Books of the Year

In the first eleven months of 1939, U. S. publishers brought out 8,196 new titles. There were 1,060 new novels, 511 biographies and autobiographies, 984 titles in the field of belles-lettres which includes poetry, drama and criticism, 1,361 titles which come under the general head of politics, history, economics and social sciences. In this enormous mass of books --good, bad, ponderous, specialized, dull, exciting, original, confused, confusing--a jew stand head & shoulders above rivals in their respective fields. Some emerge from the year's crop by their wide popular appeal, a few because of their unquestionable literary or human significance. Outstanding titles:*

Novels

THE NAZARENE--Sholem Asch--Putnam ($2.75).

*THE DEATH OF THE HEART--Elizabeth Bowen--Knopf ($2.50).

THE WILD PALMS--William Faulkner --Random House ($2.50).

CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER--C. S. Forester--Little, Brown ($2.75).

*FINNEGANS WAKE--James Joyce--Viking ($5).

*THE THIBAULTS--Roger Martin du Gard--Viking ($3).

*PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER (three long stories)--Katherine Anne Porter--Harcourt, Brace ($2).

THE GRAPES OF WRATH--John Steinbeck--Viking ($2.75).

MOMENT IN PEKING--Lin Yutang--John Day ($3).

Biography

THOREAU -- Henry Seidel Canby,--Houghton Mifflin ($3.75).

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT -- Henry F. Pringle -- Farrar & Rinehart (2 vols. $7.50).

THE YOUNG MELBOURNE--Lord David Cecil--Bobbs-Merrill ($3).

*ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE WAR YEARS -- Carl Sandburg -- Harcourt, Brace (4 vols. $20).

ARTHUR RIMBAUD -- Enid Starkie --Norton ($3.75).

Autobiography & Letters

TAR HEEL EDITOR--Josephus Daniels --University of North Carolina ($3.50).

*LETTERS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON--Edited by Ralph Leslie Rusk--Columbia (6 vols. $30).

*THE LETTERS OF T. E. LAWRENCE--Edited by David Garnett--Doubleday, Doran ($5).

A VICTORIAN IN THE MODERN WORLD--Hutchins Hapgood--Harcourt, Brace ($5).

IN PLACE OF SPLENDOR--Constancia de la Mora--Harcourt, Brace ($3).

Current Affairs

MEN IN BATTLE--Alvah Bessie--Scrib-ner ($2.50).

INSIDE ASIA--John Gunther--Harper ($3.50).

THE REVOLUTION OF NIHILISM--Hermann Rauschning--Alliance ($3).

STALIN -- Boris Souvarine -- Alliance ($4.50).

*UNION NOW: A PROPOSAL FOR A FEDERAL UNION OF THE DEMOCRACIES OP THE NORTH ATLANTIC--Clarence K. Streit--Harper ($3).

Poetry

*COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT FROST--Holt ($5).

*COLLECTED POEMS--Robert Graves --Random House ($2.50).

ON PILGRIMAGE (humorous)--Thomas Temple Hoyne -- Economic Feature Service, Chicago ($1.50).

DUINO ELEGIES--Rainer Maria Rilke --Norton ($2).

COLLECTED POEMS--Mark Van Doren --Holt ($3.50).

History

*AMERICA IN MIDPASSAGE--Charles A. & Mary R. Beard--Macmillan ($3.50).

THE LIFE OF GREECE--Will Durant-- Simon and Schuster ($3.95).

STATESMEN OF THE LOST CAUSE--Burton J. Hendrick--Little, Brown ($3.75).

Art

TREASURY OF ART MASTERPIECES-- Edited by Thomas Craven--Simon and Schuster ($10).

*THE LIFE OF J. M. W. TURNER, R. A. --A. J. Finberg--Oxford ($10).

Phaidon Press Art Books, Oxford: RODIN ($3); RUBENS ($2.50); MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN PAINTING IN AMERICA ($3).

General

JOURNEY TO A WAR--W. H. Auden & Christopher Isherwood -- Random House ($3).

THE NOVEL AND THE MODERN WORLD-- David Daiches--University of Chicago ($2.50).

THE END OF ECONOMIC MAN--Peter F. Drucker--John Day ($2.50).

*MOSES AND MONOTHEISM--Sigmund Freud--Knopf ($3).

*MEIN KAMPF--Adolf Hitler--Reynal & Hitchcock ($3).*

AMERICAN JAZZ MUSIC--Wilder Hobson--Norton ($2.50).

IN STALIN'S SECRET SERVICE--W. G. Krivitsky--Harper ($3).

THE AMERICAN DRAMA SINCE 1918--Joseph Wood Krufch--Random House ($2.50).

ACCENT ON POWER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MACHIAVELLI--Valeriu Marcu--Farrar & Rinehart ($3).

*MARXISM: AN AUTOPSY--Henry Barnford Parkes--Houghton Mifflin ($3).

WIND, SAND AND STARS--Antoine de Saint Exupery--Reynal & Hitchcock ($2.75).

JAZZ, HOT & HYBRID--Withrop Sargeant--Arrow Editions ($5).

AMERICA AT THE MOVIES--Margaret Thorp--Yale ($2 75).

SAN FRANCISCO'S LITERARY FRONTIER--Franklin Walker--Knopf ($5).

JUVENILES Ages Four to Eight

MIKE MULLIGAN AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL--Virginia Lee Burton -- Houghton Mifflin ($1.50).

*THE STORY OF HORACE--Alice M. Coats--Coward McCann ($1.75).

WELL, ABOUT THE PENGUIN--Price Day --Simon & Schuster (75-c-).

WALT DISNEY'S PINOCCHIO--Random House ($1).

WALT DISNEY'S THE UGLY DUCKLING--Lippincott ($1).

THE GAY A B C -- Franc,oise -- Scribner ($1.50).

LITTLE TOOT -- Hardie Gramatky--Putnam ($1.50).

FARAWAY MEADOW--Thomas Handforth--Doubleday, Doran ($2).

WILLIAM WIGGLEWHISTLE--Anne Heyneman--Scribner ($1.50).

FAIR PLAY -- Munro Leaf -- Stokes ($1.50).

WACKY THE SMALL BOY--Fred Schwed Jr.--Simon & Schuster ($1.50).

ADVENTURES OF THE LITTLE WOODEN HORSE--Ursula Moray Williams--Lippincott ($1.50).

AGES TEN TO FOURTEEN

KANGUK: A BOY OF BERING STRAIT--As told to William AIbee--Little, Brown ($2).

GOLDEN GATE--Valenti Angela--Viking ($2).

MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS--Richard & Florence Atwater -- Little, Brown ($1.50)

DANIEL BOONE--James Dougherty--Viking ($2.50).

ABRAHAM LINCOLN--Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire -- Doubleday, Doran ($2).

COLUMBUS SAILS--C. Walter Hodges --Coward-McCann ($2.75).

*Of these, TIME marks with asterisks 16 books which are already classics or stand a chance of retaining eminence whether easily readable or not. *Of future value to historians and psychologists.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.