The 1940s in books

Who ruled the 1940s? Lloyd C. Douglas was Author of the Decade on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list. Every #1 bestseller of the 1940s, the biggest books and the top authors.

NYT Hardcover Fiction

Author of the Decade 1940s

Lloyd C. Douglas

49 crowns · 122 weeks among the top five authors · Era Power 1,621

Top authors of the 1940s
#	Author	Era Power	Crowns	Top-five weeks
1	Lloyd C. Douglas	1,621	49	122
2	John P. Marquand	1,008	35	71
3	A. J. Cronin	989	39	72
4	Thomas B. Costain	943	29	70
5	Taylor Caldwell	936	9	70
6	Marcia Davenport	846	8	70
7	Betty Smith	818	28	63
8	Frank Yerby	760	0	39
9	Sholem Asch	739	7	61
10	Frances Parkinson Keyes	710	0	53

Author of the Year, 1940s
Year	Author	Crowns
1940	Richard Llewellyn	13
1941	James Hilton	10
1942	Franz Werfel	14
1943	Lloyd C. Douglas	31
1944	Lillian Smith	22
1945	Samuel Shellaburger	4
1946	Taylor Caldwell	9
1947	Laura Z. Hobson	14
1948	Norman Mailer	19
1949	Lloyd C. Douglas	14

Every #1 bestseller of the 1940s61 books reached #1 on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list
First week at #1	Title	Author	Weeks at #1
Jan 1, 1940	The Nazarene	Sholem Asch	6
Feb 5, 1940	Kitty Foyle	Christopher Morley	3
Mar 4, 1940	How Green Was My Valley	Richard Llewellyn	13
Mar 18, 1940	Native Son	Richard Wright	1
Jun 10, 1940	Stars on the Sea	F. Van Wyck Mason	10
Aug 19, 1940	Mrs. Miniver	Jan Struther	6
Sep 9, 1940	The Beloved Returns	Thomas Mann	2
Sep 30, 1940	You Can't Go Home Again	Thomas Wolfe	2
Oct 28, 1940	For Whom the Bell Tolls	Ernest Hemingway	7
Dec 2, 1940	Oliver Wiswell	Kenneth Roberts	9
Feb 17, 1941	Random Harvest	James Hilton	10
Apr 28, 1941	This Above All	Eric Knight	14
Aug 4, 1941	The Keys of the Kingdom	A. J. Cronin	18
Nov 17, 1941	Saratoga Trunk	Edna Ferber	3
Dec 15, 1941	Windswept	Mary Ellen Chase	6
Feb 9, 1942	Dragon Seed	Pearl S. Buck	5
Feb 16, 1942	Frenchman's Creek	Daphne Du Maurier	1
Mar 23, 1942	The Moon Is Down	John Steinbeck	12
Jun 15, 1942	And Now Tomorrow	Rachel Field	6
Jul 20, 1942	The Song of Bernadette	Franz Werfel	14
Nov 2, 1942	The Prodigal Women	Nancy Hale	5
Nov 23, 1942	The Valley of Decision	Marcia Davenport	6
Dec 21, 1942	The Robe	Lloyd C. Douglas	33
Sep 6, 1943	So Little Time	John P. Marquand	4
Sep 20, 1943	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	Betty Smith	28
Apr 16, 1944	Strange Fruit	Lillian Smith	22
Aug 20, 1944	The Razor's Edge	Somerset Maugham	3
Sep 10, 1944	The History of Rome Hanks	Joseph S. Pennell	3
Oct 29, 1944	Green Dolphin Street	Elizabeth Goudge	1
Nov 5, 1944	Forever Amber	Kathleen Winsor	9
Dec 31, 1944	The Green Years	A. J. Cronin	18
Apr 22, 1945	Earth and High Heaven	Gwenthalyn Graham	1
Apr 29, 1945	The Ballad and the Source	Rosamond Lehmann	4
Jun 10, 1945	Captain from Castille	Samuel Shellaburger	4
Jul 8, 1945	A Lion Is in the Streets	Adria Locke Langley	10
Sep 23, 1945	So Well Remembered	James Hilton	2
Oct 7, 1945	The Black Rose	Thomas B. Costain	17
Feb 3, 1946	The King's General	Daphne Du Maurier	6
Mar 10, 1946	Arch of Triumph	Erich Maria Remarque	8
May 12, 1946	This Side of Innocence	Taylor Caldwell	9
Jul 14, 1946	The Hucksters	Frederic Wakeman	19
Nov 24, 1946	East River	Sholem Asch	1
Dec 1, 1946	B.F.'s DAUGHTER	John P. Marquand	9
Feb 2, 1947	Lydia Bailey	Kenneth Roberts	12
Apr 27, 1947	Gentleman's Agreement	Laura Z. Hobson	14
Jul 6, 1947	Kingsblood Royal	Sinclair Lewis	2
Aug 17, 1947	The Moneyman	Thomas B. Costain	12
Nov 9, 1947	House Divided	Ben Ames Williams	15
Feb 8, 1948	East Side, West Side	Marcia Davenport	2
Mar 7, 1948	Eagle in the Sky	F. Van Wyck Mason	5
Apr 4, 1948	The Ides of March	Thornton Wilder	2
Apr 25, 1948	Raintree County	Ross Lockridge	4
May 9, 1948	Pilgrim's Inn	Elizabeth Goudge	4
Jun 20, 1948	The Naked and the Dead	Norman Mailer	19
Sep 5, 1948	Shannon's Way	A. J. Cronin	3
Nov 7, 1948	The Young Lions	Irwin Shaw	4
Dec 19, 1948	The Big Fisherman	Lloyd C. Douglas	16
Apr 10, 1949	Point of No Return	John P. Marquand	22
Sep 11, 1949	Twilight on the Floods	Marguerite Steen	1
Sep 18, 1949	A Rage to Live	John O'Hara	6
Oct 30, 1949	The Egyptian	Mika Waltari	9

Biggest books of the 1940sTitles that entered the list in the 1940s, by Book Power
#	Title	Author	Peak	Weeks	Book Power
1	The Robe	Lloyd C. Douglas	#1	111	1,107.3
2	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	Betty Smith	#1	51	655.2
3	The Naked and the Dead	Norman Mailer	#1	62	603.6
4	The Big Fisherman	Lloyd C. Douglas	#1	62	590.1
5	The Egyptian	Mika Waltari	#1	59	575.7
6	The Valley of Decision	Marcia Davenport	#1	49	561.5
7	Forever Amber	Kathleen Winsor	#1	58	480.7
8	The Song of Bernadette	Franz Werfel	#1	39	477.1
9	The Miracle of the Bells	Russell Janney	#2	54	471.6
10	This Side of Innocence	Taylor Caldwell	#1	41	450.8
11	The Black Rose	Thomas B. Costain	#1	39	449.5
12	How Green Was My Valley	Richard Llewellyn	#1	35	444.9
13	House Divided	Ben Ames Williams	#1	40	429.5
14	Strange Fruit	Lillian Smith	#1	32	429.4
15	The Keys of the Kingdom	A. J. Cronin	#1	31	410.3
16	Point of No Return	John P. Marquand	#1	34	400.5
17	Gentleman's Agreement	Laura Z. Hobson	#1	36	392.8
18	The Razor's Edge	Somerset Maugham	#1	31	379.0
19	The Green Years	A. J. Cronin	#1	28	375.4
20	Captain from Castille	Samuel Shellaburger	#1	43	374.0

Author of the Decade and the rankings are the ChartReign Power model: the author with the most chart power over the decade, not the most #1s. Crowns are weeks crowned Author of the Week. How it works