- For other uses of the term, please see the disambiguation page at Best sellers.
This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1940s, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1940 through 1949.
The standards set for inclusion in the lists - which, for example, lead to the exclusion of the novels in the Harry Potter series from the lists for the 1990s and 2000s - are currently unknown.
| 1940 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | How Green Was My Valley | Richard Llewellyn |
| 2. | Kitty Foyle | Christopher Morley |
| 3. | Mrs. Miniver | Jan Struther |
| 4. | For Whom the Bell Tolls | Ernest Hemingway |
| 5. | The Nazarene | Sholem Asch |
| 6. | Stars on the Sea | F. van Wyck |
| 7. | Oliver Wiswell | Kenneth Roberts |
| 8. | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| 9. | Night in Bombay | Louis Bromfield |
| 10. | The Family | Nina Fedorova |
| 1941 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The Keys of the Kingdom | A. J. Cronin |
| 2. | Random Harvest | James Hilton |
| 3. | This Above All | Eric Knight |
| 4. | The Sun Is My Undoing | Marguerite Steen |
| 5. | For Whom the Bell Tolls | Ernest Hemingway |
| 6. | Oliver Wiswell | Kenneth Roberts |
| 7. | H.M. Pulham, Esquire | John P. Marquand |
| 8. | Mr. and Mrs. Cugat | Isabel Scott Rorick |
| 9. | Saratoga Trunk | Edna Ferber |
| 10. | Windswept | Mary Ellen Chase |
| 1942 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The Song of Bernadette | Franz Werfel |
| 2. | The Moon Is Down | John Steinbeck |
| 3. | Dragon Seed | Pearl S. Buck |
| 4. | And Now Tomorrow | Rachel Field |
| 5. | Drivin' Woman | Elizabeth Pickett |
| 6. | Windswept | Mary Ellen Chase |
| 7. | The Robe | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| 8. | The Sun Is My Undoing | Marguerite Sheen |
| 9. | King's Row | Henry Bellamann |
| 10. | The Keys of the Kingdom | A. J. Cronin |
| 1945 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | Forever Amber | Kathleen Winsor |
| 2. | The Robe | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| 3. | The Black Rose | Thomas B. Costain |
| 4. | The White Tower | James Ramsey Ullman |
| 5. | Cass Timberlane | Sinclair Lewis |
| 6. | A Lion Is in the Streets | Adria Locke Langley |
| 7. | So Well Remembered | James Hilton |
| 8. | Captain from Castile | Samuel Shellabarger |
| 9. | Earth and High Heaven | Gwethalyn Graham |
| 10. | Immortal Wife | Irving Stone |
| 1946 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The King's General | Daphne du Maurier |
| 2. | This Side of Innocence | Taylor Caldwell |
| 3. | The River Road | Frances Parkinson Keyes |
| 4. | The Miracle of the Bells | Russell Janney |
| 5. | The Hucksters | Frederic Wakeman, Sr. |
| 6. | The Foxes of Harrow | Frank Yerby |
| 7. | Arch of Triumph | Erich Maria Remarque |
| 8. | The Black Rose | Thomas B. Costain |
| 9. | B.F.'s Daughter | John P. Marquand |
| 10. | The Snake Pit | Mary Jane Ward |
| 1947 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The Miracle of the Bells | Russell Janney |
| 2. | The Moneyman | Thomas B. Costain |
| 3. | Gentleman's Agreement | Laura Z. Hobson |
| 4. | Lydia Bailey | Kenneth Roberts |
| 5. | The Vixens | Frank Yerby |
| 6. | The Wayward Bus | John Steinbeck |
| 7. | House Divided | Ben Ames Williams |
| 8. | Kingsblood Royal | Sinclair Lewis |
| 9. | East Side, West Side | Marcia Davenport |
| 10. | Prince of Foxes | Samuel Shellabarger |
| 1948 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The Big Fisherman | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| 2. | The Naked and the Dead | Norman Mailer |
| 3. | Dinner at Antoine's | Frances Parkinson Keyes |
| 4. | The Bishop's Mantle | Agnes Sligh Turnbull |
| 5. | Tomorrow Will Be Better | Betty Smith |
| 6. | The Golden Hawk | Frank Yerby |
| 7. | Raintree County | Ross Lockridge, Jr. |
| 8. | Shannon's Way | A. J. Cronin |
| 9. | Pilgrim's Inn | Elizabeth Goudge |
| 10. | The Young Lions | Irwin Shaw |
| 1949 | ||
|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Author |
| 1. | The Egyptian | Mika Waltari |
| 2. | The Big Fisherman | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| 3. | Mary | Sholem Asch |
| 4. | A Rage to Live | John O'Hara |
| 5. | Point of No Return | John P. Marquand |
| 6. | Dinner at Antoine's | Frances Parkinson Keyes |
| 7. | High Towers | Thomas B. Costain |
| 8. | Cutlass Empire | Van Wyck Mason |
| 9. | Pride's Castle | Frank Yerby |
| 10. | Father of the Bride | Edward Streeter |
| Publishers Weekly lists of bestselling novels in the United States |
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| 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s - 2000s |
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