Before 1700 | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899 | 1900-1909 | 1910-1919 | 1920-1929 | 1930-1939 | 1940-1949 | 1950-1959 | 1960-1969 | 1970-1979 | 1980-1989 | 1990-1999 | 2000-2009 | 2010-2019 | 2020-2029
Works of literature from the 1940s.
- Agent of Vega. Series started in 1949.
- "Alice and the Allergy"
- All the King's Men
- "—And He Built a Crooked House—"
- Animal Farm
- Author! Author! (1964)
- Bartholomew and the Oobleck
- Bedknob and Broomstick
- A Bell for Adano
- Bend Sinister
- The Best Science Fiction: 1949
- Betsy-Tacy
- Beyond This Horizon
- Bhowani Junction
- The Big Wave
- The Black Stallion
- Blind Alley
- Blood on Biscayne Bay
- Blood on the Black Market
- Blood on the Stars
- Bodies Are Where You Find Them
- The Body in the Library
- Bony series continued through the decade.
- Brat Farrar
- Brideshead Revisited
- The Bridge on the Drina
- By His Bootstraps
- The Callistan Menace
- Cannery Row
- Captain Future Series started in 1940.
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
- The Catcher in the Ryenote
- Catch That Rabbit
- Cheaper by the Dozen
- Cherry Ames Series started in 1943.
- The Circus Series. Series ended in 1942.
- Comrade Death
- Confessions of a Mask
- The Corinthian
- The Corpse Came Calling
- Counterfeit Wife
- Cry, the Beloved Country
- Curious George The series started in 1941.
- Darkness at Noon
- Darker Than You Think
- Death Comes as the End
- Doctor Faustus
- Dragon's Teeth
- The Dwarf
- Earth Abides
- The Egyptian
- The Emigrants
- "Enoch"
- The Encyclopedists
- Escape!
- Evidence
- Evil Under the Sun
- Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Series started in 1940.
- The Famous Five. The series started in 1942.
- Farewell, My Lovely
- Farmer Giles of Ham
- Five Find-Outers
- Five Little Pigs
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Forever Amber
- The Fountainhead
- Friday's Child
- Froth on the Daydream
- Future Times Three. First published between 1943 and 1944.
- "The General (Foundation)"
- Gervase Fen. Series that began in 1944.
- Gimlet
- The Glass Key
- Goodnight Moon
- Goofus and Gallant
- Gormenghast
- The Great Divorce
- The Green Hills of Earth
- Green Patches
- Guard of Honor
- Gulf
- Harold Shea. Series started in 1940.
- The Harp in the South
- The Haunting of Toby Jugg
- "The Hazing"
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- The High Window
- History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II
- The Hollow
- Homo Sol
- Horton Hatches the Egg
- The House of Asterion
- The Hundred Dresses
- I Capture the Castle
- If This Goes On—
- If This Is a Man
- "The Imaginary"
- Insu-Pu
- Intruder in the Dust
- "It"
- Jill
- Johnny Tremain
- Joy in the Morning
- Judy's Journey
- Karius and Bactus (1949)
- King of the Wind
- The Labours of Hercules
- The Lady in the Lake
- Laura
- Liar! (1941)
- The Library of Babel
- "Little Lost Robot"
- The Little Grey Men Series. Series started in 1942.
- The Little Prince
- The Little Sister
- The Little White Horse
- "The Living Manikins"
- The Long Ships
- The Lottery and Other Stories
- Lottie and Lisa
- The Love of the Last Tycoon
- The Loved One
- Magic, Inc.
- Make Way for Ducklings
- The Makioka Sisters
- Malgudi Days
- Malory Towers
- The Man Without Qualities
- The Mating Season
- May Day Eve
- The Mayors
- McElligot's Pool
- Melendy Quartet
- The Merchant Princes
- Methuselah's Children
- Mike Hammer
- Mildred Pierce
- Michael Shayne's Long Chance
- "Miles Pennoyer" (first short story collection published in 1945)
- "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"
- Miriam
- Mister Roberts
- Mistress Masham's Repose
- The Monster
- The Moomins
- Mother Earth
- The Moving Finger
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
- The Mule
- Murder Is My Business
- Murder and the Married Virgin
- Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask
- My Best Science Fiction Story
- My Father's Dragon
- The Naked and the Dead
- Native Son
- The Naughtiest Girl
- Nero Wolfe Series started in 1934 but continued through the decade.
- Nightfall (1941)
- Nightmare Alley
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Noddy Series started in 1949.
- No Longer Human
- Not Final!
- No Woman Born
- Olivia (1949)
- On Fairy-Stories
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
- Los Pájaros de Fuego
- Papelucho
- Pavilion of Women
- The Pearl
- Penny Parker series:
- The Vanishing Houseboat
- Tale of the Witch Doll
- Danger at the Drawbridge
- Behind the Green Door
- Clue of the Silken Ladder
- The Secret Pact
- The Clock Strikes Thirteen
- The Wishing Well
- Saboteurs on the River
- Ghost Beyond the Gate
- Hoofbeats on the Turnpike
- Voice From the Cave
- Guilt of the Brass Thieves
- Signal In the Dark
- Whispering Walls
- Swamp Island
- The Cry At Midnight
- Pippi Longstocking series started in 1944.
- The Plague
- The Poor Mouth
- The Power and the Glory
- The Private Practice of Michael Shayne
- The Pursuit of Love
- The Railway Series started in 1945.
- The Razor's Edge
- The Reluctant Widow
- Ride This Night
- Reason
- The Red Lion
- Red Planet
- Rick Brant
- Robbie
- Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
- Robots Have No Tails (series of short stories started in 1943)
- Rocket Ship Galileo (part of the Heinlein juveniles series)
- Runaround
- Sad Cypress
- Scanners Live in Vain
- The Screwtape Letters
- Search by the Foundation
- Search by the Mule
- The Secret Sense
- Seven Men of Gascony
- Shane
- The Six Bullerby Children
- Sixth Column
- Slan
- Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen
- Space Cadet
- Theater Shoes
- The Star Kings
- St Clare's
- The Stolen Spring
- The Stranger
- Stuart Little
- Suite Française
- Taken at the Flood
- Tales of the South Pacific
- Tall Tale America
- Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
- Tickets for Death
- Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
- Tootle
- "The Traders"
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Trixie Belden Series began in 1948.
- The Tunnel
- The Twenty One Balloons
- Typewriter in the Sky
- The Uncomplaining Corpses
- Under the Volcano
- Viagens Interplanetarias Series began in 1949.
- "Victory Unintentional"
- Waldo
- The Way West
- The Wind on the Moon
- Without Seeing The Dawn
