Awards
- Carnegie Medal for children's literature: Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction: Charles Morgan, The Voyage
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography: Hilda F. M. Prescott, Spanish Tudor: Mary I of England
- Newbery Medal for children's literature: James Daugherty, Daniel Boone
- Nobel Prize for literature: not awarded
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama: William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life
- Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Mark Van Doren: Collected Poems
- Pulitzer Prize for the Novel: John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
- King's Gold Medal for Poetry: Michael Thwaites
Read more about this topic: 1940 In Literature