This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1940.
Children and young people
Enid Blyton – The Naughtiest Girl in the School
Godfried Bomans – Eric in the Land of the Insects (Erik of het klein insectenboek)
Doris Gates – Blue Willow
Dorothy Kunhardt – Pat the Bunny
Phyllis Matthewman – Chloe Takes Control (first in the Danewood series of seven books)
Arthur Ransome – The Big Six
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings – When the Whippoorwill
Dr. Seuss – Horton Hatches the Egg
Armstrong Sperry – Call It Courage
Jakob Streit – Beatuslegenden
Geoffrey Trease – Cue for Treason
John R. Tunis – The Kid from Tomkinsville
Laura Ingalls Wilder – The Long Winter
Jean Anouilh – Léocadia
Bertolt Brecht – Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti, written)
Agatha Christie – Peril at End House
Jean Cocteau – Le Bel indifférent
Artturi Järviluoma – Pohjalaisia
Lawrence Riley – Return Engagement
George Shiels – The Rugged Path
Emlyn Williams – The Corn Is Green
Mortimer J. Adler – How to Read a Book
"Cato" (Michael Foot and others) – Guilty Men
George Gamow – The Birth and Death of the Sun
G. H. Hardy – A Mathematician's Apology
C. S. Lewis – The Problem of Pain
Arthur Marder – The Anatomy of British Sea Power: a history of British naval policy in the pre-Dreadnought era, 1880–1905
A. A. Milne – War with Honour
Malcolm Muggeridge – The Thirties
Edmund Wilson – To the Finland Station
January 4 – Gao Xingjian (高行健), Chinese novelist
January 15 – Ted Lewis, English novelist (died 1982)
February 9 – J. M. Coetzee, South African novelist
March 16 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian writer and film director
March 23 – Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian playwright
March 28 – Russell Banks, American novelist
April 13 – J. M. G. Le Clézio, French novelist
April 15 – Jeffrey Archer, English novelist, politician and perjurer
May 1 – Bobbie Ann Mason, American novelist, short story writer, essayist and literary critic
May 7 – Angela Carter, English novelist (died 1992)
May 8 – Peter Benchley, American novelist (died 2006)
May 13 – Bruce Chatwin, English novelist and travel writer (died 1989)
May 24 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born American poet and essayist (died 1996)
May 28 – Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist (died 2012)
July 17 – Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedy writer and actor
September 3 – Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist (died 2015)
October 15 – Fanny Howe, American poet, novelist and short story writer
October 20 – Robert Pinsky, American poet
November 15 – René Avilés Fabila, Mexican writer (died 2016)
December 5 – Peter Pohl, Swedish novelist
January 1 – Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, Indian writer (born 1865)
January 5 – Humbert Wolfe, British poet and epigrammist (born 1885)
January 27 – Isaak Babel, Russian journalist and dramatist (executed, born 1894)
February 11 – John Buchan, Scottish novelist (born 1875)
February 29 – E. F. Benson, English novelist, biographer, memoirist and short-story writer (born 1867)
March 7 – Edwin Markham, American poet (born 1852)
March 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright (born 1891)
March 12 – Florence White, English food writer (born 1863
March 16
Sir Thomas Little Heath, English classicist and translator (born 1861)
Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish children's writer and Nobel laureate (born 1858)
April 13 – Mary Bathurst Deane, English novelist (born 1843)
June 10 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican journalist and publisher (born 1887)
June 20 – Charley Chase, American screenwriter (born 1893)
August 4 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-born Zionist leader, novelist and poet (heart attack, born 1880)
August 7 – T. O'Conor Sloane, American editor (born 1851)
September 8 – Constantin Banu, Romanian politician, journalist, cultural promoter and aphorist (born 1873)
September 26 – W. H. Davies, Welsh poet (born 1871)
November 27 – Nicolae Iorga, Romanian historian, politician, culture critic, poet and playwright (assassinated, born 1871)
December 21 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist (born 1896)
December 22 – Nathanael West, American screenwriter and satirist (born 1903)
Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Charles Morgan, The Voyage
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England
Newbery Medal for children's literature: James Daugherty, Daniel Boone
Nobel Prize for literature: not awarded
Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mark Van Doren: Collected Poems
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath
King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Thwaites
January – H. G. Wells' novel The Shape of Things to Come (1933) describes a clash between Germany and Poland this month initiating a 10-year world war.
c. April–May – Jill Paton Walsh's novel A Presumption of Death (2002) is set around this time.
May
Michael Dobbs' novel Never Surrender (2004) is set at this time.
Penelope Fitzgerald's novel Human Voices (1979) opens around this time.
Alan Judd's novel The Kaiser's Last Kiss (2003) opens around the time of the Battle of the Netherlands.
Summer – H. E. Bates' novel A Moment in Time (1964) is set during the Battle of Britain.
July – Jerrard Tickell's novel Appointment with Venus (1951) is set during the German occupation of the Channel Islands.
October – Edmund Crispin's novel The Case of the Gilded Fly (1944) is set this month.
1940 in literature Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
