1941 Retro Hugos: Best Novelette

[arno_axolotl]

Probably the best story of any length published in 1940 is Farewell to the Master (later adapted to film as The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the all-time classic SF movies). Into the Darkness may not have gotten much traction with 1941 voters because it was so much ahead of its time - it would not have been out of place had it been published in Dangerous Visions - but it is perhaps the most literate story of the bunch.
Stories included in The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 2, 1940, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, are marked with an asterisk.

- *Blowups Happen, Robert A. Heinlein, Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1940
- *Butyl and the Breather, Theodore Sturgeon, Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
- Cargo, Theodore Sturgeon, Unknown Fantasy Fiction, November 1940
- *The Exalted, L. Sprague de Camp, Astounding Science-Fiction, November 1940
- *Farewell to the Master, Harry Bates, Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
- The Girl in the Bottle, Jack Williamson, Super Science Stories, September 1940
- The Gryb (aka Repetition), A. E. van Vogt, Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1940
- Half-Breed (aka The Tweenie), Isaac Asimov, Astonishing Stories, February 1940
- Half-Breeds on Venus, Isaac Asimov, Astonishing Stories, December 1940
- The Hardwood Pile, L. Sprague de Camp, Unknown Fantasy Fiction, September 1940
- *Into the Darkness, Ross Rocklynne, Astonishing Stories, June 1940
- Invisible Monster, John Beynon (aka John Wyndham), Tales of Wonder #11, July 1940
- *It, Theodore Sturgeon, Unknown, August 1940
- John Carter of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs (and John Coleman Burroughs), Whitman Publishing Company
- The Man from Earth, John Beynon Harris (aka John Wyndham), Tales of Wonder, Spring 1940
- The Mound, Z.B. Bishop (aka H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop), Weird Tales, November 1940
- *Old Man Mulligan, P. Schuyler Miller, Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1940
- Paul Revere and the Time Machine, A. W. Bernal (Arthur William Bernal), Amazing Stories, March 1940
- Racketeers in the Sky, Jack Williamson, Argosy, October 12, 1940
- Reincarnate, Lester del Rey, Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1940
- Rim of the Deep, Clifford D. Simak, Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1940
- *The Roads Must Roll, Robert A. Heinlein, Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940
- The Space-Beasts, Clifford D. Simak, Astonishing Stories, April 1940
- Terror Out of the Past, Raymond Z. Gallun, Amazing Stories, March 1940
- *Vault of the Beast, A. E. van Vogt, Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1940
- The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years, Don Wilcox, Amazing Stories, October 1940
- Voyage to Nowhere, Alfred Bester, Thrilling Wonder Stories, July 1940
- Warlords of Mars, Festus Pragnell, Amazing Stories, June 1940