The year 1953 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway.
• February 19 - Censorship: The State of Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
• After five years as an English Teacher, Frederick Buechner moves to New York to become a full time writer.
• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin is published. In 2001, the book would be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.
• April 13 - The face of popular literature is transformed with the publication of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
• Ronald Harwood becomes Sir Donald Wolfit's dresser.
• John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson" publishes his final Sir Henry Merrivale mystery novel.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond was first brought into the world in Casino Royale.

New books

• Sholom Aleichem - Adventures of Mottel the Cantor's Son
• Isaac Asimov - Second Foundation
• James Baldwin - Go Tell It on the Mountain
• Saul Bellow - The Adventures of Augie March
• Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man
• Zealia Bishop - The Curse of Yig
• Ray Bradbury
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • The Golden Apples of the Sun
• Gwendolyn Brooks - Maud Martha
• William S. Burroughs - Junkie
• John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson" - The Cavalier's Cup
• Raymond Chandler - The Long Goodbye
• Arthur C. Clarke
  • Against the Fall of Night
  • Childhood's End
• Beverly Cleary - Otis Spofford
• Ivy Compton-Burnett - The Present and the Past
• A. J. Cronin - Beyond This Place
• L. Sprague de Camp
  • The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens
  • Sprague de Camp's New Anthology of Science Fiction
  • The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales
• L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt - Tales from Gavagan's Bar
• Lloyd C. Douglas - The Robe
• Ian Fleming - Casino Royale
• Ernest K. Gann - The High and the Mighty
• Davis Grubb - The Night of the Hunter
• Mark Harris - The Southpaw
• James Hilton - Time and Time Again
• David Karp - One
• Ira Levin - A Kiss Before Dying
• C. S. Lewis - The Silver Chair
• James A. Michener - The Bridges at Toko-Ri
• Zoe B. Oldenbourg - The Cornerstone
• Mervyn Peake - Mr Pye
• Ellery Queen - The Scarlet Letters
• Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - The Sojourner
• Annemarie Selinko - Désirée
• Samuel Shellabarger - Lord Vanity
• Wilmar H. Shiras - Children of the Atom
• Rex Stout - The Golden Spiders
• Leon Uris - Battle Cry
• Boris Vian - Heartsnatcher
• A. E. van Vogt - The Universe Maker
• Evelyn Waugh - Love Among the Ruins
• Ben Ames Williams - The Unconquered
• John Wyndham - The Kraken Wakes

New drama

• Arthur Adamov - Le Professeur Taranne
• Agatha Christie - Witness for the Prosecution
• Max Frisch - Biedermann und die Brandstifter (The Fire Raisers)
• Witold Gombrowicz - ?lub (The Wedding)
• Arthur Miller - The Crucible

Short stories

• Roald Dahl - "Nunc Dimittis"

Poetry

• Faber Book of Twentieth Century Verse

Non-fiction

• George Dangerfield - The Era of Good Feelings (Bancroft Prize)
• L. Sprague de Camp - Science-Fiction Handbook
• G. R. Elton - The Tudor Revolution in Government
• Heinrich Harrer - Seven Years in Tibet
• Nancy Mitford - Madame de Pompadour

Births

• February 10 - John Shirley, science fiction and horror writer
• March 12 - Carl Hiaasen, author
• March 25 - John Tierney, New York Times journalist
• April 3 - Pieter Aspe, author of the "Inspector Van In" novels
• May 19 - Victoria Wood, comedienne and writer
• July 14 - Bent Lorentzen, novelist
• July 29 - Frank McGuinness, dramatist and poet
• August 10 - Mark Doty, poet
• September 23 - Nicholas Witchell, TV journalist
• November 5 - Joyce Maynard, memoirist and former lover of J. D. Salinger
• date unknown
  • Pat Cadigan, science fiction author
  • George Dyson, science historian
  • Peter Robinson, poet

Deaths

• April 4 - Rachilde (Marguerite Vallette-Eymery), French author
• April 9 - C. E. M. Joad, philosopher
• April 24 - Alfred Vierkandt, sociologist
• June 5 - Moelona, novelist and translator
• June 25 - Richard Jebb, journalist
• July 6 - Julia de Burgos, poet
• July 16 - Hilaire Belloc, humorous poet, essayist and travel writer
• August 30 - Maurice Nicoll, psychologist
• November 8 - John van Melle, South African author
• November 9 - Dylan Thomas, poet and author
• November 27 - Eugene O'Neill, playwright
• November 30 - Francis Picabia, painter, poet
• date unknown
  • Idris Davies, poet
  • Gordon Hall Gerould, philologist
  • Alice Milligan, poet
  • T. F. Powys, novelist, brother of John Cowper Powys
  • Eirik Vandvik, classicist and translator

Awards

• National Book Award for Fiction: Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
• Christopher Award: Marie Killilea, Karen
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Margaret Kennedy, Troy Chimneys
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Carola Oman, Sir John Moore
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Ann Nolan Clark, Secret of the Andes
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
• Premio Nadal: Luisa Forrellad, Siempre en capilla
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Inge, Picnic
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Archibald MacLeish: Collected Poems 1917-1952
• King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Arthur Waley

fr:1953 en littérature pl:1953 w literaturze pt:1953 na literatura sq:1953 në literaturë sv:Litteraturåret 1953