1939 in literature 1939 .Events Early – The Pocket Books mass-market paperback imprint is launched in the United States. The first of the nationally distributed titles is James Hilton's Lost Horizon . January *American literary magazine The Kenyon Review is founded and edited by John Crowe Ransom . *The American pulp science fiction magazine Startling Stories appears, edited by Mort Weisinger . It includes The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum as lead novel. *Eando Binder's story "I, Robot" appears in the U.S. science fiction magazine Amazing Stories . *The Criterion , a British literary quarterly, is founded and edited by T. S. Eliot. *W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood set sail from England for the United States. January/February – Poetry London: a Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism , founded and edited by Tambimuttu , is first published. February 6 – Raymond Chandler's California private detective Philip Marlowe is introduced in his first full-length work of crime fiction , The Big Sleep , which reworks elements from earlier short stories. It is published by Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. March – Isaac Asimov's first published short story , "Marooned off Vesta", appears in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine. March 4 – BBC Television broadcasts one of the first specially written television plays, Condemned To Be Shot by R. E. J. Brooke, live from its London studios at Alexandra Palace . The production notably uses a camera as the first-person view by the play's unseen central character. March 31 – The 20th Century Fox releases a film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles , first of a Sherlock Holmes film series starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson . April 13 – The United Artists film version of Wuthering Heights , starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier , is released. May – Jorge Luis Borges' first short story in his later characteristic style, "Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote ", is published in the Buenos Aires literary magazine Sur . May 4 – James Joyce's last work, Finnegans Wake , is published in full by Faber and Faber in London. May 15 – Russian writer Isaac Babel is arrested by the NKVD at his dacha as part of the Great Purge in the Soviet Union , and incarcerated in the Lubyanka Building in Moscow. c. August – Ernest Vincent Wright publishes his lipogrammatic novel Gadsby , "a story of over 50,000 words without using the letter 'E'", in Los Angeles a few months before his death on October 7 . August *Mikhail Bulgakov, while secretly working on The Master and Margarita , prepares the propaganda play Batumi , to romanticize events in Joseph Stalin's youth. The project is shelved by Stalin himself, once Bulgakov announces he will interview witnesses personally. *Robert A. Heinlein's first published short story, "Life-Line", appears in Astounding Science-Fiction . Before September – After a pledge drive led by Renaud de Jouvenel and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl , the Romanian poet Benjamin Fondane is naturalized French and in September conscripted into the French Army , to serve in the Phony War . September 2 – Jean-Paul Sartre is conscripted into the French Army, where he will serve as a meteorologist . September 18 – The Polish painter, playwright and novelist Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz commits suicide after the Soviet invasion of Poland . September/October – Famous Fantastic Mysteries , a pulp magazine reprinting American science fiction and fantasy , begins publication in New York. Fall – Frank Herbert lies about his age to get his first job as a local newspaper reporter. November – The teenage Brendan Behan is arrested in Liverpool for possessing explosives. November 8 – Lindsay and Crouse's stage adaptation of Clarence Day's Life with Father opens at the Empire Theatre in New York. Running until 12 July 1947, it becomes the all-time longest-running non-musical play in Broadway theatre . Late – Captain Marvel makes his first appearance, in Whiz Comics #2. Finnegans Wake New books Fiction Eric Ambler – The Mask of Dimitrios Sholem Asch – The Nazarene William Attaway – Let Me Breathe Thunder H. E. Bates – My Uncle Silas Arna Wendell Bontemps – Drums at Dusk Pearl S. Buck – The Patriot Karel Čapek – Život a dílo skladatele Foltýna Joyce Carey – Mister Johnson John Dickson Carr *The Black Spectacles *The Problem of the Wire Cage *The Reader is Warned *Drop to His Death Aimé Césaire – "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal" Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep James Hadley Chase – No Orchids for Miss Blandish Agatha Christie *Murder is Easy *The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories *Ten Little Niggers Jeffrey Dell – Nobody Ordered Wolves Pierre Drieu La Rochelle – Gilles John Fante – Ask the Dust William Faulkner – If I Forget Thee Jerusalem Vardis Fisher – Children of God Zona Gale – Magna Konstantine Gamsakhurdia – The Right Hand of the Grand Master Henry Green – Party Going Yaroslav Halan – The Mountains are Smoking Ernest Hemingway – The Snows of Kilimanjaro Rayner Heppenstall – The Blaze of Noon Zora Neale Hurston – Moses, Man of the Mountain Aldous Huxley – After Many a Summer Christopher Isherwood – Goodbye to Berlin James Joyce – Finnegans Wake Arthur Koestler – The Gladiators Richard Llewellyn – How Green Was My Valley H. P. Lovecraft – The Outsider and Others Henry Miller – Tropic of Capricorn Christopher Morley – Kitty Foyle Ian Niall – Wigtown Ploughman Flann O'Brien – At Swim-Two-Birds John O'Hara – Files on Parade George Orwell – Coming Up for Air Elliot Paul – The Mysterious Mickey Finn Ellery Queen – The Dragon's Teeth Katherine Anne Porter – Pale Horse, Pale Rider Clayton Rawson – The Footprints on the Ceiling Seymour Reit- The Friendly Ghost Jean Rhys – Good Morning, Midnight Dorothy L. Sayers – In the Teeth of the Evidence Pierre Schaeffer – Chlothar Nicole John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath Rex Stout – Some Buried Caesar Jan Struther – Mrs. Miniver Phoebe Atwood Taylor *Spring Harrowing *Cold Steal Dalton Trumbo – Johnny Got His Gun S. S. Van Dine – The Winter Murder Case Simon Vestdijk – Sint Sebastiaan Elio Vittorini – Conversations in Sicily Nathanael West – The Day of the Locust Ernest Vincent Wright – Gadsby Francis Brett Young – The City of Gold Marguerite Yourcenar – Coup de Grâce Children and young people Ludwig Bemelmans – Madeline Enid Blyton – The Enchanted Wood Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan the Magnificent Lavinia R. Davis – Hobby Horse Hill Hardie Gramatky – Little Toot Carolyn Haywood – "B" is for Betsy Robert Lawson – Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos Hilda Lewis – The Ship That Flew Lucy Maud Montgomery – Anne of Ingleside Violet Needham – The Black Riders Carola Oman – Alfred, King of the English Arthur Ransome – We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – The Yearling Joan G. Robinson – A Stands for Angel Felix Salten – Bambis Kinder, eine Familie in Walde Alison Uttley – A Traveller in Time Laura Ingalls Wilder – By the Shores of Silver Lake Ursula Moray Williams – Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse Drama Philip Barry – The Philadelphia Story Bertolt Brecht *Life of Galileo *Mother Courage and Her Children Mikhail Bulgakov – Batumi T. S. Eliot – The Family Reunion Jean Giraudoux – Ondine Ian Hay – Little Ladyship Frank Harvey – Saloon Bar Lillian Hellman – The Little Foxes N.C. Hunter – Grouse in June George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart – The Man Who Came to Dinner Joseph Kesselring – Arsenic and Old Lace Clare Boothe Luce – Margin of Error Barré Lyndon – The Man in Half Moon Street William Saroyan – The Time of Your Life Poetry W. H. Auden *Journey to a War *"September 1, 1939" Aimé Césaire – Cahier d'un retour au pays natal T. S. Eliot – Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats José Gorostiza – Muerte sin fin Javier del Granado – Rosas Pálidas Changampuzha Krishna Pillai – Rahtapuspangal Christopher Smart – Jubilate Agno Non-fiction Adrian Bell – Men and the Fields Lord David Cecil – The Young Melbourne and the Story of his Marriage with Caroline Lamb Savitri Devi – A Warning to the Hindus Norbert Elias – The Civilizing Process Mary Lascelles – Jane Austen and Her Art Erwin Panofsky – Studies in Iconology Ed Ricketts – Between Pacific Tides Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Wind, Sand and Stars Ronald Syme – The Roman Revolution Bill W. and Dr. Bob – The Big Book Gamel Woolsey – Death's Other Kingdom Births January 12 – Jacques Hamelink , Dutch poet, novelist and literary critic, best known for short stories January 29 – Germaine Greer , Australian-born feminist author February 19 – Erin Pizzey , English novelist and founder of world's first domestic violence shelter February 25 – Gerald Murnane , Australian novelist March 15 – Alicia Freilich , Venezuelan novelist March 25 – Toni Cade Bambara , African-American writer April 10 – Penny Vincenzi , née Hannaford, English novelist April 12 – Alan Ayckbourn , English dramatist April 13 – Seamus Heaney , Irish poet May 4 – Amos Oz , né Klausner, Israeli author June 5 – Margaret Drabble , English novelist June 14 – Penelope Farmer , English children's writer June 15 – Brian Jacques , English writer July 2 – Ferdinand Mount , English journalist and novelist August 1 – Robert James Waller , American novelist September 6 – Dan Cragg , American science-fiction author September 9 – Ed Victor , American-born literary agent October 6 – Melvyn Bragg , English novelist, critic and broadcast presenter October 7 – Clive James , Australian writer, humorist and television personality October 8 – Harvey Pekar , American memoirist and graphic-novel scriptwriter October 9 – John Pilger , Australian-born journalist and documentary filmmaker November 17 – Auberon Waugh , English journalist and novelist November 18 – Margaret Atwood , Canadian novelist and poet November 25 – Shelagh Delaney , English dramatist December 3 – Lee Israel , American biographer and literary forger December 11 – Thomas McGuane , American writer December 18 – Michael Moorcock , English science fiction writer Deaths January 8 – Caton Theodorian , Romanian dramatist and novelist January 28 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet February 2 – Amanda McKittrick Ros , Irish novelist and poet noted for her purple prose February 18 – Okamoto Kanoko , Japanese tanka poet February 22 – Antonio Machado , Spanish poet March 7 – Ludwig Fulda , German poet and playwright March 23 – Richard Halliburton , American travel writer April 11 – S. S. Van Dine, American crime novelist and art critic May 23 – Margarete Böhme , German novelist May 27 – Joseph Roth , Austrian novelist June 13 – Volter Kilpi , Finnish novelist June 14 – Vladislav Khodasevich , Russian poet and critic June 26 – Ford Madox Ford , English novelist July 5 – Mrs. O. F. Walton, English writer of Christian children's books July 8 – Havelock Ellis , American sexual psychologist and writer August 7 – Leonard Merrick , English novelist August 20 – Agnes Giberne , English children's writer August 23 – Robin Hyde , South African-born New Zealand poet and novelist September 6 – Arthur Rackham , English book illustrator September 19 – Ethel M. Dell, English romantic novelist October 23 – Zane Grey , American western novelist December 2 – Llewelyn Powys , English novelist and autobiographer unknown dates *Solomon Cleaver, Canadian storyteller and novelist *Mary Frances Dowdall, English novelist and non-fiction writerAwards Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Eleanor Doorly , The Radium Woman James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Aldous Huxley After Many a Summer Dies the Swan James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: David C. Douglas, English Scholars Newbery Medal for children's literature: Elizabeth Enright , Thimble Summer Nobel Prize in 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
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