1939

Winter of Artifice, published in 1939, is Anaïs Nin's second published book, containing subsequently alternating novelettes.

Why Britain is at War is a polemic treatise written by Harold Nicolson and first published by Penguin Books on 7 November 1939 shortly after the Second World War began. In the book, Nicolson explores Adolf Hitler's insatiable grasp for power, the foreign policy brinkmanship and deception ploys adopted by Nazi Germany, and Hitler's use of actual and implied force to get his way at the negotiation table. The Penguin Special edition originally cost 6d (six old English pennies) and sold a hundred thousand copies.

Value and Capital is a book by the British economist John Richard Hicks, published in 1939. It is considered a classic exposition of microeconomic theory. Central results include:

Union Now is journalist and Atlanticist Clarence Streit's proposal for a federal union of the world's major democracies. The first edition of the book was published in 1939. The book is notable for its contribution to the formation of the Atlantic Movement, spearheaded by such groups as Federal Union, Inc. (which later became the Association to Unite the Democracies) and the Atlantic Union Committee.

The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations is a book on international relations written by E. H. Carr. The book was written in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe and the first edition was published in September 1939, shortly after the war's outbreak; a second edition was published in 1945. In the revised edition, Carr did not "re-write every passage which had been in someway modified by the subsequent course of events", but rather decided "to modify a few sentences" and undertake other small efforts to improve the clarity of the work.

Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water is a collection of essays by H.G. Wells written in 1939. It is best known for the following description:

Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions (French: Esquisse d'une théorie des émotions) is a 1939 book by Jean-Paul Sartre.

The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family is a picture book of the tale of Lady Godiva, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. One of Seuss's few books written for adults, its original 1939 publication by Random House was a failure and was eventually remaindered. However, it later gained popularity as Seuss himself grew in fame, and was republished in 1987.

Saints and Revolutionaries is a non-fiction work by the writer and philosopher Olaf Stapledon, published by Heinemann in 1939.

Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz is a children's biography of Louis Agassiz, the nineteenth-century paleontologist and natural scientist, by Mabel Robinson. It tells his life story from his boyhood in Switzerland to his professorship at Harvard. Illustrated by Lynd Ward, the biography was first published in 1939 and was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1940.

Robbery Under Law (1939) is a polemic travel book by the British writer Evelyn Waugh. It depicts the Leftist nationalization of the petroleum industry, and the persecution of Catholics in Mexico, under Lázaro Cárdenas, in 1938. Waugh's trip to Mexico was financed by the Cowdray Estate, which held extensive interests in Mexican oil and had suffered heavy losses due to the nationalization.

The Races of Europe is a popular work of physical anthropology by Carleton S. Coon. It was first published in 1939 by Macmillan.

The Queen's Book of the Red Cross was published in November 1939 in a fundraising effort to aid the Red Cross during World War II. The book was sponsored by Queen Elizabeth, and its contents were contributed by fifty British authors and artists.

Principles of the Theory of Probability is a 1939 book by the philosopher Ernest Nagel.

Pleins pouvoirs is a book written in 1939 by French author and diplomat Jean Giraudoux in which he discusses proposed reforms needed in France in the context of the nation's cultural heritage.

The Personal Heresy is a series of articles, three each by C.S. Lewis and E.M.W. (Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall) Tillyard, first published on April 27, 1939 by Oxford University Press and later reprinted, also by Oxford University Press, in 1965. The book has been reprinted in 2008 by Concordia University Press with an Introduction by Lewis scholar Bruce L. Edwards and a new Preface by the editor, Joel D. Heck. The central issue of the essays is whether a piece of imaginative writing, particularly poetry, is primarily a reflection of the author's personality (Tillyard's position) or is about something external to the author (Lewis's position). The two positions may be summarized briefly as the subjective position (Tillyard) and the objective position (Lewis). In general, Lewis attempts to keep poetry within the reach of the common person, while Tillyard thinks of the poet as a person who is "a cut above the common person."

Moses and Monotheism (German: Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion) is a 1939 book by Sigmund Freud, published in English translation in 1939.

Mister Johnson (1939) is a novel by Joyce Cary. It is the story of a young Nigerian who falls foul of the British colonial regime. Although the novel has a comic tone, the story itself is tragic. Joyce Cary has been quoted as saying that Mister Johnson was his favorite of his own books. Mister Johnson is often read in schools and has had a wide audience. It has been adapted as a play by Norman Rosten, and a film by Bruce Beresford. Chinua Achebe has said that Mister Johnson struck him as superficial and helped form his determination to write his own novels about Nigeria. Other critics have found Cary's portrayal of his main character patronizing and Johnson himself childish.

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (ISBN 0-590-75803-9) is a children's book by Virginia Lee Burton. First published in 1939, during the Great Depression, it features Mike Mulligan, a steam shovel operator, and his steam shovel Mary Anne. It is considered a classic favorite of children's literature: based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association ranked the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."

Men of Music: Their Lives, Times and Achievements is a volume of mini-biographies and evaluations of famous classical music composers, written by Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock, and originally published by Simon and Schuster in 1939. Revised and expanded editions appeared in 1950 and 1958, and the book has gone through seven printings, the most recent being a 1967 softcover edition.

The Man Behind the Plough is a wide-ranging, in-depth and moving study of the endemic problems and tragic suffering of the peasants of the undivided Bengal. In order to go into the roots of these problems, the author Sir M.Azizul Haque examines the land system introduced by the Permanent Settlement (1793), contrasts it with what prevailed during the Mughal era and throws light on how the zamindars’ lobby distorted the original intention of the regulations of 1793 with disastrous consequences. The author has made use of extensive facts, archival material and statistics to establish his interpretations and conclusions. It is a research work of very high quality, and may be regarded as what is now called an interdisciplinary work. The author put in ten years of labour of love, albeit very hard labour, to produce the book, which aims to look into the problems of agriculture "from the point of view of the peasant".

The Malachite Box or The Malachite Casket (Russian: Малахитовая шкатулка, tr. Malakhitovaya Shkatulka; IPA: ) is a book of fairy tales and folk tales (also known as skaz) of the Ural region of Siberia compiled by Pavel Bazhov and published from 1936 to 1945. It is written in contemporary language and blends elements of everyday life with fantastic characters. It was awarded the Stalin prize in 1942. Bazhov's stories are based on the oral legends of the miners and gold prospectors.

Madeline is a 1939 book written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, the first in the book series, which inspired the Madeline media franchise. It is considered one of the major classics of children's literature.

Madeline is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature film. The adaptations are famous for the closing line, a famous phrase Ethel Barrymore used to rebuff curtain calls, "That's all there is, there isn't any more." The stories take place in a Catholic boarding school in Paris. Much of the media start with the line "In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines ..." The stories often are written entirely in rhyme, and include simple themes of daily life which appeal to children.

Little Toot is a children's story, written and illustrated by Hardie Gramatky.

The Lawless Roads (1939) is a travel account by Graham Greene, based on his 1938 trip to Mexico, to see the effects of the government's campaign of forced anti-Catholic secularisation and how the inhabitants had reacted to the brutal anticlerical purges of President Plutarco Elías Calles.

The King's Stilts is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss, and published in 1939 by Random House. Unlike many Dr. Seuss books, it is narrated in prose rather than verse.

Land of Black Gold (1939) (abandoned)

Karl Marx: His Life and Environment is a 1939 biography of Karl Marx by Isaiah Berlin. Berlin argues that Marx's system of thought depends upon indefensible metaphysical presuppositions.

Journey to a War is a travel book in prose and verse by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939.

Grundlagen der Mathematik (English: Foundations of Mathematics) is a two-volume work by David Hilbert and Paul Bernays. Originally published in 1934 and 1939, it presents fundamental mathematical ideas and introduced second-order arithmetic.

Published in 1939 this is a collection of four of the Scarlet Pimpernel novels in a single binding.

Freedom and Culture is a book by John Dewey. Published in 1939, the book is an analytical defense of democracy written in a time when democratic regimes had recently been replaced by non-democratic ones, and at a time when Marxism was considered a powerful political force.

Sir Donald Tovey's Essays in Musical Analysis are a series of analytical essays on classical music.

Eight Lectures on Yoga is a book by English occultist and teacher Aleister Crowley about the practice of Yoga. The book is number 4 of volume 3 of the Equinox, which was published by the Ordo Templi Orientis. The work is largely a demystified look at yoga, using little to no jargon or satirical humor. It is divided under two sections into eight parts, which are transcripts of eight one-hour lectures on the subject given by Crowley. The book was originally published in 1939.

Daniel Boone is a book by James Daugherty about the famous pioneer. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1940. It deals with the life, death, and legacy of Daniel Boone.

The Civilizing Process is a book by German sociologist Norbert Elias. It is an influential work in sociology and Elias' most important work. It was first published in two volumes in 1939 in German as Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Because of World War II it was virtually ignored, but gained popularity when it was republished in 1969 and translated into English. Covering European history from roughly 800 AD to 1900 AD, it is the first formal analysis and theory of civilization.

Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor is a darkly humorous children's picture book written and illustrated by the British author Mervyn Peake and published by Country Life in 1939. It was his first published work. The story concerns the nautical exploits of the titular captain and his rambunctious crew aboard their ship The Black Tiger. After some episodic adventures they capture a small humanoid, referred to only as the Yellow Creature, with whom Slaughterboard develops a strange platonic infatuation. His loyal crew gradually fall prey to misadventure and the book ends with the Captain and the Yellow Creature forsaking piracy for fishing on the creature's pink island. The book is notable for Peake's poetic style and his fine illustrations of the many fantastical beasts on the island.

Captain Abby and Captain John, or Captain Abby and Captain John: An Around-the-world Biography is a book written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (1892–1955). The book was written in 1939, and was published by Macmillan Press. It chronicles the true life adventures of a husband and wife team that co-captained a tall ship in the heyday of wooden shipping in the 19th century. The couple at the heart of the story are John and Abby Pennell, part of the Pennell shipbuilding dynasty of Brunswick, Maine (U.S.A.).The family company was known as Pennell Brothers, and was a successful shipbuilding company of the American wooden shipbuilding era. The book follows the couple and their real life drama as they sail the world's oceans.

The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food (Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище, Kniga o vkusnoi i zdorovoi pishche) is a Russian cookbook written by scientists from the Institute of Nutrition of the Academy of Medical Scientists of the USSR. The cookbook was first published in 1939, and a further edition was published in 1952. An English translation (by Boris Ushumirskiy) appeared in 2012.

The Biology of the Cell Surface is a book by American biologist Ernest Everett Just. It was published by P. Blakiston’s Son & Co in 1939.

Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi Hamid Raza Khan Mustafa Raza Khan Qadri

The Anthology of Black Humor (in French Anthologie de l'humour noir) is an anthology of 45 writers edited by André Breton. It was first published in 1940 in Paris by Éditions du Sagittaire and its distribution was immediately banned by the Vichy government. It was reprinted in 1947 after Breton's return from exile, with a few additions. In 1966, Breton, "having resisted the temptation to add more names", published the book again and called this edition "the definitive".

Animals Are Like That! was Frank Buck’s sixth book, which continued his stories of capturing exotic animals. If you should find yourself with a monkey or ape on your hands and no knowledge of what to do with it, Buck tells co-author Carol Weld, just treat it like a child. And the elephant, like a man in the tropics, needs a sheltered siesta in mid-afternoon because he is susceptible to sunstroke. Monkeys pick up human ways and copy them. But you should never, never trust a tiger, any more than you should trust a crocodile.

Al-Farooq: The Life of Omar The Great is the biography of Umar (also spelled Omar) written by Islamic scholar Shibli Nomani. Umar is universally acknowledged as the first conqueror, founder and administrator of the Muslim Empire. He was known as known as Al-Farooq ("Distinguisher between truth and false").

Abraham Lincoln: The War Years is a biography by Carl Sandburg which focuses particularly on the American Civil War period. It won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Abraham Lincoln is a book by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire about Abraham Lincoln. Released by Doubleday Publishers, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1940.

The Yearling is the 1938 novel written by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It was published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Month Club in April 1938. It was the number one best seller for twenty-three consecutive weeks in 1938. As well as being the best-selling novel in America in 1938, it was the seventh-best in 1939. It sold over 250,000 copies in 1938. It has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian and twenty-two other languages. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1939.

Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a play written by the American playwright Robert E. Sherwood in 1938. The play, in three acts, covers the life of President Abraham Lincoln from his childhood through his final speech in Illinois before he left for Washington. The play also covers his romance with Mary Todd and his debates with Stephen A. Douglas, and uses Lincoln's own words in some scenes. Sherwood received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1939 for his work. Raymond Massey portrayed Lincoln; he repeated his role in the 1940 film version.

Thimble Summer is a novel by Elizabeth Enright that won the 1939 Newbery Medal. It is set in Depression-era rural Wisconsin.

The Radium Woman: A youth edition of the life of Madame Curie is a biography of the scientist Marie Curie adapted for children by Eleanor Doorly from the 1937 biography by Ève Curie. It was published by Heinemann in 1939 with woodcuts by Robert Gibbings as chapter headings.

Tanka (短歌, "short poem"?) is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism (generally known as The Big Book because of the thickness of the paper used in the first edition) is a 1939 basic text, describing how to recover from alcoholism, primarily written by one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Bill W. but with one chapter, "To Employers" written by Henry Parkhurst. It is the originator of the seminal "twelve-step method" widely used to treat many addictions, from alcoholism and heroin addiction to marijuana addiction, as well as overeating, sex addiction, gambling addiction, with a strong spiritual and social emphasis.

The Roman Revolution (1939) is an influential scholarly study of the final years of the ancient Roman Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire by Caesar Augustus. The book was the work of Sir Ronald Syme (1903-1989), a noted Tacitean scholar, and was published by the Oxford University Press. It was immediately controversial. Its main conclusion was that the structure of the Republic and its Senate were inadequate to the needs of Roman rule, and that Augustus was merely doing what was necessary to restore order in public life. This was a situation and reasoning uncomfortably reminiscent of contemporary events in Nazi Germany and the other fascist regimes of the time.

Wind, Sand and Stars (French title: Terre des hommes) is a memoir by the French aristocrat aviator-writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and a winner of several literary awards. It was first published in France in February 1939, and was then translated by Lewis Galantière and published in English by Reynal and Hitchcock in the United States later the same year.

Between Pacific Tides is a 1939 book by Ed Ricketts and Jack Calvin that explores the intertidal ecology of the Pacific coast of the United States. The book was originally titled "Between Pacific Tides: An Account of the Habits and Habitats of Some Five Hundred of the Common, Conspicuous Seashore Invertebrates of the Pacific Coast Between Sitka, Alaska, and Northern Mexico".

A Warning to the Hindus is a 1939 booklet by intellectual and mystic Savitri Devi. It was written in an attempt to "...make both those Hindus who are not nationalists and those Indian nationalists who do not care to call themselves Hindus into Hindu nationalists." The author projected Hindu India as the last surviving remnant of ancient Aryan spirituality, and issued this work as a warning to what she perceived as the threat of submergence through 'alien', meaning non-Aryan, influences.

Jubilate Agno (Latin: "Rejoice in the Lamb") is a religious poem by Christopher Smart, and was written between 1759 and 1763, during Smart's confinement for insanity in St. Luke's Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. The poem was first published in 1939, under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam, edited by W. F. Stead from Smart's manuscript, which Stead had discovered in a private library.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) is a collection of whimsical poems by T. S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It is the basis for the musical Cats.

The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City. It was produced by the Theatre Guild and with staging by Eddie Dowling, who also starred as Joe, and William Saroyan.

Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by the American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the play moved to the Hudson Theater. It closed there on June 17, 1944, having played 1,444 performances.

The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley and Coral Browne. In 1990, Browne stated in a televised biographical interview, broadcast on UK Channel 4 (entitled Caviar to the General), that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all future productions and adaptations.

The Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman, considered a classic of 20th century drama. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 of the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in 1900, it focuses on the struggle for control of a family business. Tallulah Bankhead starred in the original production as Regina Hubbard Giddens.

Ondine is a play written in 1938 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, based on the 1811 novella Undine by the German Romantic Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué that tells the story of Hans and Ondine. Hans is a knight-errant who has been sent off on a quest by his betrothed. In the forest he meets and falls in love with Ondine, a water-sprite who is attracted to the world of mortal man. The subsequent marriage of people from different worlds is, of course, folly. By turns comic, enchanting, and tragic, Ondine is considered by some to be Giraudoux's finest work.

The Family Reunion is a play by T. S. Eliot. Written mostly in blank verse (though not iambic pentameter), it incorporates elements from Greek drama and mid-twentieth-century detective plays to portray the hero's journey from guilt to redemption. The play was unsuccessful when first presented in 1939, and was later regarded as unsatisfactory by its author, but has been successfully revived since the 1940s. Some critics have thought aspects of the tormented hero reflect Eliot's own difficulties with his estrangement from his first wife.

The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist. Written as a vehicle for Katharine Hepburn, its success marked a reversal of fortunes for the actress, who was one of the film stars deemed "box office poison" in 1938.

Conversazione in Sicilia (Italian pronunciation: ) is a novel by the Italian author Elio Vittorini. It originally appeared in serial form in the literary magazine Letteratura in 1938–1939, and was first published in book form under the title Nome e Lagrime in 1941. The story concerns Silvestro Ferrauto and his return to Sicily after a long absence. Major themes of the work are detachment, poverty, exploitation and marital fidelity and respect.

Mrs. Miniver is a fictional character created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns for The Times, later adapted into a film of the same name.

The Friendly Ghost is a cartoon released by Paramount Pictures on 16 November 1945 as part of its Noveltoons series of animated short movies. It is the first cartoon to feature the character Casper the Friendly Ghost.

We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published in 1937. In this book, the Swallows (Walker family) are the only recurring characters. They are staying in a new location, Pin Mill on the River Orwell upstream from the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.

The Gladiators (1939) is the first novel by the author Arthur Koestler; it portrays the effects of the Spartacus revolt in the Roman Republic. Published in 1939, it was later reprinted in other editions.

'The Snows of Kilimanjaro' is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in Esquire magazine in 1936. It was republished in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories in 1938, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories in 1961, and is included in The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition (1987).

Party Going is a 1939 novel by British writer Henry Green (real name Henry Vincent Yorke).

If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem is a novel by the American author William Faulkner published in 1939. The novel was originally published under the title The Wild Palms, which is the title of one of the two interwoven stories. This title was chosen by the publishers, Random House, over the objections of Faulkner's choice of a title. Subsequent editions have since been printed under the title If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (1990, following the "corrected text" and format of Noel Polk), and since 2003 it is now usually referred to by both names, with the newer title following the historically first published title and in brackets, to avoid confusion: The Wild Palms .

Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939), translated as Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, is a book-length poem by Martinican writer Aimé Césaire, considered his masterwork, that mixes poetry and prose to express his thoughts on the cultural identity of black Africans in a colonial setting.

Mister Johnson is a 1990 American drama film based on the 1939 novel by Joyce Cary. The film was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival, where Maynard Eziashi won the Silver Bear for Best Actor.

The Mask of Dimitrios is a 1944 American film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and written by Frank Gruber, based on the 1939 novel of the same name written by Eric Ambler (in America the novel was titled A Coffin for Dimitrios). Ambler is known as a major influence on writers and an inventor of the modern thriller genre. The drama features Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott (as Dimitrios Makropoulos), Faye Emerson and Peter Lorre. This was the first film for Scott after signing a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures.

Life with Father is a humorous autobiographical book of stories compiled in 1935 by Clarence Day, Jr., which was adapted by Lindsay and Crouse in 1939 into the longest running non-musical Broadway play in history, which was, in turn, made into a 1947 movie and a television series.

Famous Fantastic Mysteries was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published from 1939 to 1953. The editor was Mary Gnaedinger. It was launched by the Munsey Company as a way to reprint the many science fiction and fantasy stories which had appeared over the preceding decades in the Munsey magazines, such as Argosy. The first issue was dated September/October 1939; the magazine was immediately successful, and less than a year later a companion magazine, Fantastic Novels, was launched.

Sur was a literary magazine published in Buenos Aires. Its main backer was Victoria Ocampo, and it was supported intellectually by the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. Many of the earliest editions of Sur carry the colophon of Ortega's Revista de Occidente. Notable contributors and sometime editors include Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Borges' Spanish brother-in-law Guillermo de Torre. The journal was first published in 1931, with the assistance of a multidisciplinary team of collaborators, among them Victoria's old friend and translator Pelegrina Pastorino, though declining readership led to its irregular publication after 1966. The last copy was published in 1992.

Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The novel was adapted for the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. The film won the 1939 New York Film Critics Award for Best Film. It earned nominations for eight Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Actor in what many consider Hollywood's greatest single year. The 1940 Academy Award for Best Cinematography, black-and-white category, was awarded to Gregg Toland for his work. Nominated for original score (but losing to The Wizard of Oz) was the prolific film composer, Alfred Newman, whose poignant "Cathy's Theme" does so much "to maintain its life as a masterpiece of romantic filmmaking."

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1939 mystery film based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox.

Condemned To Be Shot was an early BBC television drama, broadcast by the BBC Television Service in the United Kingdom on the evening of Saturday March 4, 1939. It is particularly notable for two reasons – firstly, it was one of the very first plays to be written especially for television, rather than adapted from the theatre or from radio drama. Secondly, it was the first television production where the camera was made into one of the 'characters' of the piece – the play revolves around the first-person perspective of the character whose viewpoint the camera represents, and who is not otherwise seen, his voice heard only in voiceover. The play ends with the main character faced with a firing squad.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2015, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre, the June 2015 issue being number 1,000. Initially published in 1930 in the United States as Astounding Stories as a pulp magazine, it has undergone several name changes, primarily to Astounding Science-Fiction in 1938, and Analog Science Fact & Fiction in 1960. In November 1992, its logo changed to use the term "Fiction and Fact" rather than "Fact & Fiction". It is in the library of the International Space Station. Spanning three incarnations since 1930, this is perhaps the most influential magazine in the history of the genre. It remains a fixture of the genre today.

Poetry London is a leading London-based literary periodical which publishes poetry, reviews and listings which is published three times a year. In this current format it has existed since 1988 when it was a listings magazine. Despite the name, Poetry London publishes poetry from across the UK and the world. The current editorial team is headed by poet Ahren Warner. Previous poetry editors have included Colette Bryce, Pascale Petit and Maurice Riordan. The magazine also holds launch events and an annual competition.

Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a movie, also called Lost Horizon, in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery high in the mountains of Tibet.

Život a dílo skladatele Foltýna (Life and Work of the Composer Foltýn) is an unfinished Czech novel, written by Karel Čapek. It was first published posthumously in 1939. It is a fictional biography of a composer Bedřich Foltýn (pseudonym Beda Folten), who perceives himself as a genius and is hopelessly obsessed with an idea to become a great artist and to write a big opera about Biblical Judith. Unable to finish this goal because of a lack of talent, he plagiarizes works of talented young music students and poor poets and joins these musical and poetic scraps into an opera. In the end, his "friends" make a deriding performance of his opus magnum and Foltýn, realizing his impotency and aimlessness, goes mad and dies. The novel is interesting because of its literary form, being a cycle of "testimonies" narrated by Foltýn's friends and wife, each of them having totally different opinion about his life. The novel was translated into English as The Cheat and published in 1941 by George Allen & Unwin in London.

'The Yellow Hoard' is the 2nd pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the October 1, 1939 issue of 'The Avenger' magazine.

Yaprak Dökümü ("The Fall Of Leaves") is a novel by Turkish author and playwright Reşat Nuri Güntekin, written in 1930. It is available in an English translation by W. D. Halsey

The Wizard of the Emerald City (Russian: Волшебник Изумрудного Города) is a 1939 children's novel by Russian writer Alexander Melentyevich Volkov. The book is a re-narration of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum's name is sometimes credited in the book (in the appendix by Volkov, which is found in some editions, where Volkov describes the origins of his book). The names of most characters are changed, some elements of Baum's novel are removed, and some new elements are added. The book was illustrated by Leonid Vladimirski in 1959 and became quite popular in the 1960s, leading to five sequels: Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963), The Seven Underground Kings (1964), The Fiery God of the Marrans (1968), The Yellow Fog (1970), and The Secret of the Abandoned Castle (1975, published in 1982). These sequels were written by Volkov himself and are not based on Baum's plot elements, although we do encounter the powder of life, a character called Charlie Black who is not unlike Cap'n Bill, intelligent foxes, and the use of a Sandboat similar to Johnny Dooit's, albeit with wheels.

The Winter Murder Case (1939) is a Philo Vance novella that S. S. Van Dine intended to expand into his twelfth full length book, a project cut short by his death. The Winter Murder Case seems especially similar to the B mystery movies of the 1930s, a cross between Van Dine's usual style and the film style. It was intended as a vehicle for Sonja Henie.

What’s Become of Waring is the fifth novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. It is his final novel of the 1930s, and the only one not published by Powell’s first employer and publisher, Duckworth. Published in 1939, Powell’s book was overshadowed by international events, limiting sales. Nonetheless, it marks a significant step in Powell’s development, anticipating his masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, via the introduction of the self-effacing first-person narrator. The title of the book is also the title of a poem by Robert Browning.

What Happened to the Corbetts (US title: Ordeal) is a novel by Nevil Shute, a fictional depiction of the effect of aerial bombing on the British city of Southampton, a major maritime centre. It was written in 1938, and published in April 1939 by William Heinemann Ltd, when the outbreak of World War II was already a very likely development.

The Village is a novel by Mulk Raj Anand first published in 1939. This book was the first of a trilogy that included Across the Black Waters and The Sword and the Sickle. The plot centers on India's political structure, specifically the British rule and the independence movement. The novel revolves around Lal Singh a peasant in the Punjab, his antics going against social norms while in the village, his subsequent enrollment in the army and his troubles in the army, culminating in his return to the village.

Uncle Fred in the Springtime is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 18 August 1939 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 25 August 1939 by Herbert Jenkins, London.

The Twisted Claw is Volume 18 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.

Tuan Direktur (literally Mr Director) is a 1939 novel by the Indonesian Muslim cleric and writer Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah (Hamka). Originally published as a serial in Hamka's newspaper Pedoman Masjarakat, it follows a man from Banjarmasin who goes to Surabaya, becomes rich, but ultimately is driven to insanity. The novel has been seen as a critique of materialism, arrogance, and superstition.

Sztafeta (English: Relay race) is a 1939 book of literary reportage written by Melchior Wańkowicz. Sztafeta was published in the year of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland. Due to popular demand it was reprinted four times already by Biblioteka Polska prior to the outbreak of hostilities. The book was never reprinted in Communist Poland because it praised the democratic achievements of the prewar Second Polish Republic. Sztafeta gives an account of one of the biggest economic projects of the interwar Poland, its Central Industrial Area. The book has been described as a "colorful reporter's panorama, telling the story of the recovery of the Second Polish Republic". Ryszard Kapuściński wrote that Sztafeta "was the first grand reportage of its kind in Poland's history – written about Polish production effort". To write the book, Wańkowicz collected great amount of background information, and carried out dozens of interviews, starting with President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, ending with sailors, coal miners and primary school teachers. The book begins with analysis of the situation of Poland in 1918, right after World War I. The country was in ruins, with two million houses destroyed, with devastated industry, with poverty, hunger and the threat of a cholera epidemic left behind by the partitioning empires. The author goes on to describe the achievements of the Second Polish Republic, writing not only about the Central Industrial Area, but also about the construction of Gdynia seaport, and the political scandals such as annexation of Zaolzie. The book was disliked by some members of the military establishment in Poland in 1939. As they claimed, Wańkowicz too frequently criticized poverty and backwardness of Poland after a century of foreign occupation.

Some Buried Caesar is the sixth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine (December 1938), under the title "The Red Bull." It was first published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939. The novel is included in the omnibus volume All Aces, published in 1958 by the Viking Press.

The Sky Walker" is the third pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the November 1, 1939 issue of "The Avenger" magazine.

Sinister Barrier is an English language science fiction novel by author Eric Frank Russell. The novel originally appeared in the magazine Unknown in 1939, the first novel to appear in its pages. It was first published in book form in 1943 by The World's Work, Ltd. Russell revised and expanded the book for its first US publication by Fantasy Press in 1948. Most subsequent editions were based on the Fantasy Press version.

The Singing Tree is a children's novel by Kate Seredy, the sequel to The Good Master. Also illustrated by Seredy, it was a Newbery Honor book in 1940. Set in rural Hungary four years after The Good Master, it continues the story of Kate and Jancsi, showing the effect of World War I on the people and land.

Secret Water is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. It was published on 28 November 1939.

Rogue Male (1939) by Geoffrey Household is a classic thriller novel of the 1930s.

The Right Hand of the Grand Master (Georgian: დიდოსტატის კონსტანტინეს მარჯვენა, The Right Hand of the Grand Master Constantine), also published as The Hand of the Great Master is a historical novel by 20th century Georgian writer Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, who first published it in 1939 in a literary magazine Mnatobi. Subtitled "knightly novel" by the author, the book received much critical acclaim in Georgia and in Soviet Union as a whole, selling 700,000 copies of 12 publications of its Russian-translated version in the author's lifetime alone. A two-episode feature film The Right Hand of the Grand Master based on the novel and directed by Vakhtang Tabliashvili and Devi Abashidze was shot in 1969.

Red Strangers is a 1939 novel by Elspeth Huxley. The story is an account of the arrival and effects of British colonialists, told through the eyes of four generations of Kikuyu tribesmen in Kenya. The book immerses the reader so completely in the pre-Western Kikuyu culture, that when the Kikuyu are paid money for their labour, it is quite easy to understand why they throw the coins into the bushes. After all, what does money do?

The Reader is Warned is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906–1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale.

The Queen of Air and Darkness is a novel by English writer T. H. White. It is the second book in his epic work, The Once and Future King. It continues the story of the newly crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan, a group of characters who would cause the eventual downfall of the king.

The Problem of the Wire Cage, first published in 1939, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr featuring his series detective Gideon Fell. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a locked room mystery.

Pražský dobrodruh is a Czech novel by Rudolf Slawitschek. It was first published in 1939.

Požganica is a novel by Slovenian author Prežihov Voranc. It was first published in 1939, but was based on a short story first published in 1920. The author presents the work happening in Carinthia after the First World War with the Carinthian Plebiscite and, consequently, the fate of the Carinthian Slovenes under Austria.

Possessed (Polish: Opętani) is a 1939 novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, published under the pseudonym Zdisław Niewieski. It is a pastiche of gothic and serial novels in the vein of Horace Walpole and Eugène Sue.

Party Going is a 1939 novel by British writer Henry Green (real name Henry Vincent Yorke).

Pal Joey is a 1940 epistolary novel by John O'Hara, which became the basis of the 1940 stage musical comedy and 1957 motion picture of the same name, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart.

Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz (1939) is the thirty-third in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the nineteenth and last written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was illustrated by John R. Neill.

Overture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during a village theatrical performance; Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor plays a prominent part in the story. So does a "Venetian Suite" by Ethelbert Nevin. The murder weapon is a pistol hidden in a piano.

None but Lucifer is a fantasy novel written by Horace L. Gold and L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the fantasy magazine Unknown in September 1939. Despite its good reception by the readership and the prominence of its authors (Gold was the founding editor of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, and de Camp quickly became a leading light of science fiction and fantasy during those genres' "golden age"), the book remained unpublished in book form for over sixty years, until finally issued as a trade paperback by Gateways Retro Science Fiction in 2002. It is also available as an electronic publication.

Nobody Ordered Wolves is a 1939 comic novel by the British-born writer and film director Jeffrey Dell. The book is a satire on the British film industry. It focuses on the fictional company Paradox Film Productions headed by the mogul Napoleon Bott who is modelled on the real-life Alexander Korda and his London Film Productions. The film concludes with a large number of wolves, hired by Bott for one of his epic extravaganzas, running loose through London causing havoc as a metaphor for the British film industry having "gone to the dogs".

No Orchids For Miss Blandish is a 1939 crime novel by the British writer James Hadley Chase. The novel was influenced by the American crime writer James M. Cain and the stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask. No Orchids for Miss Blandish provoked considerable controversy because of its explicit depiction of sexuality and violence. The novel was a great critical success and was included in the Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century.

Night Rider is the first novel by American author Robert Penn Warren. It was published in the United States in 1939.

Murder is Easy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 June 1939 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in September of the same year under the title of Easy to Kill. Christie's recurring character, Superintendent Battle, has a cameo appearance at the end, but plays no part in either the solution of the mystery or the apprehension of the criminal. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.

Mountain Cat (a.k.a. The Mountain Cat Murders) is a mystery novel by Rex Stout, first published in book form in 1939. The story first appeared in the June 1939 issue of The American Magazine, abridged and titled Dark Revenge.

Moment in Peking is a novel originally written in English by Chinese author Lin Yutang. The novel, Lin's first, covers the turbulent events in China from 1900 to 1938, including the Boxer Uprising, the Republican Revolution of 1911, the Warlord Era, the rise of nationalism and communism, and the start of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945.

Minions of the Moon is a science fiction novel by author William Gray Beyer, originally serialized in the magazine Argosy in 1939. It was published in book form in 1950 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000.

The novel Man Alone written by John Mulgan, is regarded as a classic of New Zealand literature. It was first published in 1939.

Magical Melons (also published as Caddie Woodlawn's Family) is a children's historical novel by Carol Ryrie Brink, first published in 1939. It is the sequel to the Newbery-Award-winning novel Caddie Woodlawn.

Thomas Mann's 1939 novel, Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns, or otherwise known by Lotte in Weimar or The Beloved Returns, is a story written in the shadow of Goethe; Thomas Mann developed the narrative almost as a response to Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, although Goethe's work is more than 150 years older than Lotte in Weimar. Lotte in Weimar was first published in English in 1940.

Let the People Sing is a 1939 comedy novel by the British writer J. B. Priestley. It examines civic politics and corruption in the small English town of Dunbury, where the music hall is due to be closed. It was adapted into a 1942 film Let the People Sing.

Lest Darkness Fall is an alternate history science fiction novel written in 1939 by author L. Sprague de Camp. The book is often considered one of the best examples of the alternate history genre; it is certainly one of the earliest and most influential. Alternate history author Harry Turtledove has said it sparked his interest in the genre as well as his desire to study Byzantine history.

The Legend of the Holy Drinker (German: Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker) is a 1939 novella by the Austrian writer Joseph Roth, published posthumously by Allert de Lange Verlag in Amsterdam. It tells a story about an alcohol addict, Andreas, who wants to return money he has borrowed, but fails because he spends all of his money on alcohol.

Kitty Foyle is a 1939 American novel by Christopher Morley. A bestseller in 1939 and 1940, it was adapted as a popular 1940 film.

Khufu's Wisdom is an early novel by the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz. It was originally published in Arabic in 1939 under the name Mockery of the Fates. An English translation by Raymond Stock appeared in 2003. The novel is one of several that Mahfouz wrote at the beginning of his career, with Pharaonic Egypt as their setting. Others in this series of novels include Rhadopis of Nubia (1943) and Thebes at War (1944). All have been translated into English and appeared in one volume under the title Three Novels of Ancient Egypt (Everyman's Library, 2007).

Kapitán Nemo is a Czech science fiction novel, written by J. M. Troska. It was first published in 1939.

'Justice, Inc.' is the first pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the September 1, 1939 issue of 'The Avenger' magazine.

Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and published September 1939 by J. B. Lippincott. The novel won one of the early National Book Awards: the Most Original Book of 1939.

If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem is a novel by the American author William Faulkner published in 1939. The novel was originally published under the title The Wild Palms, which is the title of one of the two interwoven stories. This title was chosen by the publishers, Random House, over the objections of Faulkner's choice of a title. Subsequent editions have since been printed under the title If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (1990, following the "corrected text" and format of Noel Polk), and since 2003 it is now usually referred to by both names, with the newer title following the historically first published title and in brackets, to avoid confusion: The Wild Palms .

How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own personal experiences but this was found to be untrue after his death; Llewellyn was English-born and spent little time in Wales, though he was of Welsh descent. Llewellyn gathered material for the novel from conversations with local mining families in Gilfach Goch.

The Hopkins Manuscript is a science fiction novel written by R. C. Sheriff in 1939. Originally titled An Ordinary Man, the novel was republished by The Macmillan Company in 1963, before being reprinted by Persephone Books in 2002.

The Holy Terror is a 1939 work by H. G. Wells that is in part an analysis of fascism and in part a utopian novel.

Heidi's Children is a 1939 novel, the second of at least four sequels to Johanna Spyri's original Heidi series, written by Spyri's French translator Charles Tritten. It was originally published in French by Flammarion in Paris in 1939, and in New York by Grosset & Dunlap in 1939.

Happy Valley is a 1939 novel by Australian author Patrick White. It won the 1941 Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. White did not allow the novel to be republished in his lifetime. Not until 2012 would the book come back into print. White had dedicated the novel to artist Roy De Maistre.

The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.

Goodbye to Berlin is a 1939 novel by Christopher Isherwood set in Weimar Germany. It is often published together with Mr Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.

Good Morning, Midnight is a 1939 modernist novel by the author Jean Rhys. Often considered a continuation of Rhys' three other early novels, Quartet (1928), After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930) and Voyage in the Dark (1934), it is experimental in design and deals with a woman's feelings of vulnerability, depression, loneliness and desperation during the years between the two World Wars. The book initially sold poorly—critics thought it well-written, but too depressing—and after its publication Rhys spent a decade living in obscurity. It was not until it was adapted into a theatrical production in 1949, and again into a radio play 1957 by the BBC, that Rhys was once again put into the spotlight.

Shiwan Khan

The Gladiators (1939) is the first novel by the author Arthur Koestler; it portrays the effects of the Spartacus revolt in the Roman Republic. Published in 1939, it was later reprinted in other editions.

The Girl (1939; 1978) is a novel by Meridel Le Sueur set during Prohibition and chronicling the development of a young woman from a naive small-town girl into a participant in a bank robbery.

Gilles is a 1939 novel by the French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. It follows the life of Gilles Gambier, a Frenchman who is disgusted with the bourgeois world, during World War I and the interwar period. After returning from the war, Gilles marries a Jewish woman for her wealth, becomes involved with the surrealist movement, develops his own fusion of Christianity and fascism, and joins the Nationalist faction to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The novel is partially autobiographical. Drieu La Rochelle himself considered it to be his greatest book.

Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalized as a result of the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes.

Freddy the Politician (1939) is the 6th book in the humorous children's series Freddy the Pig written by American author Walter R. Brooks and illustrated by Kurt Wiese. In this story, the Bean farm animals start a bank, and elect their first president, two institutions appearing through the rest of the series. Their honest and innocent approach is soon challenged by strangers from Washington.

The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939) is a locked-room mystery novel written by Clayton Rawson.

The Flying Dutchman is a 1939 novel by Armenian author Michael Arlen.

The Flaming Sword was a 1939 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr.. It was his twenty-eighth and last novel. It has been described as "a racist jeremiad centered on the specter of black sexuality."

Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is significant for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's death, Finnegans Wake was Joyce's final work. The entire book is written in a largely idiosyncratic language, consisting of a mixture of standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and portmanteau words, which many critics believe were attempts to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams. Owing to the work's expansive linguistic experiments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations, and abandonment of narrative conventions, Finnegans Wake remains largely unread by the general public.

The Enchanter is a novella written by Vladimir Nabokov in Paris in 1939. As Волшебник (Volshebnik) it was his last work of fiction written in Russian. Nabokov never published it during his lifetime. After his death, his son Dmitri translated the novella into English in 1986 and it was published the following year. Its original Russian version became available in 1991. The story deals with the hebephilia of the protagonist and thus is linked to and presages the Lolita theme.

The Enchanted Wood is a children's novel written by Enid Blyton, the first in The Faraway Tree series.

Drop To His Death (also published under the title Fatal Descent) is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson, in collaboration with John Rhode. It is a locked room mystery.

The Dragon's Teeth (also published as The Virgin Heiresses) is a mystery novel published in 1939 featuring the popular fictional character Ellery Queen, which is also the pseudonym of the book's authors, Daniel Nathan and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky. It is primarily set in New York City, United States.

Dividend on Death is a 1939 detective novel by the American writer Brett Halliday. It was the first novel in Halliday's Michael Shayne series of novels, portraying the investigations of a private detective. It also introduced the character of Phyllis Brighton, who became Shayne's wife. It was followed in 1940 by a second novel The Private Practice of Michael Shayne. When a film version of Michael Shayne was made, it borrowed some elements from the first novel but was largely based on The Private Practice of Michael Shayne

'The Devil's Horns' is the 4th pulp magazine story to feature The Avenger. Written by Paul Ernst, it was published in the December 1, 1939 issue of 'The Avenger' magazine.

Detour is a 1939 novel by Martin M. Goldsmith. The author adapted his novel into the noted film noir cult film of the same name.

The Delectable Country is an historical novel by the American writer Leland Baldwin (1897–1981) set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Death Guard is the only published novel of the English author Philip George Chadwick (b Batley, Yorkshire: 1893, d Brighton, Sussex: 1955). Although the author is virtually unknown to the wider public, his work has received attention from literary scholars. The novel contains many themes later developed by L Ron Hubbard and James Blish. Chadwick was a political thinker with socialist tendencies, a Fabian and subsequently an Independent and a disciple of H.G. Wells.

The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California. The novel follows a young artist from the Yale School of Fine Arts named Tod Hackett. who travels to California in search of inspiration for a new painting titled "The Burning of Los Angeles," which Tod is set to begin. While the cast of characters Tod befriends are a conglomerate of Hollywood stereotypes, his greater discovery is a part of society whose "eyes filled with hatred," and "had come to California to die." This undercurrent of society captures the despair of Americans who worked and saved their entire lives only to realize, too late, that the American dream was more illusive than they imagine. Their anger boils into rage, and the craze over the latest Hollywood premier erupts violently into mob rule and absolute chaos.

Dark Interlude is an Australian novel by E. V. Timms.

Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn is the fifth in the series of Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike. Like the previous volume it is an episodic collection of adventures. It follows Syn's adventures in his guise as the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh as he foils all attempts to catch him and to break up the Dymchurch smugglers.

Coup de Grâce (French: Le Coup de grâce) is a 1939 novel in French by Marguerite Yourcenar. The narrative is a triangle drama set in the Baltics during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922).

The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it's where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view; The New York Times, for example, called the novel "a magnificent tour-de-force."

Coming Up for Air is a novel by George Orwell, first published in June 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. It combines premonitions of the impending war with images of an idyllic Thames-side Edwardian era childhood. The novel is pessimistic, with its view that speculative builders, commercialism and capitalism are killing the best of rural England, "everything cemented over", and there are great new external threats.

Cold Steal is a novel that was published in 1939 by Phoebe Atwood Taylor writing as Alice Tilton. It is the third of the eight Leonidas Witherall mysteries.

The Clue of the Tapping Heels is the sixteenth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1939. An updated, revised, and largely different story was published under the same title in 1970. The 1939 version is published as a facsimile edition by Applewood Books. As of 2006, this title is still in print.

Christ in Concrete is a 1939 novel by Pietro di Donato about Italian-American construction workers. The book, which made di Donato famous, was originally published by Esquire Magazine as a short story and was expanded into a novel by di Donato.

Carson of Venus is the third book in the Venus series (Sometimes called the "Carson Napier of Venus series") by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs wrote the novel in July and August 1937. It was serialized in 1938 in six weekly installments from January 8 to February 12 in Argosy, the same publication where the previous two Venus novels appeared. It was published in book form a year later from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Burroughs originally submitted the novel to a number of the "slick" magazines: Liberty, The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, and Ladies' Home Journal. All rejected the story.

By the Shores of Silver Lake is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1939, the fifth of nine books in her Little House series. The story spans just over one year, beginning when Laura is 12 years old and the family moves from Plum Creek, Minnesota to what will become De Smet, South Dakota.

Boy with a Pack is a children's historical novel by Stephen W. Meader. Set in 1837, it follows the journey of 17-year-old trader Bill Crawford from New Hampshire to the Ohio Country. The novel, illustrated by Edward Shenton, was first published in 1939 and was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1940.

Le Bourgmestre de Furnes is a Belgian novel by Georges Simenon. It was first published in 1939.

The Black Spectacles (published in the US as The Problem of the Green Capsule, with the subtitle "Being the psychologist's murder case"), first published in 1939, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr featuring his series detective Gideon Fell. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a locked room mystery (or more properly a subset of the locked room mystery called an "impossible crime" story).

The Billion Arsène Lupin is a detective novel by Maurice Leblanc about gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. The novel appeared in 29 daily serials, illustrated by Jean Oberle in Auto from 10 January to 11 February 1939, then published in volume 16 in Hachette (Collection "The Enigma" No. 13) in November 1941, with illustrations by André Pécoud.

The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles, California.

Beware of Pity (German: Ungeduld des Herzens, literally The Heart's Impatience) is a 1939 novel by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. It was Zweig's longest work of fiction. It was adapted into a 1946 film with the same title, directed by Maurice Elvey.

Bambi's Children, The Story of a Forest Family (German: Bambis Kinder, eine Familie im Walde), is a children's novel written by Austrian author Felix Salten as a sequel to his successful work Bambi, A Life in the Woods. The sequel follows the lives of the twin children of Bambi and his cousin Faline as they grow from fawns through adulthood. Salten wrote the sequel while living in exile in Switzerland after being forced to flee Nazi-occupied Austria as he was of Jewish heritage. Originally written in German, the novel was first published in English in the United States in 1939 by Bobbs-Merrill. It was not published in German until the following year. Its language is gentler than that of Bambi, A Life in the Woods. Perri, a squirrel character from one of Salten's earlier novels, makes brief appearances in the book.

At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish writer Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction.

Ask the Dust is the most popular novel of Italian-American author John Fante, first published in 1939 and set during the Great Depression-era in Los Angeles. It is one of a series of novels featuring the character Arturo Bandini as Fante's alter ego, a young Italian-American from Colorado struggling to make it as a writer in Los Angeles. The book is a roman à clef, much of it rooted in autobiographical incidents in Fante's life. The novel influenced Charles Bukowski significantly. In 2006, screenwriter Robert Towne adapted the novel into a film Ask the Dust.

As a Driven Leaf is a 1939 novel by Milton Steinberg based on the life of Elisha ben Abuyah

Anne of Ingleside is a children's novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in August 1939 by George G. Harrap & Co Ltd. It is the sixth book in the "Anne Shirley" chronology, and Montgomery's final published novel. (Two novels that occur later in the Anne chronology were actually published years earlier. As well, the short story collection The Blythes Are Quoted, written in 1941/42, but not published until 2009, concludes the Anne chronology.)

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song, which serves as a major plot point. The U.S. edition was not released until December 1939 with the title changed to the last five words in the original American version of the nursery rhyme: And Then There Were None.

Almuric is a science fiction novel by Robert E. Howard. It was originally serialized in three parts in the magazine Weird Tales beginning in May 1939. The novel was first published in book form in 1964 by Ace Books.

After Many a Summer (1939) is a novel by Aldous Huxley that tells the story of a Hollywood millionaire who fears his impending death; it was published in the United States as After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. Written soon after Huxley left England and settled in California, the novel is Huxley's examination of American culture, particularly what he saw as its narcissism, superficiality, and obsession with youth. This satire also raises philosophical and social issues, some of which would later take the forefront in Huxley's final novel Island. The novel's title is taken from Tennyson's poem Tithonus, about a figure in Greek mythology to whom Aurora gave eternal life but not eternal youth. The book was awarded the 1939 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Adventures of a Young Man is a 1939 novel by John Dos Passos, which eventually became the first in this writer's District of Columbia Trilogy.

Across the Black Waters is an English novel by the Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand first published in 1939. It describes the experience of Lalu, a sepoy in the Indian Army fighting on behalf of Britain against the Germans in France during World War I. He is portrayed by the author as an innocent peasant whose poor family was evicted from their land and who only vaguely understands what the war is about. The book has been described as Anand's best work since the Untouchable.

The Last Flower is an anti-war short story written and illustrated by James Thurber's own drawings; it uses the resilience of one last flower to deal with themes of war, peace, love, and resilience.

William and Air Raid Precautions is the 21st book of children's short stories in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton.

The Wall (French: Le Mur) by Jean-Paul Sartre, a collection of short stories published in 1939 containing the eponymous story "The Wall," is considered one of the author's greatest existentialist works of fiction. Sartre dedicated the book to his companion Olga Kosakiewicz, a former student of Simone de Beauvoir.

Tarzan the Magnificent is a book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the twenty-first in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was originally published as two separate stories serialized in different pulp magazines; "Tarzan and the Magic Men" in Argosy from September to October, 1936, and "Tarzan and the Elephant Men" in Blue Book from November 1937 to January 1938. The two stories were combined under the title Tarzan the Magnificent in the first book edition, published in 1939 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. In order of writing, the book follows Tarzan's Quest and precedes Tarzan and the Forbidden City. In order of book publication it falls between the latter and Tarzan and the Foreign Legion. The novel's plot bears no relation to that of the 1960 film of the same title.

Some Like Them Short is a 1939 collection of short stories by William March.

The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1939. The first edition retailed at $2.00.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider (ISBN 0-15-170755-3) is a collection of three short novels by American author Katherine Anne Porter published in 1939.

The Outsider and Others is a collection of stories by author H. P. Lovecraft. It was released in 1939 and was the first book published by Arkham House. 1,268 copies were printed. It went out of print early in 1944 and has never been reprinted.

My Uncle Silas is a book of short stories about a bucolic elderly Bedfordshire man, written by H.E. Bates and illustrated by Edward Ardizzone.

In the Teeth of the Evidence is a collection of short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers first published by Victor Gollancz in 1939. The book's title is taken from the first story in the collection.

The Happy Highwayman is a collection of short stories by Leslie Charteris, first published in 1939 by Hodder and Stoughton in the United Kingdom and The Crime Club in the United States. This was the 21st book to feature the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". The 1963 Hodder and Stoughton paperback edition erroneously gives 1933 as the book's original publishing date.