1939 in literature

Events

• December 25 - A Christmas Carol was read before a radio audience for the first time.

• The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West is published. In 2001, the book would be named as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce is published. In 2001, the book would be one of three books by Joyce to be named as part of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is published. In 2001, the book would be on the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century as selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

New Books

• The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
• Children of God - Vardis Fisher
• The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West
• Drums at Dusk - Arna Wendell Bontemps
• Files on Parade - John O'Hara
• Finnegans Wake - James Joyce
• The Gladiators - Arthur Koestler
• The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
• Let Me Breathe Thunder - William Attaway
• Listen for the Voices - Anne Colver
• Magna - Zona Gale
• Mask of Dimitrios - Eric Ambler
• Melbourne - David Cecil
• Moses, Man Of The Mountain - Zora Neale Hurston
• The Nazarene - Sholem Asch
• The Outsider and Others - H.P. Lovecraft
• The Patriot - Pearl S. Buck
• Snow of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway
• Studies in Iconology - Erwin Panofsky
• Thimble Summer - Elizabeth Enright
• The Tree of Liberty - Elizabeth Page

Births

• Michael Moorcock, English science fiction author

Deaths

• January 28 - William Butler Yeats, writer

Awards

• Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Enright, Thimble Summer
• Nobel Prize for literature: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
• Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Robert E. Sherwood, Abe Lincoln in Illinois
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: John Gould Fletcher: Selected Poems
• Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - The Yearling

Referenced By