Eighty-two Guggenheim Fellowships were awarded in 1942.
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| Carson McCullers || <!--none--> || rowspan="2" | Writing || Also won in 1946 ||
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| Eudora Alice Welty || <!--none--> || Also won in 1949 ||
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| rowspan="6" | Fine Arts || Cameron Booth || St. Paul Gallery and School of Art || Painting || ||
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| Joseph Hirsch || <!--Philadelphia--> || Painting || Also won in 1943 ||
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| Charles Rudy || <!--Ottsville, PA--> || Sculpture: Stone and bronze, and experimental work in terra cotta and other media || ||
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| rowspan="3" | Music Composition || Ernst Bacon || Converse College || rowspan="3" | Composing || Also won in 1939, 1964 ||
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| Stanley Bate || || ||
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| Burrill Phillips || Eastman School of Music || Also won in 1961 ||
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| rowspan="2" | Poetry || W. H. Auden || || Writing || ||
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| Jack H. Hexter || Queens College, CUNY || History of the interregnum in England || Also won in 1947, 1979 ||
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| rowspan="4" | Classics || Harold Fredrik Cherniss || Johns Hopkins University || Aristotle's Criticism of Plato and the Academy, Vol. II || ||
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| Michael Ginsburg || University of Nebraska || Social policy of the Roman emperors || Also won in 1939 ||
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| Doro Levi || Princeton University || Mosaics of Antioch-on-the-Orontes || Also won in 1941 ||
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| rowspan="6" | English Literature || Franklin Gary || Princeton University || || ||
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| Meyer Schapiro || Columbia University || Preparation of a corpus of paintings, drawings, and ornament in manuscripts of southern France from the 10th to the end of the 12th century, with an analysis and interpretation of these works || Also won in 1939 ||
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| Saul S. Weinberg || Institute for Advanced Study || || Also won in 1941 ||
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| rowspan="2" | General Nonfiction || John Dos Passos || <!--Provincetown, MA--> || Life of Thomas Jefferson || Also won in 1939, 1940 ||
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| German and Scandinavian Literature || Harold Stein Jantz || Clark University || New England acquaintance with German thought and literature during the 17th and 18th centuries || ||
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| Medieval Literature || Edmund Taite Silk || Yale University || Edits of commentary by Nicholas Trivet on Boethius || ||
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| rowspan="2" | Philosophy || Horace Leland Friess || Columbia University || Study of the posthumous manuscripts of Felix Adler || ||
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| Charles William Morris || University of Chicago || General theory of signs || ||
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| rowspan="3" | United States History || Alfred Whitney Griswold || Yale University || Political significance of American agriculture || ||
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| Alfred Tarski || Institute for Advanced Study || || Also won in 1941, 1955 ||
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| Thomas Rogers Forbes || Johns Hopkins University || Physiology of reproduction || ||
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| Charles Leonard Huskins || McGill University || Synthesis of cytology and the genetics of plants, animals, and man || ||
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| Physics || Wilson M. Powell || University of California, Berkeley || Cosmic rays || Also won in 1941 ||
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| rowspan="6" | Plant Science || John Thomas Curtis || University of Wisconsin || Octological status of the lake forests of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ontario || Also won in 1956 ||
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| Floyd Alonzo McClure || Lingnan University || Chinese bamboos || Also won in 1943 ||
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| James A. C. Grant || University of California, Los Angeles || Comparative study of procedure to enforce constitutional guarantees || ||
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1942 Latin American and Caribbean Fellows
{| class="wikitable sortable static-row-numbers static-row-header-text"
! Category !! Field of Study !! Fellow !! Institutional association <!--(if applicable)--> !! Research topic !! Notes !! class="unsortable"| Ref
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| rowspan="2" | Creative Arts || Fine Arts || Antonio Rodríguez Luna || || || Also won in 1941 ||
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| Music Composition || Alberto Evaristo Ginastera || || Composition || Also won in 1946, 1969 ||
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| rowspan="4" | Humanities || Biography || Antonio Hernández Travieso || Sepúlveda College; Institute of Secondary Education (Havana) || Life of Félix Varela || Also won in 1943 ||
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| General Nonfiction || Gabriel Fernández Ledesma || || Theme of death as depicted in the folk arts of Mexico and the Southwest United States || ||
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| Iberian and Latin American History || Arturo Arnáiz y Freg || National Autonomous University of Mexico || History of Mexican thought || ||
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| Philosophy || Raúl Alberto Piérola || National Institute of Secondary Education; Popular Library of Paraná || Influence of phenomenology on contemporary North American philosophy || ||
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| rowspan="10" | Natural Science || Applied Mathematics || Jaime Lifshitz Gaj || National Autonomous University of Mexico || General theory of orbits || Also won in 1943 ||
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| Astronomy and Astrophysics || Félix Cernuschi || National University of Tucumán || Statistical mechanics, with special reference to its application to astrophysics || Also won in 1945 ||
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| Medicine and Health || Luis Vargas Fernández || || Studies at the University of Washington || Also won in 1941 ||
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| rowspan="2" | Molecular and Cellular Biology || Efrén Carlos del Pozo || National School of Biological Sciences || Studies in Boston || Also won in 1941 ||
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| Juan José Lussich Siri || Institute of Endocrinology (Montevideo) || Vitamin chemistry || ||
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| rowspan="3" | Organismic Biology and Ecology || Raúl Cortés Peña || University of Chile || Biological control of insect pests || Also won in 1943 ||
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| Isabel Pérez Farfante || || || Also won in 1943 ||
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| Fabio Leoni Werneck || Oswaldo Cruz Institute || Taxonomic studies of the Mallophaga of mammals || Also won in 1943 ||
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| Physics || Amador Cobas || University of Puerto Rico || Correlation of high energy cosmic rays and atmospheric neutrons || ||
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| Plant Science || Rafael Edmundo Pontis Videla || Ministry of Agriculture (Argentina) || Cytological and microchemical studies of host plants infected with spotted wilt || ||
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| Social Science || Anthropology and Cultural Studies || || National Museum (Mexico) || Pre-Hispanic connections between the Indigenous cultures of Mexico and the Southeast and Southwest United States || ||
|}
See also
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1941
- List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1943