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Observatory

Best Sellers · 1940s

1940

#1 bestsellers month by month.

January

Hardcover Fiction

Hardcover Nonfiction

A TREASURY OF ART MASTERPIECES

Bellamy Partridge

A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE

February

Hardcover Fiction

Christopher Morley

Hardcover Nonfiction

A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE

March

Hardcover Fiction

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

Richard Llewellyn

Hardcover Nonfiction

A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE

April

Hardcover Fiction

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

Richard Llewellyn

Hardcover Nonfiction

HOW TO READ A BOOK

Mortimer J. Adler

A SMATTERING OF IGNORANCE

May

Hardcover Fiction

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

Richard Llewellyn

Hardcover Nonfiction

FAILURE OF A MISSION

Sir Nevile Henderson

AMERICAN WHITE PAPER

Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner

June

Hardcover Fiction

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

Richard Llewellyn

STARS ON THE SEA

F. van Wyck Mason

Hardcover Nonfiction

AMERICAN WHITE PAPER

Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner

I MARRIED ADVENTURE

July

Hardcover Fiction

STARS ON THE SEA

F. van Wyck Mason

Hardcover Nonfiction

I MARRIED ADVENTURE

AS I REMEMBER HIM

COUNTRY SQUIRE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

August

Hardcover Fiction

STARS ON THE SEA

F. van Wyck Mason

Hardcover Nonfiction

COUNTRY SQUIRE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

September

Hardcover Fiction

THE BELOVED RETURNS

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN

Hardcover Nonfiction

COUNTRY SQUIRE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

October

Hardcover Fiction

YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Ernest Hemingway

Hardcover Nonfiction

COUNTRY SQUIRE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

November

Hardcover Fiction

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Ernest Hemingway

Hardcover Nonfiction

COUNTRY SQUIRE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A TREASURY OF THE WORLD'S GREAT LETTERS

M. Lincoln Schuster

December

Hardcover Fiction

Kenneth Roberts

Hardcover Nonfiction

A TREASURY OF THE WORLD'S GREAT LETTERS

M. Lincoln Schuster

THE WHITE CLIFFS

Alice Duer Miller

← 1939 1941 →