This article contains information about the literary events and publications of1940.

• January – The English literary magazineHorizon first appears in London, withCyril Connolly,Peter Watson andStephen Spender contributing.
• February – The Canadian writerRobertson Davies leaves theOld Vic repertory company in the U.K.
• March 11 –Ed Ricketts,John Steinbeck and six others leaveMonterey for theGulf of California on a marine invertebrate collecting expedition.
• April –Máirtín Ó Cadhain is interned by the Irish government atCurragh Camp, as a member of theIrish Republican Army.
• May 14 – TheBattle of the Netherlands ends with the surrender of the main Dutch forces to Nazi German invaders. This evening, the gay Dutch Jewish writerJacob Hiegentlich takes poison, dying four days later aged 33.
• June 5 – The English novelistJ. B. Priestley broadcasts his first Sunday evening radioPostscript, "An excursion to hell", on theBBC Home Service in the U.K., marking the role of pleasure steamers in theDunkirk evacuation, which ended the day before.
• July
  • Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans.^[1]Léopold Sédar Senghor also becomes a prisoner of war this year.P. G. Wodehouse is interned by the Germans as anenemy alien.
  • Americanscience fiction andfantasypulp magazineFantastic Novels begins its first run.
• July 26 – A movie adaptation ofJane Austen'sPride and Prejudice is released, withAldous Huxley as a screenwriter.
• September – InUriage-les-Bains,Vichy France,Emmanuel Mounier and theEsprit circle establish a school of government and philosophy attuned toCatholic social teaching. Initially endorsing theRévolution nationale, Uriage is put off by Vichy'scollaboration with Germany, and blends into theChristian left.^[2]
• September 10 –Virginia Woolf's London house at 37Mecklenburgh Square is destroyed by bombing. On October 18 she sees the ruins of her previous home, 52Tavistock Square,Bloomsbury, similarly destroyed.^[3]
• October
  • Graham Greene's London house onClapham Common Northside is destroyed by bombing, an event reflected in his novelsThe Ministry of Fear (1943) andThe End of the Affair (1951).
  • Philip Larkin entersSt John's College, Oxford.^[4]
• October 4 –Brian O'Nolan's first "Cruiskeen Lawn" humorous column is published inThe Irish Times (Dublin). In the second column he assumes the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. The original columns are composed inIrish. He continues the column until the year of his death in1966.
• December –Penguin Books launches itsPuffin Books children's imprint in the United Kingdom withWar on Land by James Holland.^[5]
• December 21 –F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack aged 44 in the apartment ofHollywood gossip columnistSheilah Graham, leaving his novelThe Last Tycoon unfinished. The following day, his friend and fellow novelist and screenwriter,Nathanael West, is killed aged 37 in an automobile accident in California.
• December 29 – Heavy bombing causes aSecond Great Fire of London, destroying the premises of Simpkin, Marshall, the U.K.'s largest book wholesaler, and of many publishers also in thePaternoster Row area, includingLongman, together with some 25,000 volumes in theGuildhall Library's stores and a copy of theRubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in a jewelled binding bySangorski & Sutcliffe (1939).^[6] On dawn patrol as a fighter pilot,Douglas Blackwood sees his family's publishing business,William Blackwood, burning.^[7]
• December 31 –Echternacher Anzeiger, a Luxembourg newspaper, ends publication.^[8]
• unknown dates
  • The Russian poetAnna Akhmatova's collectionFrom Six Books appears in theSoviet Union, but distribution is soon suspended, copies pulped and remaining issues prohibited.^[9]
  • Wills & Hepworth ofLoughborough begins publishingLadybird Books in the United Kingdom in a new format,^[10] withBunnykin's Picnic Party: a story in verse for children with illustrations in colour.^[11]

• Eric Ambler –Journey into Fear
• Thomas Armstrong –The Crowthers of Bankdam
• Frank Baker –Miss Hargreaves
• Pridi Banomyong –The King of the White Elephant
• Giorgio Bassani –Una città di pianura
• Henry Bellamann –Kings Row
• Pierre Benoit –The Environs of Aden
• Phyllis Bottome –Heart of a Child
• Marjorie Bowen –The Crime of Laura Sarelle
• Karin Boye –Kallocain
• Lynn Brock –The Stoat
• John Brophy –Green Ladies
• Douglas Brown andChristopher Serpell –Loss of Eden: a cautionary tale
• Heðin Brú –Feðgar á ferð (The Old Man and His Sons)
• Edgar Rice Burroughs –Synthetic Men of Mars
• Gerald Butler –Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
• Dino Buzzati –The Tartar Steppe (Il deserto dei Tartari)
• Arthur Calder-Marshall –The Way to Santiago
• Erskine Caldwell –Trouble in July
• Taylor Caldwell –The Earth is the Lord's
• Victor Canning –Mr. Finchley Takes the Road
• Joyce Carey –Charley is My Darling
• John Dickson Carr
  • The Department of Queer Complaints
  • The Man Who Could Not Shudder
  • And So To Murder (as Carter Dickson)
  • Murder in the Submarine Zone (as Carter Dickson)
• Adolfo Bioy Casares –The Invention of Morel (La invención de Morel)
• Willa Cather –Sapphira And The Slave
• Raymond Chandler –Farewell, My Lovely
• Peter Cheyney
  • You Can't Keep the Change
  • You'd Be Surprised
• Agatha Christie
  • Sad Cypress
  • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
• Walter Clark –The Ox-bow Incident
• G.D.H. Cole andMargaret Cole –Murder at the Munition Works
• J.J. Connington –The Four Defences
• Freeman Wills Crofts –Golden Ashes
• James Daugherty –Daniel Boone
• Georges Duhamel –Les Maîtres
• Mircea Eliade –The Secret of Dr. Honigberger (Secretul doctorului Honigberger; published withNights at Serampore)
• Margita Figuli –Three Chestnut Horses
• Anthony Gilbert –Dear Dead Woman
• Graham Greene –The Power and the Glory
• Ernest Hemingway –For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Georgette Heyer –The Corinthian
• Anne Hocking –The Wicked Flee
• Dorothy B. Hughes –The So Blue Marble
• Hammond Innes
  • The Trojan Horse
  • Wreckers Must Breathe
• Michael Innes
  • The Secret Vanguard
  • There Came Both Mist and Snow
• Anna Kavan –Asylum Piece (short stories)
• Arthur Koestler –Darkness at Noon
• E. C. R. Lorac –Death at Dyke's Corner
• Marie Belloc Lowndes –The Christine Diamond
• Carson McCullers –The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
• Ngaio Marsh –Death at the Bar
• W. Somerset Maugham –The Mixture as Before (short stories)
• Gladys Mitchell –Brazen Tongue
• Nancy Mitford –Pigeon Pie
• John O'Hara –Pal Joey
• E. Phillips Oppenheim –Last Train Out
• Raymond Postgate –Verdict of Twelve
• John Cowper Powys –Owen Glendower
• Clayton Rawson --The Headless Lady
• Michael Sadleir –Fanny by Gaslight
• Mikhail Sholokov –The Don Flows Home to the Sea (English translation of part 2 ofТихий Дон – Tikhii Don, The Quiet Don)
• C. P. Snow –George Passant (first in theStrangers and Brothers series)
• Christina Stead –The Man Who Loved Children
• Rex Stout
  • Over My Dead Body
  • Where There's a Will
• Cecil Street
  • Death on the Boat Train
  • Death Takes a Flat
  • Mr. Westerby Missing
  • Murder at Lilac Cottage
• Phoebe Atwood Taylor
  • The Criminal C. O. D.
  • The Deadly Sunshade
  • The Left Leg (as Alice Tilton)
• Dylan Thomas –Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (short stories)
• Luis Trenker –Captain Ladurner
• Sachchidananda Vatsyayan –Shekhar: Ek Jivani
• Henry Wade –Lonely Magdalen
• Ethel Lina White –While She Sleeps
• Richard Wright –Native Son
• Francis Brett Young –Mr. Lucton's Freedom
• Xiao Hong (蕭紅) –Ma Bole (马伯乐)

• Enid Blyton –The Naughtiest Girl in the School
• Godfried Bomans –Eric in the Land of the Insects (Erik of het klein insectenboek)
• Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire –Abraham Lincoln
• 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
• Ugo Betti –Il cacciatore di anitre (The Duck Hunter)
• Peter Blackmore –The Blue Goose
• 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
• Hermann Heuvers –Hosokawa Gracia Fujin
• Artturi Järviluoma –Pohjalaisia
• Terence Rattigan and Anthony Goldsmith –Follow My Leader (first performed)
• Lawrence Riley –Return Engagement
• George Shiels –The Rugged Path
• Vernon Sylvaine –Nap Hand
• John Van Druten –
  • Leave Her to Heaven
  • Old Acquaintance
• Emlyn Williams
  • The Corn Is Green
  • The Light of Heart

• Mortimer J. Adler –How to Read a Book
• "Cato" (Michael Foot,Frank Owen, andPeter Howard) –Guilty Men
• George Gamow –The Birth and Death of the Sun
• G. H. Hardy –A Mathematician's Apology
• Bernard Leach –A Potter's Book
• C. S. Lewis –The Problem of Pain
• Karl Mannheim –Man and Society in the Age of Reconstruction
• 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
• Hugh Trevor-Roper –Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645
• Edmund Wilson –To the Finland Station

• January 4 –Gao Xingjian (高行健), Chinese novelist
• January 15 –Ted Lewis, English novelist (died1982)
• January 23 –Mario Levrero, Uruguayan novelist (died2004)
• February 6 –Tom Brokaw, American television journalist and author^[12]
• February 8 –Ted Koppel, American journalist
• February 9
  • J. M. Coetzee, South African novelist^[13]
  • Seamus Deane, Irish poet and novelist (died2021)^[14]
• March 16 –Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian writer and film director (died2018
• March 23 –Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian playwright (died2023)
• March 28 –Russell Banks, American novelist and poet (died2023)
• April 6 -Homero Aridjis, Mexican poet, novelist and environmentalist
• April 13 –J. M. G. Le Clézio, French novelist
• April 15 –Jeffrey Archer, English novelist, politician and perjurer
• April 24 –Sue Grafton, American detective novelist (died2017)
• May 1 –Bobbie Ann Mason, American novelist, short story writer, essayist and literary critic
• May 7 –Angela Carter, English novelist (died1992)^[15]
• May 8 –Peter Benchley, American novelist (died2006)
• May 13 –Bruce Chatwin, English novelist and travel writer (died1989)
• May 24 –Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born American poet and essayist (died1996)
• May 28 –Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist (died2012)
• July 17 –Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedy writer and performer (died 2020)
• July 31 –Fleur Jaeggy, Swiss-Italian fiction writer
• September 1 –Annie Ernaux, French author and Nobel laureate^[16]
• September 3 –Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist (died2015)
• September 14 –Ventseslav Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer and translator (died2019)
• October 11 –David McFadden, Canadian poet, fiction and travel writer (died2018)
• October 15 –Fanny Howe, American poet, novelist and short story writer
• October 20 –Robert Pinsky, American poet
• November 15 –René Avilés Fabila, Mexican writer (died2016)
• November 20 –Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, AmericanIndologist and translator
• December 5 –Peter Pohl, Swedish novelist
• December 29 –Brigitte Kronauer, German novelist (died2019)
• Stan Grant,Wiradjuri Australian writer

• January 1 –Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, Indian writer (born1865)
• January 5 –Humbert Wolfe, British poet and epigrammist (born1885)
• January 27 –Isaak Babel, Russian journalist and dramatist (executed, born1894)
• February 11 –John Buchan, Scottish novelist (born1875)
• February 29
  • E. F. Benson, English novelist, biographer, memoirist and short-story writer (born1867)
  • Emma Shaw Colcleugh, American author (born1846)
• March 7 –Edwin Markham, American poet (born1852)
• March 10 –Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright (born1891)
• March 11 –John Monk Saunders, American writer (born1897)
• March 12 –Florence White, English food writer (born1863)
• March 16
  • SirThomas Little Heath, English classicist and translator (born1861)
  • Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish children's writer and Nobel laureate (born1858)^[17]
• April 13 –Mary Bathurst Deane, English novelist (born1843)
• June 1 –Jan F. E. Celliers, South African Afrikaans-language poet, essayist, dramatist and critic (born1865)
• June 10 –Marcus Garvey, Jamaican journalist and publisher (born1887)
• June 20 –Charley Chase, American screenwriter (born1893)
• June 21 –Hendrik Marsman, Dutch poet (born1899)
• August 4 –Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-born Zionist leader, novelist and poet (heart attack, born1880)
• August 7 –T. O'Conor Sloane, American editor (born1851)
• September 8 –Constantin Banu, Romanian politician, journalist, cultural promoter and aphorist (born1873)
• September 26 –W. H. Davies, Welsh poet (born1871)^[18]
• November 27 –Nicolae Iorga, Romanian historian, politician, culture critic, poet and playwright (assassinated, born1871)
• December 21 –F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist (born1896)^[19]
• December 22 –Nathanael West, American screenwriter and satirist (born1903)

• Carnegie Medal forchildren'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 forchildren's literature:James Daugherty,Daniel Boone
• Nobel Prize in Literature: not awarded
• Prix Goncourt:Francis Ambrière,Les grandes vacances (awarded in retrospect)^[20]
• 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

• 1940 in literature
• Years of the 20th century in literature

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