under the theme that "a person's a person, no matter how small." Theodor Seuss Geisel

The Dr Suess Oscar winning 1950 short Gerald McBoing Boing

Kingsley Amis - Lucky Jim
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword
Isaac Asimov - The Caves of Steel
Hamilton Basso - The View from Pompey's Head
Simone de Beauvoir - The Mandarins
Taylor Caldwell - Never Victorious, Never Defeated
Agatha Christie - Destination Unknown
Robertson Davies - Leaven of Malice
Daphne du Maurier - Mary Anne
Hergé - Explorers on the Moon
Mac Hyman - No Time for Sergeants
Frances Parkinson Keyes - The Royal Box
C. S. Lewis - The Horse and His Boy
Astrid Lindgren - Mio, my Mio
Kamala Markandaya - Nectar in a Sieve
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
John Metcalfe - The Feasting Dead
James A. Michener - Sayonara
Alberto Moravia - Il disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon)
Iris Murdoch - Under the Net
J. B. Priestley - The Magicians
Marcel Proust - Jean Sauteuil
Ellery Queen - The Glass Village
Pauline Réage - Histoire d'O (Story of O)
Mordecai Richler - The Acrobats
Anya Seton - Katherine
John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday
Irving Stone - Love Is Eternal
Edward Streeter - Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
Morton Thompson - Not as a Stranger
Frank Yerby - Benton's Row

Literary News 1954

New York Times Bestseller list 1954

Not as a Stranger by Morton Thompson
Mary Anne by Daphne du Maurier
Love Is Eternal by Irving Stone

Nobel Prize in Literature – Ernest Hemingway

Pulitzer Prize for Drama: The Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick

Non Fiction 1954

Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein - His last publication deals with his views on science, society, politics and religion. His anger against McCarthyism and his pacifist work for nuclear disarmament. He passed away the following year from an aneurysm. Albert Einstein, the smartest man in the world was a liberal.

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The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley - The title care from the Robert Blake "The marriage of Heaven and Hell." The work was of the insights the author experienced one afternoon under the influence of the psychedelic drug mescaline. A year later after experiencing a much stronger experience using LSD he found it so profound that he said of his earlier work that it was "nothing but an entertaining sideshow." Aldous Huxley

Arthur Koestler - The Invisible Writing: The Second Volume Of An Autobiography, 1932-40
L. Sprague de Camp - Lost Continents
Mervyn Peake - Figures of Speech

1954 Tony Awards (theater)

Outstanding Play: The Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick
Distinguished Performance | Dramatic Play | Male Star: David Wayne, The Teahouse of the August Moon
Distinguished Performance | Dramatic Play | Female Star: Audrey Hepburn, Ondine
Outstanding Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actor: John Kerr, Tea and Sympathy
Outstanding Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actress: Jo Van Fleet, The Trip to Bountiful
Outstanding Director: Alfred Lunt, Ondine