The Human Comedy is a 1943 novel by William Saroyan. It originated as a 240-page film script written for MGM. Saroyan was planning to produce and direct the film, but he was dropped from the project either because the script was too long or because a short film he directed as a test did not pass muster—or both. He walked off the lot, went home, and swiftly created this novelization, which was published just before the film came out. It was the March 1943 Book-of-the-Month Club selection and became a best-seller a week after its release. Saroyan won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film, The Human Comedy.