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

• Newberry 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