This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1952.

• February – The historical periodical Past & Present is launched in Oxford, U.K.
• February 29 – Derek J. de Solla Price reveals his discovery of a lost medieval scientific work entitled Equatorie of the Planetis, initially attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, in the Times Literary Supplement.^[1]
• March 3 – J. L. Carr takes over as Headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will later feature in his novel The Harpole Report.^[2]
• May – The works of André Gide are placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books by Pope Pius XII.^[3]
• July 10 – The first issue of Mad appears, edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by William M. Gaines' EC Comics.
• August 12 – The Night of the Murdered Poets brings the execution of 13 Soviet Jews in Lubyanka Prison, Moscow, including several writers.
• September 6 – The Universal Copyright Convention is adopted at Geneva.
• October 17 – Samuel Beckett's play Waiting For Godot is published in Paris as En attendant Godot by Les Éditions de Minuit.
• October 28 – E. E. Cummings delivers the first of his Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University.^[4]
• November 25 – Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opens at the New Ambassadors Theatre, London. It will still be running as of 2021, next door at St Martin's Theatre from 1974.^[5]
• unknown dates
  • The publisher Diogenes Verlag is founded in Zürich, Switzerland, by Daniel Keel.
  • The National Library of Burma is established in Rangoon.

• January 4 – Michele Wallace, American feminist author
• January 12 – Walter Mosley, American novelist
• January 21 – Louis Menand, American author and academic
• February 10 – Gail Rebuck, English publisher
• February 19
  • Ryū Murakami (村上 龍), Japanese novelist, essayist and filmmaker
  • Amy Tan, American novelist
• February 29 – Tim Powers, American fantasy author
• March 5 – Robin Hobb (Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, Megan Lindholm), American fantasy author
• March 7 – William Boyd, Gold Coast-born Scottish novelist and screenwriter
• March 11 – Douglas Adams, English science fiction author (died 2001)
• March 13 – Ágnes Rapai, Hungarian poet, writer and translator
• March 23 – Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction author
• March 26 – T. A. Barron, American novelist
• May 5 – Hafsat Abdulwaheed, Nigerian author and poet
• May 31 – Carole Achache, French writer, photographer and actress (died 2016)^[10]
• June 4 – Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwean writer (died 1987)
• June 7 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate
• June 20
  • Vince Gotera, American poet and critic
  • Vikram Seth, Indian novelist
• June 29 – Breece D'J Pancake (Breece Dexter Pancake), American short story writer (suicide 1979)
• July 3 – Rohinton Mistry, Indian-born Canadian novelist
• July 6 – Hilary Mantel, English novelist (died 2022)^[11]
• July 10 – Candice F. Ransom, American children's and young-adult author
• July 18 – Per Petterson, Norwegian novelist
• August 28 – Rita Dove, American poet
• September 29 - Pete Hautman, American young-adult novelist
• October 18 – Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese author
• November 15 – Rick Atkinson, American journalist, historian and author
• November 21 – Pedro Lemebel, Chilean novelist
• December 19 – Sean O'Brien, English poet
• December 22 – Mick Inkpen, English children's writer and illustrator
• December 28 – Hemant Shesh, Indian Hindi writer^[12]

• January 22 – Roger Vitrac, French poet and dramatist (born 1899)
• January 26 – Lodewijk van Deyssel, Dutch novelist (born 1864)
• January 28 – Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Ottoman-born Romanian humorist, novelist, editor, and journalist (spinal cancer, born 1874)
• February 7 – Norman Douglas, Austrian-born Scottish novelist (born 1868)
• February 13 – Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh), Scottish crime novelist (born 1896)
• February 19 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist and Nobel laureate (born 1859)
• March 1
  • Mariano Azuela, Mexican novelist, dramatist and critic (born 1873)
  • Masao Kume (久米 正雄), Japanese playwright, novelist and haiku poet (born 1891)
• March 27 – Ioan A. Bassarabescu, Romanian short story writer and politician (born 1870)
• April 1 – Ferenc Molnár (Ferenc Neumann), Hungarian dramatist and novelist (born 1878)
• April 30 – Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș – Romanian art historian, ethnographer and journalist (born 1872)
• May 17 – Paul Bujor, Romanian politician, zoologist and short story writer (born 1862)
• May 26 – Eugene Jolas, American/French writer, literary translator and critic (born 1894)
• June 1 – John Dewey, American philosopher and psychologist (born 1859)
• July 1 – A. S. W. Rosenbach, American book collector (born 1876)
• July 8 – August Alle, Estonian writer (born 1890)
• August 9 – Jeffery Farnol, English historical novelist (born 1878)
• August 22 – H. J. Massingham, English countryside writer (born 1888)
• September 26 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, poet and novelist writing in English (born 1863)
• October 4 – Keith Murdoch, Australian journalist (born 1885)
• October 6 – Teffi (Nadezhda Alexandrovna Buchinskaya), Russian humorist (born 1872)
• November 3 – Louis Verneuil, French playwright (suicide, born 1893)
• November 4 – Gilbert Frankau, English novelist (born 1884)
• November 13 – Margaret Wise Brown, American children's author (embolism, born 1910)
• November 16 – Charles Maurras, French poet and critic (born 1868)
• November 18 – Paul Éluard, French surrealist poet (heart attack, born 1895)
• November 23 – Aaro Hellaakoski, Finnish poet (born 1893)
• December 6 – Cicely Hamilton, English dramatist and suffragist (born 1872)

• Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Mary Norton, The Borrowers
• Frost Medal: Carl Sandburg
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Evelyn Waugh, Men at Arms
• James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin
• National Book Award: James Jones, From Here to Eternity.
• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Estes, Ginger Pye
• Newdigate prize: Donald Hall
• Nobel Prize for Literature: François Mauriac
• Premio Nadal: María Medio Estrada, Nosotros, los Rivero
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Joseph Kramm, The Shrike
• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Herman Wouk – The Caine Mutiny
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Marianne Moore, Collected Poems
• King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Andrew Young
• National Book Award for Fiction: James Jones – From Here to Eternity