See also: 1971 in literature, other events of 1972, 1973 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New Books

• August 1914 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Captains and the Kings - Taylor Caldwell
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl
• Die the Long Day - Horace Orlando Patterson
• Endurance - James L Harris
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
• The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
• The Great Bridge - David McCullough
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
• Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer
• The Manticore - Robertson Davies
• My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
• The Odessa File - Frederick Forsyth
• The Osterman Weekend - Robert Ludlum
• Semi-Tough - Dan Jenkins
• Two from Galilee - Marjorie Holmes
• The Word - Irving Wallace
• Watership Down - Richard Adams

Births

• September 6 - China Miéville, English writer

Deaths

• June 24 - R. F. Delderfield, novelist and historian

Awards

• Booker Prize: John Berger, G
• See 1972 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards.
• Hugo Award: Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
• Nebula Award: Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH
• Nobel Prize for Literature: Heinrich Böll
• Prix Goncourt: Jean Carrière, L'Epervier de Maheux
• Prix Médicis: Maurice Clavel, Le Tiers des étoiles
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: no award given
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: James Wright, Collected Poems
• Viareggio Prize: Romano Bilenchi, Il bottone di Stalingrado