1942 in literature

– The U.K. Book Production War Economy Agreement comes into force.^[1]

– Jean Bruller's novella Le Silence de la mer (Silence of the Sea), about resistance to the Nazi occupation of France, is issued clandestinely as the first publication of Les Éditions de Minuit in Paris, under the pseudonym "Vercors". A hundred copies are distributed from late summer; the rest are destroyed by the occupying authorities.^[2]

– The Austrian-born novelist Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte are found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their home in Petrópolis, Brazil, leaving notes indicating despair at the future of European civilization. The manuscript of Zweig's autobiography The World of Yesterday, posted to his publisher a day earlier, is first published in Stockholm later in the year as Die Welt von Gestern.^[3]

March – 's Three Laws of Robotics are introduced in his short story "Runaround", published in Astounding Science-Fiction.

– The Canadian novelist Robertson Davies begins a 13-year spell as editor of the Peterborough Examiner in Ontario.

– The Spanish poet Miguel Hernández dies of tuberculosis as a political prisoner in a prison hospital, having scrawled his last verse on the wall.

– The newspaper Asia Raja is first published in the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation; it will publish a number of literary works.

May – The German novelist moves to California.

– The French novelist André Gide moves to Tunis.

– The English novelist David Garnett marries as his second wife, the painter and writer Angelica Bell, daughter of Garnett's lover Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

– The film Mrs. Miniver is released, for which the novelist James Hilton will share an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) on 4 March 1943.

– Anne Frank, on her 13th birthday, makes the first entry in her new diary in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

August – The unit to which expatriate Irish writer Samuel Beckett belongs is betrayed. He has to flee from occupied Paris on foot to Roussillon, Vaucluse in south-eastern France, where he continues work on his novel Watt.

– The New York Times launches the national version of its influential New York Times Best Seller list.^[4]

– Polish writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, as head of the underground organization Front for the Rebirth of Poland, publishes in Warsaw her Protest! leaflet against the mass murder of Jews in German-occupied Poland.

Autumn – attends the Battle of Stalingrad as a reporter for the Soviet Army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. The experience later governs his novels Stalingrad («Сталингра́д», original Russian publication 1952) and Life and Fate («Жизнь и судьба», completed 1959).

October – The English poet takes part in the Second Battle of El Alamein, against orders.^[5]

– The Polish Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz is shot dead by a Gestapo officer, while walking through the "Aryan quarter" of his home town, Drohobych.

– The Harvey Girls^[6]

– No Surrender

– Never Come Morning^[7]

– Lay On, Mac Duff!^[8]

– Darkness Falls from the Air^[9]

– Immortal Sergeant

– Death Knows No Calendar

– The Stranger (L'Étranger)^[10]

John Dickson Carr

– The Family of Pascual Duarte (La Familia de Pascual Duarte)

– The High Window

Peter Cheyney

Agatha Christie

– No Past Is Dead

– The Just and the Unjust

– The Toff Goes to Market

– Fear Comes to Chalfont

– The Robe

– Frenchman's Creek

– And Now Tomorrow

– Something Nasty in the Woodshed

(as Alessandra Tornimparte) – La strada che va in città (The Road to the city)

– Deadlier Than the Male

– Beyond This Horizon

– A New Way of Life

– My Heart for Hostage

– One Shall Be Taken

– The Daffodil Affair

Kalki Krishnamurthy

– Never No More

– The Screwtape Letters (Christian apologetics)

E. C. R. Lorac

– The Company She Keeps

– Embers (A gyertyák csonkig égnek)^[12]

– Laurels are Poison

– Enter Three Witches

– Blackout in Gretley

– Calamity Town

– Pierrot mon ami

– Cross Creek

– No Coffin for the Corpse

– The Seventh Cross (Das siebte Kreuz)^[13]

– Pied Piper

– Young Cardinaud

– Donovan's Brain

– Out of Space and Time

Eleanor Smith

– The Moon is Down

– Black Orchids^[14]

Cecil Street

(as A. H. Redcliff) – Oliver VII (VII. Olivér)

(富田常雄) – Sanshiro Sugata (姿三四郎)

– Le Silence de la mer

(died 1941) – The Killer and the Slain

– Put Out More Flags

– The Song of Bernadette

– Midnight House

– Black Alibi

(吳承恩), translated by Arthur Waley – Monkey (15th century)

(蕭紅) – Hulanhe zhuan (呼兰河传, Tales of the Hulan River)

– A Man About the House

– Terenci Moix, Spanish writer (died 2003)^[17]

– Božin Pavlovski, Macedonian-Australian author

– Enrique Estrázulas, Uruguayan writer, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist and diplomat (died 2016)

– Paul-Eerik Rummo, Estonian poet, playwright and politician

– Derek Jarman, English film director, writer and diarist (died 1994)^[18]

– Terry Jones, Welsh comedic actor and writer (died 2020)^[19]

February – , Australian playwright

– John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter^[20]

– Daniel Dennett, American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist

– Samuel R. Delany, American novelist, essayist and critic^[21]

– Kitty Kelley, American biographer and journalist

– Arto Paasilinna, Finnish novelist and journalist (died 2018)^[22]

– Ruth Glick, American cookery author and novelist

– Ariel Dorfman, Argentine/Chilean novelist, playwright and essayist^[23]

– Rachel Billington, English author^[24]

– Michel Tremblay, French Canadian novelist and playwright

– Mukhtar Shakhanov, Kazakh writer and lawmaker

– Isabel Allende, Chilean novelist^[25]

– Garrison Keillor, American humorous writer and broadcaster^[26]

– David Steinberg, Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, and author^[27]

– Uğur Mumcu, Turkish journalist and writer (died 1993)

– António Lobo Antunes, Portuguese novelist and physician

– Bernard MacLaverty, Irish writer

Luis Mateo Díez, Spanish writer

– Joseph Bruchac, Native American author

– Bob Graham, Australian children's writer and illustrator

October 23

– Frank Delaney, Irish-born novelist, journalist and broadcaster (died 2017)^[29]

– Helen Garner, Australian writer

– Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer^[30]

– Sharon Olds, American poet

– Craig Thomas, Welsh novelist (died 2011)^[31]

– Peter Handke, Austrian novelist and playwright

unknown date – , Syrian writer^[32]

– Chaudhry Afzal Haq, Indian writer and humanitarian (born 1891)^[33]

– Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian writer (born 1883)

– Daniil Kharms, Russian poet, writer and dramatist (died in prison, born 1905)

– Henri Stahl, Romanian historian, short story writer, memoirist and stenographer (born 1877)

– Rachel Field, American author and poet (born 1894)^[34]

– Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet (born 1862)^[35]

– Miguel Hernández, Spanish poet (died in prison, born 1910)^[36]

– Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian novelist and children's writer (born 1874)^[37]

– Sakutarō Hagiwara (萩原 朔太郎), Japanese poet (born 1886)^[38]

– Nini Roll Anker, Norwegian novelist and playwright (born 1873)^[39]

– Libero Bovio, Neapolitan dialect poet (born 1883)

– Akiko Yosano (与謝野 晶子, Yosano Shiyo), Japanese poet and feminist (born 1878)

May – (Hans Davidsohn) German poet (died in extermination camp, born 1887)

– Léon Daudet, French writer and journalist (born 1867)^[40]

– Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish writer in Irish (born 1857)

– Irène Némirovsky, Russian-born French novelist (died in concentration camp, born 1903)

– Lev Nussimbaum, Russian and Azerbaijani novelist (gangrene; born 1905)^[41]

– Oskar Kraus, Czech philosopher (born 1872)^[42]

– Cosmo Hamilton, English dramatist and novelist (born 1870)^[43]

– Friedrich Münzer, German classicist (born 1868)^[44]

– Màrius Torres, Catalan Spanish poet (born 1910)

November 4

– Konstantin Balmont, Russian Symbolist poet and translator (born 1867)^[46]

for children's literature: Denys Watkins-Pitchford, The Little Grey Men

: Edgar Lee Masters

for fiction: Arthur Waley, Translation of Monkey by Wu Cheng'en

for biography: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria's Private Secretary

for children's literature: Walter D. Edmonds, The Matchlock Gun

: not awarded

: not awarded

: William Rose Benet, The Dust Which Is God

: Ellen Glasgow, In This Our Life