Shadow on the Hearth is a science fiction novel by American writer Judith Merril, originally published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1950.

[1] Shadow on the Hearth tells the story of "a Westchester woman and her two children after the explosion of a series of atomic bombs on New York".

Although she stopped working on the piece when it reached twice that length, needing to spend more time with her young daughter, Doubleday editor Walter I. Bradbury read the incomplete draft and bought the novel.

When she completed it, Doubleday imposed its own title (avoiding any mention of nuclear war), revising the text to create a happier ending, and wrapping the novel in a nondescript dust jacket.

[3] New York Times reviewer Charles Poore described Shadow on the Hearth as "a rather chintzy account of what happened to a Westchester family when the atomic bombs began to burst through the American air", noting that Merril "concentrate[s] on the creation of believable leading characters" and concluding that the novel "is generally entertaining reading, even if .

[9] Kenneth F. Slater wrote in Nebula Science Fiction that "The emotions you will find here are in places hard and brutal, not softly sentimental".

[14] M. Keith Booker declares that Shadow on the Hearth is "a relatively daring novel" and "a useful corrective to the heroic vision of post apocalypse life".