Fiction 1950

The Wall by John Hersey - The fictionalized story of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto. though John Hershey is most remembered for his 1946 book Hiroshima. A mix of fact and fiction soon to be called "the New Journalism" which follows six families through the first atomic bomb blast. It is said to be the greatest piece of journalism of the 20th Century. John Hershey.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - A compilation of short stories of the atomic destruction of Earth and the subsequent colonization of the Planet Mars and its ancient civilization.. Ray Bradbury website

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - This is the first and most well known in the series The Chronicles of Narnia. A loose allegory of the fight against fascism in WWII. Though considered one of the greatest fantasy books of all time, it is often criticized as a too obvious for of Christian indoctrination of children. An issue his Christian friend and fellow fantasy writer J. R. Tolkein did a much better job of avoiding in his series The Lord of the Rings. C.S Lewis Biography.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov - A series of short stories tied together by a narrator. Many of the stories were expanded into tv scripts and movies. We also forever learned the 3 Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Marguerite de Angeli - The Door in the Wall
Gwen Bristow - Jubilee Trail
Pearl S. Buck - The Child Who Never Grew
Agatha Christie - A Murder is Announced
William Cooper - Scenes from Provincial Life
A. J. Cronin - The Spanish Gardener
Daphne du Maurier - The Parasites
Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End
Hugh Garner - Cabbagetown
Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey - Belles on Their Toes
Giovanni Guareschi - The Little World of Don Camillo
Frank Hardy - Power Without Glory
Ernest Hemingway - Across the River and Into the Trees
Robert E. Howard - Conan the Conqueror
Jack Kerouac - The Town and the City
Frances Parkinson Keyes - Joy Street
Doris Lessing - The Grass Is Singing
Rose Macaulay - The World My Wilderness
Juan Carlos Onetti - La vida breve (A Brief Life)
Cesare Pavese - La Luna e i Falò
Barbara Pym - Some Tame Gazelle
Ellery Queen - Double, Double
Conrad Richter - The Town
Henry Morton Robinson - The Cardinal
Cezaro Rossetti - Kredu min, sinjorino!
Budd Schulberg - The Disenchanted
Rex Stout - Three Doors to Death
Rex Stout - In the Best Families
Edith Templeton - Summer In The Country
James Thurber - The 13 Clocks
A. E. van Vogt - The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Mika Waltari - The Adventurer
Evelyn Waugh - Helena
Kathleen Winsor - Star Money
Frank Yerby - Floodtide

New York Times Bestseller list 1950

Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier

The Wall by John Hersey

The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson

The Disenchanted by Budd Schulberg

Literary News 1950

Charlie Brown meets Snoopy

World War II veteran Charles Schulz after a few years of drawing Li'l Folks renames the comic strip "Peanuts" which goes on to become the longest running and most syndicated of all time. The Charles Schulz Museum

Pulitzer Prize Fiction: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

Pulitzer Prize Drama:  South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan

Nobel Prize in Literature:  Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell

Non Fiction 1950

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl - In 1947 this Norwegian explorer sails a reed raft from South America to the Polynesian islands to prove his theory that Polynesia could have been peopled by South Americans rather than the prevailing belief they came from Southern Asia. The book with photos of the trip became a best seller. The Voyage of the Kon Tiki.

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton - Still in print this million seller is still said to be the most easily readable biography of Martin Luther and his part in the 16th century Reformation. Rather short and nicely illustratived it has often been used as a text book. Review of Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

The Liberal Imagination by Lionel Trilling - A collection of essays concerning politics and literature. Trilling considered himself an anti-Stalin Leftist and worked within a group of liberal New York intellectuals. Some of his work which takes aspects of "liberalism" to task has gained him inclusion as a Neo conservative by Newconservatives whom he had no liking for. The Liberal Imagination.

Reading and Criticism by Raymond Williams

Florence Nightingale by Cecil Woodham-Smith

The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich

1950 Tony Awards (theater)

This was the first by playwright William Inge penned when he was a teacher at Washington University in St. Louis. The story of a woman aging through a loveless marriage with a bitter alcoholic husband. The missing dog "Sheba" is not found. Starring Sidney Blackmer and Shirly Booth who reprised her role in the 1952 movie with Burt Lancaster. Come Back Little Sheba

Outstanding Play: The Cocktail Party by T S Eliot
Outstanding Dramatic Actor: Sidney Blackmer - Come Back Little Sheba
Outstanding Dramatic Actress: Shirley Booth - Come Back Little Sheba