FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
by Ernest Hemingway · Scribner
Ernest Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls in Havana, Cuba; Key West, Florida; and Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1939.In Cuba, he lived in the Hotel Ambos Mundos where he worked on the manuscript.The novel was finished in July 1940 at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel in New York City and published in October.It is based on Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and features an American protagonist, named Robert Jordan, who fights alongside Spanish guerillas for the Republicans.The characters in the novel include those who are purely fictional, those based on real people but fictionalized, and those who were actual figures in the war. Set in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range between Madrid and Segovia, the action takes place during four days and three nights. For Whom the Bell Tolls became a Book of the Month Club choice, sold half a million copies within months, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and became a literary triumph for Hemingway.Published on 21 October 1940, the first edition print run was 75,000 copies.
SAPPHIRA AND THE SLAVE GIRL
by Willa Cather · Viking Press
Sapphira and the Slave Girl is Willa Cather's last novel, published in 1940.It is the story of Sapphira Dodderidge Colbert, a bitter but privileged white woman, who becomes irrationally jealous of Nancy, a beautiful young slave. The book balances an atmospheric portrait of antebellum Virginia against an unblinking view of the lives of Sapphira's slaves.
Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.