Fiction 1966

Tai-Pan by James Clavell - The second novel in Clavell's life work - Asian Saga - of the interaction between the cultures of East and West. Tai-Pan takes place in 1841 Hong Kong and like all his novels, has its basis in economic trade.

The Magus by John Fowles - Written before his 1963 bestseller The Collector, Fowles spend years rewriting and did not arrive at his final edit until 1977. The novel takes place in contemporary Greece where a young English teacher meets a mystic and falls in love.

Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry - In 1952 the movie theater closes down in this small dying Texas town. Three high school students cope with the depression of no place to go. McMurtry, a popular Texas writer is most famous for his later Lonesome Dove series.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann - An instant success became the second best selling novel of all time. It not only put Jacqueline Susann on the map but female authors as well. The term "dolls" was Hollywood slang of the times for "downers".

Harold Robbins - The Adventurers

Robert Crichton - The Secret of Santa Vittoria

Chinua Achebe - A Man of the People
Robert H. Adleman - The Devil's Brigade
Isaac Asimov - Fantastic Voyage
Kingsley Amis - The Anti-Death League

Margaret Atwood The Circle Game
Louis Auchincloss - The Embezzler
Paul Bowles - Up Above the World
Ray Bradbury - S is for Space
Mihail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
William Crossing - The Dartmoor Worker
Roald Dahl - The Magic Finger
August Derleth and Mark Schorer - Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant People
Philip K. Dick - The Crack in Space
Allen Drury - Capable of Honor
Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Der Meteor
Ian Fleming - Octopussy and The Living Daylights
Robert A. Heinlein - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
José Lezama Lima - Paradiso
Helen McInnes - The Double Image
Bernard Malamud - The Fixer
Anthony Powell - The Soldier's Art
Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
Seabury Quinn - Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder
Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea
Leonardo Sciascia - A ciascuno il suo
Adela Rogers St. Johns - Tell No Man
Rex Stout - Death of a Doxy
Roderick Thorp - The Detective
Jack Vance - The Eyes of the Overworld
Patrick White - The Solid Mandala
Roger Zelazny This Immortal
Nancy Mitford - The Sun King.

More on each new book of 1966 at Wikipedia

Literary News 1966

The United States Supreme Court reverses the Massachusetts ruling that John Cleland's 1748 novel "Fanny Hill" is obscene.

The Vatican abolishes the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Inquisition's carry over index of banned books.

The 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter

The 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: A Thousand Days - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Non Fiction 1966

A Thousand Days - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The biography of the first (and sadly last) 1000 days of the Kennedy Administration.

The Perfect Stranger - P. J. Kavanagh

The order of Things - Michel Foucault
A Short History of Ethics - Alasdair MacIntyre

1966 Tony Awards (theater)

Play - Dramatic - The Persecution and Prosecution of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss

Actor - Dramatic - Star - Hal Holbrook Mark Twain Tonight!

Actress - Dramatic - Star - Rosemary Harris The Lion in Winter

Actor - Dramatic - Featured or Supporting - Patrick Magee The Persecution and Prosecution of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

Actress - Dramatic - Featured or Supporting - Zoe Caldwell Slapstick Tragedy

Director - Play - Peter Brook The Persecution and Prosecution of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade

Comedy 1966

Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider, fought in WW2 and then endured the wrath of the American legal system for using the F word until he died of a morphine overdose in 1966. Every law enforcement agency in every city he appeared went after him with endless arrests. He was finally convicted in New York City of Obscenity with the help of the Archbishop of New York then Francis Cardinal Spellman. He was then blackballed from all comedy clubs and television with Hugh Hefner and Frank Zappa about the only ones who stood by him. Lenny Bruce, called then a "Sick Comic", opened the door and did the suffering for those who came after him; Geroge Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddy Murphy and Chris Rock to name a few.

Grammy for 1965 Best Comedy Performance: - Bill Cosby (3nd year in a row) for Wonderfulness