Greatest Lit Home Editor Eric Toronto Reads Unsolvable Mysteries Skepticism

Mid-Twentieth Century
1941 to 1960 C.E.

Click linked titles and authors for more information and Editor Eric's commentaries.
Date Title Author Country Type
1941 As For Me and My House Sinclair Ross Canada Novel
Herself Surprised Joyce Cary England Novel
Nightfall Isaac Asimov USA Story
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty James Thurber USA Story
A Curtain of Green Eudora Welty USA Stories
1942 David Earl Birney Canada Poetry
The Outsider Albert Camus Algeria Novel
To Be a Pilgrim Joyce Cary England Novel
1943 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry France Novella
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand USA Novel
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith USA Novel
1944 Antigone Jean Anouilh France Drama
Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet France Novel
No Exit Jean-Paul Sartre France Drama
The Book of Imaginary Beings Jorge Luis Borges Argentina Stories
The Horse’s Mouth Joyce Cary England Novel
1945 Two Solitudes Hugh MacLennan Canada Novel
The Tin Flute Gabrielle Roy Canada Novel
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept Elizabeth Smart Canada Novel
Loving Henry Green England Novel
Animal Farm George Orwell England Novel
The Madwoman of Chaillot Jean Giraudoux France Drama
Gigi Colette France Novel
The Caucasian Chalk Circle Bertolt Brecht Germany Drama
Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) Herman Hesse Germany Novel
The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams USA Drama
Black Boy Richard Wright USA Novel
1945-9 Roads to Freedom Jean-Paul Sartre France Novels
1946 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh England Novel
Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Greece Novel
Mr. President Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemala Novel
Lord Weary's Castle Robert Lowell USA Poetry
The Iceman Cometh Eugene O’Neill USA Drama
All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren USA Novel
Fern Hill Dylan Thomas Wales Poem
Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andric Yugoslavia Novel
1946-58 Paterson William Carlos Williams USA Poetry
1946-59 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake England Novels
1947 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry Canada Novel
Who Has Seen the Wind? W.O. Mitchell Canada Novel
Poems for People Dorothey Livesay Canada Poetry
The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino Italy Novel
The Age of Anxiety W.H. Auden England Poetry
The Maids Jean Genet France Drama
Eustace and Hilda L.P. Hartley England Novel
Snow Country Yasunari Kawabata Japan Novel
A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams USA Drama
1947-57 The Dark at the Top of the Stairs William Inge USA Drama
1948 Ring Round the Moon Jean Anouilh France Drama
Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton South Africa Novel
The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene England Novel
Death Fugue Paul Célan Romania Poem
The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer USA Novel
Guard of Honor James Gould Cozzens USA Novel
1949 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir France Novel
Men of Maize Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemala Novel
The Aleph Jorge Luis Borges Argentina Stories
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell England Novel
The Third Man Graham Greene England Novel
The Man With the Golden Arm Nelson Algren USA Novel
Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller USA Drama
The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles USA Novel
Shane Jack Schaefer USA Novel
1950 Cabbagetown Hugh Garner Canada Novel
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis England Novel
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute England Novel
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury USA Stories
I, Robot Isaac Asimov USA Stories
The Family Moskat Isaac Bashevis Singer USA Stories
Come Back, Little Sheba William Inge USA Drama
1951 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar Belgium Novel
The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham England Novel
The End of the Affair Graham Greene England Novel
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger USA Novel
Lie Down in Darkness William Styron USA Novel
From Here to Eternity James Jones USA Novel
Spartacus Howard Fast USA Novel
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Dylan Thomas Wales Poem
1951-75 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell England Novels
1951-93 Foundation Isaac Asimov USA Novels
1952 The Mountain and the Valley Ernest Buckler Canada Novel
A Many-splendoured Thing Han Suyin China Novel
The Chairs Eugene Ionesco France Drama
Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett Ireland Drama
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison USA Novel
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway USA Novel
Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor USA Novel
East of Eden John Steinbeck USA Novel
Charlotte’s Web E.B. White USA Novel
1953 Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke England Novel
The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow USA Novel
The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler USA Novel
The Demolished Man Alfred Bester USA Novel
The Waking Theodore Roethke USA Poetry
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury USA Stories
1954 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis England Novel
Lord of the Flies William Golding England Novel
Under the Net Iris Murdoch England Novel
The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir France Novel
Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin USA Novel
Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas Wales Drama
1954-55 Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien England Novels
1955 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore Canada Novel
Pedro Paramo Juan Rulfo Mexico Novel
The Chrysalids John Wyndham England Novel
The Quiet American Graham Greene England Novel
The Less Deceived Philip Larkin England Poetry
The Recognitions William Gaddis USA Novel
The Ginger Man J.P. Donleavy USA Novel
The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith USA Novel
Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg USA Poetry
A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor USA Story
A Child's Christmas in Wales Dylan Thomas Wales Memoir
1956 Let Us Compare Mythologies Leonard Cohen Canada Poetry
Look Back in Anger John Osburn England Drama
Long Day’s Journey into Night Eugene O’Neill USA Drama
The Visit Friedrich Dürrenmatt Switzer. Drama
Things of This World Richard Wilbur USA Poetry
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams USA Drama
The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester USA Novel
1956-57 The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz Egypt Novels
1957 Voss Patrick White Australia Novel
Room at the Top John Braine England Novel
On the Beach Nevil Shute England Novel
Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet France Novel
Endgame Samuel Beckett Ireland Drama
Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak Russia Novel
The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever USA Novel
On the Road Jack Kerouac USA Novel
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand USA Novel
1957-60 The Alexandria Quartet Laurence Durrell England Novels
1958 Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon Jorge Amado Brazil Novel
The Caretaker Harold Pinter England Drama
The Once and Future King T.H. White England Novel
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe England Novel
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Nigeria Novel
The Hostage Brendan Behan Ireland Drama
The Leopard Giusseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa Italy Novel
Lolita Valdimir Nabokov Russia Novel
Exodus Leon Uris USA Novel
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Truman Capote USA Novella
A Coney Island of the Mind Lawrence Ferlinghetti USA Poetry
1959 The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Mordecai Richler Canada Novel
Morley Callaghan’s Stories Morley Callaghan Canada Stories
The Tin Drum Günter Grass Germany Novel
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing England Novel
Goldfinger Ian Fleming England Novel
Archangels Don't Play Pinball Dario Fo Italy Drama
Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow USA Novel
Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs USA Novel
Life Studies Robert Lowell USA Poetry
The Galton Case Ross MacDonald USA Novel
1960 The Woman at the Washington Zoo Randal Jarrell USA Poetry
To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee USA Novel
A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller USA Novel
1960-90 Rabbit Angstrom John Updike USA Novel
 

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