The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1940.

• Public Service:
  • Waterbury Republican-American for its campaign exposing municipal graft.
  • Honorable mention to the San Francisco Chronicle for "its part in settling the water front and warehouse strike in San Francisco, June 22 to Dec. 1, 1939".^[1]
• Reporting:
  • S. Burton Heath of the New York World-Telegram for his expose of the frauds perpetrated by Federal judge Martin T. Manton, who resigned and was tried and imprisoned.
• Correspondence:
  • Otto D. Tolischus of The New York Times for his dispatches from Berlin.
  • Honorable mention to Lloyd Lehrbas of the Associated Press for his dispatches from Warsaw, Bucharest, and Ankara.^[1]
• Editorial Writing:
  • Bart Howard of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for his distinguished editorial writing during the year.^[2]

• Editorial Cartooning:
  • Edmund Duffy of The Baltimore Sun for "The 'Outstretched Hand'".

• Novel:
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Viking).
• Drama:
  • The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (Harcourt).
• History:
  • Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandburg (Harcourt).
• Biography or Autobiography:
  • Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vols. VII and VIII by Ray Stannard Baker (Doubleday).
• Poetry:
  • Collected Poems by Mark Van Doren (Holt).