Literary Hit Parade: 1940 - 1949

1940

Nobel Prize for Literature

No Award Given

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Poetry Collected Poems, Mark Van Doren
Drama The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan
History Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Carl Sandburg

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

Thirty Acres (translation), Ringuet (Pseudonym)

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. How Green Was My Valley, Richard Llewellyn 2. Kitty Foyle, Christopher Morley 3. Mrs. Miniver, Jan Struther 4. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Nonfiction 1. I Married Adventure, Osa Johnson 2. How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler

Other Notable Literary Events

Native Son, Richard Wright; The Hamlet, William Faulkner; Portrait of the Artist as a Dog, Dylan Thomas; High Sierra, W. R. Burnett; You Can’t Go Home Again, Thomas Wolfe; For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway; Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler; And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie; The Heart Is a Lonely Hunte, Carson McCullers; Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler; The Razor’s Edge, Somerset Maugham; The Crazy Hunter, Kay Boyle; The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene; The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter Van Tilburg Clark; The Fifth Column, Ernest and Benjamin Glazer (opened at Alvin Theatre, NY); The Male Animal, James Thurber and Ellliot Nugent comedy (Cort Theatre, NY); Flight to the West, Sean O’Casey; Selected Poems, W. H. Auden; Cantos LII-LXXI, Ezra Pound

Died

DuBose Heyward, American author (b. 1885)
Edwin Markman, American poet (b. 1852)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
Hamlin Garland, Ameriican writer (b. 1860)
Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
Selma Lagerlof, Swedish writer (b. 1859)
Thomas Beer, American writer (b. 1889,/p>

1941

Nobel Prize for Literature

No Award Given

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction No Award Given
Poetry Sunderland Capture, Leonard Bacon
Drama There Shall Be No Night, Robert E. Sherwood

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

Three Came to Ville Marie, Alan Sullivan

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Keys of the Kingdom, A. J. Cronin 2. Random Harvest, James Hilton 7. H. M. Pulham, Esquire, John P. Marquand 9. Saratoga Trunk, Edna Ferber
Nonfiction 1. Berlin Diary, William L. Shirer 2. The White Cliffs, Alice Duer 5. Blood, Sweat and Tears, Winston Churchill

Other Notable Literary Events

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee & Walker Evans; Mildred Pierce, James M. Cain; Random Harvest, James Hilton; The Keys of the Kingdom, A. J. Cronin; The Hills Beyond (short stories), Thomas Wolfe; New Criticism, John Crowe Ransom; What Makes Sammy Run?, Budd Schulberg; A Curtain of Green (short stories), Eudora Welty; Reflections in a Golden Eye, Carson McCullers; Saratoga Trunk, Edna Ferber; Open House (poetry), Theodore Roethke

Died

James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
Virginia Woolf, British writer & feminist, suicide (b. 1882)
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer, composer, painter (b. 1861)
Sherwood Anderson, American writer (b. 1876)

1942

Nobel Prize for Literature

No Award Given

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction In This Our Life, Ellen Glasgow
Poetry The Dust Which Is God, Stephen Vincent Benet
Drama No Award Given

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

Little Man, G. Herbert Sallans

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Song of Bernadette, Franz Werfel 2. The Moon Is Down, John Steinbeck 3. Dragon Seed, Pearl S. Buck 9. Kings Row, Henry Bellamann
Nonfiction 1. See Here, Private Hargrove, Marion Hargrove 2. Mission to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies 3. The Last Time I Saw Paris, Elliot Paul 4. Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings

Other Notable Literary Events

Blithe Spirit, Noel Coward; Go Down, Moses, William Faulkner; Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder; The Just and the Unjust, James Gould Cozzens

Died

Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (b. 1881)
L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery, Canadian writer, creator of Anne of Green Gables (b. 1874)
Alice Hegan Rice, American writer (b. 1870)
Sakutaro Hagiwara, Japanese poet (b. 1870)

1943

Nobel Prize for Literature

No Award Given

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction Dragon’s Teeth, Upton Sinclair
Poetry A Witness Tree, Robert Frost
Drama The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek, Thomas H. Raddall

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas 2. The Valley of Decision, Marcia Davenport 4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith 5. The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
Nonfiction 1. Under Cover, John Roy Carlson 2. One World, Wendell L. Wilkie 5. Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis 7. Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, Cornelia Otis Skinner & Emily Kimbrough 9. Here Is Your War, Ernie Pyle

Other Notable Literary Events

Number One, John Dos Passos; Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot; At Heaven’s Gate, Selected Poems, Robert Penn Warren

Died

Beatrix Potter, British writer & illustrator (b. 1866)
Radclyff Hall, English novelist & short story writer (b. 1886)
Stephen Vincent Benet, American writer (b. 1898)
Alexander Woollcott, American dramatic critic (b. 1887)
Moses Nadir, American Yiddish Theatre playwright (b. 1885)
Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian playwright, poet, & novelist (b. 1902)

1944

Nobel Prize for Literature

Johannes V. Jensen, (1873-1950) Danish

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction Journey in the Dark, Martin Flavin
Poetry Western Star, Stephen Vincent Benet
Drama No Award Given

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

No selection

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. Strange Fruit, Lillian Smith 2. The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas 4. Forever Amber, Kathleen Winsor 5. The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham 8. Green Dolphin Street, Elizabeth Goudge 9. A Bell for Adano, John Hersey
Nonfiction 1. I Never Left Home, Bob Hope 2. Brave Men, Ernie Pyle 8. Anna and the King of Siam, Margaret Landon

Other Notable Literary Events

Lland of Unlikeness, Robert Lowell; V-Letter, Karl Shapiro; The Horse’s Mouth, Joyce Cary; Time Must Have a Stop, Aldous Huxley

Died

Anne Frank, German Jewish diarist (b. 1929)
Antoine St.-Exupery, French writer & flyer (b. 1900)
George Ade, American humorisy & playwright (1866)
Arthur (Thomas) Quiller-Crouch, English writer & teacher (1863)
James Boyd, American author (1888)
Roman Rolland, French writer (b. 1866)

1945

Nobel Prize for Literature

Gabriela Mistral, (1889-1957) Chilean

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction A Bell for Adano, John Hersey
Poetry V-Letter and Other Poems, Karl Shapiro
Drama Harvey, Mary Chase

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

The Solitudes, Hugh MacLennan

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. Forever Amber, Kathleen Winsor 2. The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas 5. Cass Timberlane, Sinclair Lewis 6. A Lion Is in the Streets, Adria Locke Langley
Nonfiction 1. Brave Men, Ernie Pyle 2. Dear Sir, Juliet Lowell 3. Up Front, Bill Mauldin 4. Black Boy, Richard Wright 8. The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald 9. The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber

Other Notable Literary Events

A Masque of Reason, Robert Frost; Little Friend, Little Friend, Randall Jarrell; Selected Poems, John Crowe Ransom; Short Is the Time, C. Day Lewis; The Grass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams; Black Boy, Richard Wright; Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

Died

Theodore Dreiser, American writer (b. 1871)
Paul Valery, French poet & essayist (b. 1871)
Ellen Glasgow, American writer (b. 1874)
Robert Benchley, American drama critic, humorist, actor (b. 1889)
Georg Kaiser, German playwright (b. 1878)

1946

Nobel Prize for Literature

Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962) Swiss (Born in Germany)

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction No Award Given
Poetry No Award Given
Drama State of the Union, Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

Continental Revue, Winifred Bambrick

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The King’s General, Daphne du Maurier 2. This Side of Innocence, Taylor Caldwell 5. The Hucksters, Frederic Wakeman 6. The Foxes of Harrow, Frank Yerby 7. Arch of Triumph, Erich Maria Remarque 10. The Snake Pit, Mary Jane Ward
Nonfiction 1. The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald 2. Peace of Mind, Joshua L. Liebman 5. Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle

Other Notable Literary Events

Animal Farm, George Orwell; The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers; The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill; Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty; All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren; Medea, Robinson Jeffers

Died

H. G. Wells (Herbert George), British writer (b. 1866)
(Newton) Booth Tarkington, American writer (b. 1869)
Countee Cullen, American poet (b. 1903)
Damon Runyon, American writer (b. 1884)
Gertrude Stein, American writer, long in France (b. 1874)
Gerhart Hauptmann, German playwright (b. 1862)
Harley Granville-Baker, English theatre scholar, actor, director (b. 1877)
Edward Brewster Sheldon, American playwright (b. 1886)

1947

Nobel Prize for Literature

Andre Gide, (1869-1951) French

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
Poetry Lord Weary’s Castle, Robert Lowell
Drama No Award Given

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

The Tin Flute (translation), Gabrielle Roy

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Miracle of the Bells, Russell Janney 2. The Moneyman, Thomas B. Costain 3. Gentleman’s Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson 6. The Wayward Bus, John Steinbeck 8. Kingsblood Royal, Sinclair Lewis
Nonfiction 1. Peace of Mind, Joshua L. Liebman 2. Information Please Almanac, ed. John Kieran

Other Notable Literary Events

The Age of Anxiety, W. H. Auden; The Stoic, Theodore Dreiser; Poems of Distinction Stephen Spender; Transport to Summer, Wallace Stevens; A Streetcar Named Desire; Tennessee Williams; The Well Wrought Urn, Cleanth Brooks

Died

Willa Cather, American writer (b. 1873)
Charles Bernard Nordhoff, American writer (b. 1887)
Winston Churchill, American writer (b. 1871)
Luigi Chiarelli, Italian playwright (b. 1884)

1948

Nobel Prize for Literature

T. S. Eliot, (1888-1965) British (Born in United States)

Pulitzer Prize

Fiction Tales of the South Pacific, James A. Michener
Poetry The Age of Anxiety, W. H. Auden
Drama A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
History Across the Wide Missouri, Bernard DeVoto

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

The Precipice, Hugh MacLennan

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Big Fisherman, Lloyd C. Douglas 2. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer 7. Raintree, County Ross, Lockridge, Jr. 10. The Young Lions, Irwin Shaw
Nonfiction 1. Crusade in Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower 2. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie 4. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, A. C. Kinsey & others 6. The Life and Times of the Shmoo, Al Capp 7. The Gathering Storm, Winston Churchill 9. A Guide to Confident Living, Norman Vincent Peale

Other Notable Literary Events

Intruder in the Dust, William Faulkner; The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene; Losses, Randall Jarrell; The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer; Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley; Pisan Cantos, Ezra Pound; The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh

Died

Georges Bernnanos, French writer (b. 1888)
Claude McKay, Jamaican-American writer (b. 1890)
Gertrude Atheron, American author (b. 1857)
Kan Kikuchi, Japanese novelist & playwright (b. 1888)
Osamu Dzai, Japanese novelist (b. 1909)
Thomas Mofolo, Lesothi writer (b. 1875)
Antonin Artaud, French writer, actor, producer (b. 1896)
Gregorio Martinez Sierra, Span. Playwright (b.1881)
Susan Glaspell, American novelist & playwright (b. 1882)
Lajos Biro, Hungarian playwright (b. 1880)
Matheson Lang, Canadadian-born, Scotland-raised playwright (b. 1879)

1949

Nobel Prize for Literature 

William Faulkner, (1897-1962) American

Bollingen Prize in Poetry

Ezra pound

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens
Poetry Terror and Decorum, Peter Viereck
Drama Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

The Governor General’s Literary Award (Fiction)

Mr. Ames Against Time, Philip Child

Best Sellers

Fiction 1. The Egyptian, Mika Waltari 2. The Big Fisherman, Lloyd C. Douglas 4. A Rage to Live, John O’Hara
Nonfiction 1. White Collar Zoo, Clare Barnes, Jr. 2. How to Win at Canasta, Oswald Jacoby 5. Cheaper by the Dozen, Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey 6. The Greatest Story Ever Told, Fulton Oursler

Other Notable Literary Events

The Grand Design, John Dos Passos; Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell; Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller; The Golden Apples, Eudora Welty

Died

Margaret Mitchell, American author (b. 1900)
Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer (b. 1882)
Sarojini Naidu, Indian Poet writing in English (b. 1879)
Hervey Allen, American historical novelist (b. 1889)
Rex Beach, American novelist (b. 1877)
Philip Barry, American writer, mainly for theatre (b. 1896)
Sem Benelli, Italilian Playwright (b. 1875)