1939 in literature

See also: 1938 in literature, other events of 1939, 1940 in literature, list of years in literature.

Table of contents

1 Events 2 New Books 3 Births 4 Deaths 5 Awards

Events

\n* 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.

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New Books

\n*The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler\n*Children of God - Vardis Fisher\n*The Day of the Locust - Nathanael West\n*Drums at Dusk - Arna Wendell Bontemps\n*Files on Parade - John O'Hara\n*Finnegans Wake - James Joyce\n*The Gladiators - Arthur Koestler\n*The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck\n*Let Me Breathe Thunder - William Attaway\n*Listen for the Voices - Anne Colver \n*Magna - Zona Gale\n*The Mask of Dimitrios - Eric Ambler\n*Melbourne - David Cecil\n*Moses, Man Of The Mountain - Zora Neale Hurston \n*The Nazarene - Sholem Asch\n*Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats – T. S. Eliot\n*The Outsider and Others - H. P. Lovecraft\n*The Patriot - Pearl S. Buck\n*Snow of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway \n*Studies in Iconology - Erwin Panofsky\n*Thimble Summer - Elizabeth Enright\n*The Tree of Liberty - Elizabeth Page

Births

\n* Michael Moorcock, English science fiction author

Deaths

\n* January 28 - William Butler Yeats, writer

Awards

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