How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own experiences, but this was found after his death to be doubtful; Llewellyn was English-born and spent little time in Wales, though he was of Welsh descent. Llewellyn gathered material for the novel from conversations with local mining families in the village of Gilfach Goch, in southeast Wales. No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction best seller list for 2 weeks, from the issue of March 4, 1940. Wiki link