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The Sixties: Books

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

The Literary World of the 1960s

The decade began with the death of Ernest Hemingway on July 2, 1961. He had dominated the American literary scene for over thirty years. Of all the writers of his time, Hemingway created a simple, direct, unadorned prose style that influenced many of the writers of the twentieth century. By the end of the decade, a "New Journalism" style came to symbolize the technique of the best non-fiction writers of the times. It was a style that used fictional techniques for non-fiction narrative. Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote and Norman Mailer were three of the best known practitioners of the style.

Some of the Sixties Best

Book: Catch-22

Catch-22

1961 Novel

Book: Another Country

Another Country

1962 Novel

Book: A Movealbe Feast

A Moveable Feast

1964 Memoir

Book: Vonnegut: Novels & stories, 1963-1973

Vonnegut: Novels & stories, 1963-1973

God bless you, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
Plus 3 other Novels:
Cat's cradle (1963)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
Breakfast of champions (!973)
And 4 Stories

Book: Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions

Dangerous Visions

1967 Short Story Collection

Book: Four Novels of the 1960s --Philip K. Dick

Four Novels of the 1960s --Philip K. Dick

Includes: Do androids dream of electric sleep (1968)
Plus The man in the high castle (1962)
The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) 
Ubik (1969)

Book: The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

1970 Novel

Science Fiction Awards

Hugo Awards: Novels

  • 1960. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
  • 1961. A Canticle for Leibowitz  by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
  • 1962. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
  • 1963. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
  • 1964. Here Gather the Stars  by Clifford D. Simak
  • 1965. The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
  • 1966. Dune by Frank Herbert
  • 1966. ...And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny
  • 1967. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
  • 1968. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
  • 1969. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
  • 1970. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

The Nebula Awards: Novel

  • 1965. Dune by Frank Herbert
  • 1966. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  • 1966. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
  • 1967. The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
  • 1968. Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
  • 1969. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
  • 1970. Ringworld by Larry Niven

Children's Books: The Caldecut and Newberry Awards

Caldecott Medal Winners

  • 1960: Nine Days to Christmas illustrated by Marie Hall Et; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida (Viking) 
  • 1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins (Parnassus)
  • 1962: Once a Mouse retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown (Scribner)
  • 1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)
  • 1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper)
  • 1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (Atheneum)
  • 1966: Always Room for One More illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger] (Holt)
  • 1967: Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt)
  • 1968: Drummer Hoff illustrated by Ed Emberley; text: adapted by Barbara Emberley (Prentice-Hall)
  • 1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text: retold by Arthur Ransome (Farrar)
  • 1970: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (Windmill Books)

Newbery Medal

  • 1960 Medal Winner: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
  • 1961 Medal Winner: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
  • 1962 Medal Winner: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
  • 1963 Medal Winner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
  • 1964 Medal Winner: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
  • 1965 Medal Winner: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
  • 1966 Medal Winner: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
  • 1967 Medal Winner: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
  • 1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
  • 1969 Medal Winner: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
  • 1970 Medal Winner: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)

Influential Sixties Books

  • Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)
  • Night by Elie Wiesel (1960)
  • To Kil a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
  • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
  • The Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961)
  • Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1961)
  • One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)
  • The Other America: Poverty in the United States by Michael Harrington (1962)
  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
  • City of Night by John Rechy (1963)
  • Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt (1963
  • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Freidan​ (1963)
  • Markings  by U N Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (1963)
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (1963)
  • The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre (1963)
  • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
  • The Little Red Book: Quotations from Chairman Mao (1964)
  • A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964)
  • Warren Commissioon Report (1964)
  • Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
  • The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby by Tom Wolfe (1965)
  • Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown (1965)
  • Unsafe at any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader (1965)
  • Human Sexual Response by Masters & Johnson (1966)
  • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
  • Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson (1966)
  • Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison (1967)
  • The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects  by Marshal McLuhan (1967)
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)
  • The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer (1968)
  • Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (1968)
  • The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)
  • Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal (1968)
  • Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion (1968)
  • Whole Earth Catalog (1968 first issue)
  • My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall (1969)
  • On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler Ross (1969)
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (196)
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown (1970)
  • Future Shock by Alvin Toffler (1970)
  • Living on the Earth by Alicia Bay Laurel (1970)

The Edgar Awards for Mystery: Best Novel

Best Mystery Novel of the Year awarded by the Mystery Writers of America.

  • 1960. The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin
  • 1961. The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons
  • 1962. Gideon's Fire by J. J. Marric
  • 1963. Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters
  • 1964. The Light of Day  by Eric Ambler
  • 1965. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John Le Carre
  • 1966. The Quiller Memorandum  by Adam Hall
  • 1967. The King of the Rainy Country by Nicolas Freeling
  • 1968. God Save the Mark by Donald E. Westlake
  • 1969. A Case of Need by Jeffery Hudson
  • 1970. Forfeit by Dick Francis

The Poet's Corner

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy became the 35th President of the United States. At his inauguration, American poet Robert Frost became the first poet to read at an inaugural. Frost recited his poem, "The Gift Outright".

Songs about writers and literary works

  • "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell (inspired by Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King)
  • "I am a rock" by Simon & Garfunkel (inspired by the John Donne poem, "No man is an island")
  • "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles
  • "Richard Cory" by Simon & Garfunkel (inspired by Edwin Arlington Robinson poem)
  • "Ramble On" by Led Zepellin, 1969,  (inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings)
  • "A Rose for Emily" by the Zombies (inspired by the William Faulkner story)
  • "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones (inspired by the Russian novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita)
  • "Tales of Brave Ulysses" by Cream (inspired by The Odyssey)
  • "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles (inspired by Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert's version of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead")
  • White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

Songs can be found on Spotify

Counter culture Magazines

  • Crawdaddy, rock music magazine
  • Mad Magazine, humor
  • NME (New Music Express), British music tabloid
  • Quicksilver Times,counter culture underground newspaper
  • Ramparts, New Left political and literary magazine
  • Rolling Stone, music and counterculture journalism
  • Surfer Magazine, surfing culture
  • Whole Earth Catalog, self sufficiency, ecology and counter culture magazine
  • The Village Voice, alternative news weekly

Watch the Movie Read the Book

Some Memorable Characters in '60s Novels

  • George Smiley in John Le Carre's Call for the Dead (1960)
  • Rabbit Angstrom in John Updike's Rabbit Run (1960)
  • Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
  • Boo in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
  • Scout in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbrid (1960)
  • Milo Minderbinder in Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (1961
  • Yossarian in Joseph Heller's Catch 22 (1961)
  • Mr. Biswas in V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961)
  • Binx Bolling in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer (1961)
  • Jean Brodie in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
  • Aureliano Buendia in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
  • Alex Portnoy in Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint (1969)
  • Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander (1969)
  • Stephen Maturin in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander (1969)
  • Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five (1969)

Additional References

Collins, G. (2010). Americas women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
Faderman, L. (2016). The gay revolution the story of the struggle. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
Farber, D. R., & Bailey, B. L. (2005). The Columbia guide to America in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mustich, J. (2018). 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List. Workman Publishing Company, Incorporated.
Nevala-Lee, A. (2018). Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of science fiction. New York: HarperCollins.
Rockwell, J. (2014). The Times of the Sixties: the culture, politics and personalities that shaped the decade. New York, NY: Black Dog.
Strodder, C., & Phillips, M. (2007). The encyclopedia of sixties cool: A celebration of the grooviest people, events, and artifacts of the 1960s. Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press.
Strain, C. B. (2016). Long Sixties: America, 1954-1974. Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Williams, J. (2013). Eyes on the prize: America's civil rights years, 1954-1965. New York: Penguin Books.