39 1942 American novels

The Adventures of Superman is a novel by George Lowther. It was first published in 1942 with illustrations by Joe Shuster, the co-creator of Superman. A facsimile edition was released in 1995 by Applewood Books, with a new introduction by Roger Stern.

And Now Tomorrow is a 1944 American drama film based on the best-selling novel, published in 1942 by Rachel Field, directed by Irving Pichel and written by Raymond Chandler. Both center around one doctor's attempt for curing deafness. The film stars Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, and Susan Hayward. Its tagline was Who are you that a man can't make love to you?. It is also known as Prisoners of Hope.

Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942) is the third volume in the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Beyond the Farthest Star is a science fiction novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. The novel consists of two novellas, "Adventure on Poloda" and "Tangor Returns", written quickly in late 1940. The first was published in The Blue Book Magazine in 1942, but the second did not see publication until 1964 when it was featured in Tales of Three Planets along with "The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw" and The Wizard of Venus.

Beyond This Horizon is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction and then as a single volume by Fantasy Press in 1948. It was awarded a Retro-Hugo award for best novel in 2018.

Calamity Town is a novel that was published in 1942 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the fictional town of Wrightsville, a place that figures in several later Queen books.

The Clue of the Broken Blade is Volume 21 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.

The Day Must Dawn is a 1942 historical novel by the American writer Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1888–1982) set in 1777 in Hanna's Town, Pennsylvania, a frontier settlement thirty miles east of Pittsburgh.

Donovan's Brain is a 1942 science fiction novel by American writer Curt Siodmak.

Dragon Seed is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1942. It describes the lives of Chinese peasants in a village outside Nanjing, China, immediately prior to and during the Japanese invasion in 1937. Some characters seek protection in the city while others become collaborators. This story focuses less on the details of the attack and more on the characters’ reactions to the events in Nanking. The Nanking Massacre involved months of horrific violence by the Imperial Japanese Army as they conquered the city; the novel takes place during these events. Buck opines in the novel that Japanese troops passing through China feel no responsibility for their conduct as they won’t be present to be confronted after the violence is over.

Dragon's Teeth is a 1942 novel by Upton Sinclair that won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943. Out of print and nearly forgotten for years, ebook editions of the Lanny Budd series were published in 2016. Set in the period 1929 to 1934, it covers the Nazi takeover of Germany during the 1930s.

The Emperor's Snuff-Box is a non-series mystery novel (1942) by mystery novelist John Dickson Carr. The detective is psychologist Dr. Dermot Kinross.

The Four-Story Mistake is a children's novel written and illustrated by Elizabeth Enright, published by Farrar & Rinehart in 1942. It is the second book in the Melendy family series which Enright inaugurated in 1941. The family leaves World War II-era New York City for a house in the country, a house that is an adventure in itself.

Freddy and the Perilous Adventure (1942) is the ninth book in the humorous children's series Freddy the Pig written by American author Walter R. Brooks, and illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Freddy, ducks Alice and Emma, and the Webb spiders are cast on a voyage when a fairground balloon will not return to the ground. Days later when landing, Freddy must confront the dishonest balloon owner who received money from Mr. Bean for damages.

The Gates of Aulis is the first novel by the American writer Gladys Schmitt (1909–1972) set in a fictional version of 1940s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Gilded Man is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr, who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale.

The Harvey Girls is a novel published in 1942 by Samuel Hopkins Adams. In 1946, it was adapted by MGM into a musical film starring Judy Garland, eponymously titled The Harvey Girls.

The High Window is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel featuring the Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.

Islandia is a classic novel of utopian fiction by Austin Tappan Wright, a University of California, Berkeley Law School Professor. Written as a hobby over a long period, the manuscript was edited posthumously and reduced by about a third by author/editor Mark Saxton with the advice and consent of Wright's wife and daughter, and was published first in hardcover format by the company Farrar & Rinehart in 1942, eleven years after the author's 1931 death.

The Just and the Unjust is a novel by James Gould Cozzens published in 1942. Set in "Childerstown," a fictional rural town of 4000 persons, the novel is a courtroom drama of a murder trial that begins June 14, 1939, and takes three days.

Land of Unreason is a fantasy novel by American writers Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the fantasy magazine Unknown Worlds for October, 1941 as "The Land of Unreason". Revised and expanded, it was first published in book form by Henry Holt and Company in 1942. It has been reprinted numerous times since by various publishers, including by Ballantine Books in January 1970 as the tenth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.

Lucky Bucky in Oz (1942) is the thirty-sixth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the third and last written and illustrated solely by John R. Neill.

Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1942 novel by Sally Benson. It is the basis for the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis.

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes is the second novel in the children's series known as The Moffats. Published in 1942, it was a Newbery Honor book. The title comes from Janey Moffat, who feels a little lost among her three siblings. Being neither the oldest or youngest, she decides to become the 'Middle Moffat' to help herself feel more important. The Moffats is set in small town Cranbury, Connecticut during World War I.

The Moon Is Down is a novel by American writer John Steinbeck. Fashioned for adaptation for the theatre and for which Steinbeck received the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Cross, it was published by Viking Press in March 1942. The story tells of the military occupation of a small town in Northern Europe by the army of an unnamed nation at war with England and Russia. A French language translation of the book was published illegally in Nazi-occupied France by Les Éditions de Minuit, a French Resistance publishing house. Furthermore, numerous other editions were also secretly published across all of occupied Europe, including Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Italian versions ; it was the best known work of U.S. literature in the Soviet Union during the war. Although the text never names the occupying force as German, references to "The Leader", "Memories of defeats in Belgium and France 20 years ago" clearly suggest it. Written with the purpose of motivating resistance movements in occupied countries, the book has appeared in at least 92 editions across the world.

No Coffin for the Corpse (1942) is a whodunnit mystery novel written by Clayton Rawson.

Now and On Earth is a 1942 novel by Jim Thompson. It was his first published novel.

Phantom Lady is a 1942 crime novel written by American author Cornell Woolrich under the pseudonym "William Irish". It is the first novel Woolrich published under the William Irish pseudonym.

The Quest of the Missing Map is the nineteenth volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1942 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The actual author was ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson.

The Robber Bridegroom is a 1942 novella by Eudora Welty.

The Robe is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later rose to No. 1, and held the position for nearly a year. The Robe remained on the list for another two years, returning several other times over the next several years including when the film adaptation was released in 1953.

Rocket to the Morgue is a 1942 American locked room mystery novel by Anthony Boucher.

The Sea Is My Brother is a novel by the American author Jack Kerouac, published in 2011. The novel was written in 1942 and remained unpublished throughout Kerouac's lifetime due to his dissatisfaction with it. The plot and its characters are based on Kerouac's experience in United States Merchant Marine during World War II.

Seventeenth Summer is a young adult novel written by Maureen Daly and published in 1942. Daly was born in Ireland but grew up in Wisconsin. Before writing Seventeenth Summer she wrote a short story entitled "Sixteen". Daly began writing the novel when she was 17. After graduation from high school Daly attended Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois. She wrote all of her life, as did her three sisters. Maureen Daly died in 2006.

Snow Treasure is a children's novel by Marie McSwigan. Set in Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II, it recounts the story of several Norwegian children who use sleds to smuggle their country's gold bullion past German guards to a waiting ship, the Cleng Peerson. Published in 1942, it has been in print ever since. The book was made into a film of the same name in 1968, directed by Irving Jacoby.

The Sorcerer's Ship is a fantasy novel by Hannes Bok. It was first published in the December 1942 issue of the magazine Unknown, and was first published in book form in paperback by Ballantine Books as the ninth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in December 1969. The Ballantine edition includes an introduction by Lin Carter. The novel has also been published in translation in Polish and Russian. Like much of Bok's fiction, it is the story of a traveler "from our world who found [himself] in colourful, magic lands that are far more attractive than our own".

Twig is a children's fantasy novel written and illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones. It was originally published by Macmillan in 1942. The book was reissued in a 60th Anniversary Edition by Purple House Press in 2002.

The Valley of Decision is an historical novel by the American writer Marcia Davenport (1903–1996). It was a national bestseller in the 1940s and adapted into a film, The Valley of Decision, in 1945.

Wolf in Man's Clothing is a mystery novel by Mignon G. Eberhart. It was published by Random House in 1942 and issued in the UK by Collins Crime Club the following year. It was reissued by Bison Books in 1996.