2004 in literature

See also: 2003 in literature, other events of 2004, 2005 in literature, list of years in literature.

Deaths

January-February

• January 4, John Toland, author and historian
• January 4, Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
• January 4, Jeff Nuttall, poet, publisher, and author of Bomb Culture
• January 10, Alexandra Ripley, author of Scarlett
• January 10/11?, Spalding Gray, actor and author
• January 13, Zeno Vendler, philosopher and linguist
• January 14, Jack Cady, science fiction author
• January 15, Olivia Goldsmith, author
• January 15, Alex Barris, Canadian actor and writer
• January 22, George Woodbridge, illustrator
• January 29, M. M. Kaye, author of The Far Pavilions
• 29 January, Janet Frame, New Zealand author
• February 2, Alan Bullock, historian
• February 4, Hilda Hilst, Brazilian novelist
• February 5, Frances Partridge, last surviving member of the Bloomsbury group
• February 7, Norman Thelwell, cartoonist
• February 8, Julius Schwartz, comic book and pulp magazine editor
• February 16, Bill Oakley, comic book letterer
• February 19, Hermann Krings, German philosopher
• February 27, Paul Sweezy, economist and founding editor of the Monthly Review
• February 28, Daniel J. Boorstin, historian
• February 29, Jerome Lawrence, playwright

March-December

• March 9, Albert Mol, author, actor, and dancer
• March 30, Dr Michael King OBE New Zealand historian, author and biographer
• May 2, Paul Guimard, French writer
• April 26, Hubert Selby, Jr., American author
• July 1, Peter Barnes, playwright
• October 16, Vincent Brome, English biographer and novelist
• October 20, Anthony Hecht, American poet
• November 24, Arthur Hailey, Canadian author
• December 8, Jackson Mac Low, American poet
• December 12, Phaswane Mpe, South African novelist (b. 1970)
• December 28, Susan Sontag, American novelist (b. 1933)