SIXTY YEARS OF BEST SELLERS
We shall not busy ourselves with what men ought to have admired,
what they ought to have written, what they ought to have thought,
but with what they did think, write, admire.
--_A History of Criticism_ by George Saintsbury
60 YEARS OF
BEST SELLERS
1895-1955
Alice Payne Hackett
NEW YORK, R. R. Bowker Company
1956
Library of Congress Card Number: 56-13419
Copyright, 1956, by R. R. Bowker Company
62 West 45th Street, New York 36, N. Y.
Printed in the U.S.A. by
Rae Publishing Company
CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Frederic G. Melcher vii
Key to Endpapers ix
A Guide to Best Sellers 1
Best Sellers, 1895-1955 11
Best Seller Subjects 47
Annual Best Sellers 93
Early Best Sellers 215
About Best Sellers 221
Title and Author Index 231
FOREWORD
to “50 Years of Best Sellers”
The term “best seller” was coined and came into common use because it
filled a need. A term was needed to describe what were not necessarily
the best books but the books that people liked best. For a long time
people have been interested in what other people read and why. If we are
studying what books were popular in any period of our history, it is
important to know not only what people could have read, or should have
read, but what they did read. The record of what books a great many
people have bought and read is a part of the social history of those
people.
The books which have been important from a literary standpoint have been
recorded in many volumes of literary criticism. Many of those books have
had large and continuing sales, though some have only been appreciated
years after they were published. These great books are the product in
which any country must take great pride. On the other hand the record of
best sellers of the hundred or more years during which book publishing
has been an active industry in this country has not heretofore been
adequately made. The record is only in part literary history. A literary
classic is a book which continues to be important to succeeding
generations of readers. Some of the best sellers of each decade have
done that; many more have not. The lists covering a fifty-year period
which this volume includes will make interesting material for study.
Whether or not literature of continuing value is to be found among the
best sellers, the lists provide significant insight into the thinking
and emotions of a people. The trends of such reading may have more
significance than a casual glance indicates.
How many copies any book has sold is recorded on the files of its
publisher, and business records are not readily unearthed. Fortunately,
however, the comparative sales of books year by year for the last half
century have been kept systematically. The closing of this fifty year
period makes a natural occasion for printing the record. The sales
totals of books are more difficult to gather and to verify, but such
figures, insofar as they have ever been printed, have become part of the
historical files of the _Publishers’ Weekly_ office. Alice Payne
Hackett, who has had so much to do with the development and completeness
of these files, has pursued for her book every figure that could be
verified by the files or records in the publishing offices.
_Fifty Years of Best Sellers_ will open up to the student and bookman
new fields for speculation. Perhaps students of literary history will
try to chart the evolution of public taste from these records and
writers of tomorrow’s best sellers find, in these titles of the past,
some clue to the perennial elements of popular appeal.
FREDERIC G. MELCHER
1946
FOREWORD
to “60 Years of Best Sellers”
The prompt recognition which was accorded ten years ago to Alice
Hackett’s records and comments on best sellers and the demand which has
followed for a continuation of her figures and analysis has shown that
such records have an interest to widely different groups of people--to
the book trade, of course, but also to reminiscent readers and to
students of public taste and social history. This continuation of the
yearly lists is now accompanied by an expansion of earlier information
which Miss Hackett has gathered by persistent contacts with many sources
and to these annual lists has been added a greatly extended group of
classified lists which enhance the popular interest and usefulness of
the book.
FREDERIC G. MELCHER
August 1956
KEY TO ENDPAPERS
In the upper lefthand corner are the title page and frontispiece of _The
Royal Road to Romance_, which introduced Richard Halliburton as the
glamorous traveler of the ’20’s. Next is the title page of H. G. Wells’
most famous best seller, _The Outline of History_. To its right, and
just below it, are pictures of the _Complete Poems_ of Robert Frost, one
of our best-loved poets, and of _The White Cliffs_, by Alice Duer
Miller, best-selling poetry of World War II.
At the middle left is Alfred Aloysius Horn, whose fabulous _Trader
Horn_, was a high spot of the ’20’s. Emily Post’s _Etiquette_ in its
original and revised editions has been a steady seller for thirty or
more years. Just below _Etiquette_ is the famous _Story of Philosophy_
by Will Durant, and above it one of the most outstanding religious
novels of our time, _The Robe_, by Lloyd C. Douglas. At the right is an
illustration from one of the earliest best-selling American mystery
stories, _The Circular Staircase_, by the dean of mystery writers, Mary
Roberts Rinehart.
The bottom row includes a picture of the top seller in religious
non-fiction, _The Greatest Story Ever Told_, by Fulton Oursler; the
bestselling novel of this century, _God’s Little Acre_, by Erskine
Caldwell, in its paperbound edition; Dr. Benjamin Spock’s _Pocket Book
of Baby and Child Care_, the overall best seller in paperbound books;
and the title page of the first edition of _John Brown’s Body_, Stephen
Vincent Benet’s great narrative poem.
On the right page, at the upper left, is _The Honorable Peter Stirling_,
by Paul Leicester Ford, a sensation of the 1890’s, followed by the title
page of Margaret Mitchell’s _Gone with the Wind_, and the double title
page of the special pre-publication edition of Edna Ferber’s _Show
Boat_.
Below is the paperbound edition of Erle Stanley Gardner’s first Perry
Mason mystery, _The Case of the Velvet Claws_. In descending order are
Rabbi Liebman’s _Peace of Mind_; _The Good Earth_, flanked by a picture
of its author, Pearl Buck; and _Contract Bridge Complete_, by the
best-selling writer on bridge of the ’50’s, Charles Goren. At the left
is the title page of one of the best-known western stories, _The
Virginian_, by Owen Wister.
Along the lowest row are Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s _The Power of
Positive Thinking_; the jacket of the original edition of L. Frank
Baum’s _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_, perennial juvenile favorite; the
paperbound edition of _One Lonely Night_, by the sensational detective
writer of the ’50’s, Mickey Spillane; and the new edition of the
bestseller among cook books, the _Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book_.
A GUIDE TO BEST SELLERS
A GUIDE TO BEST SELLERS
It is the purpose of this book as of its predecessor, _Fifty Years of
Best Sellers_, to present as completely as possible the facts and
figures about American best sellers, to interpret and comment to some
extent upon the statistics presented but not to evaluate from a literary
standpoint.
There is always a great deal of interest and curiosity about
best-selling books among members of the general reading public as well
as among those concerned with the publishing, selling and publicizing of
books. The lists and figures of this book are an attempt to answer the
questions of such interested people. In view of the recurrent
controversies about the best-seller system, which usually hinge upon the
complaint that best seller lists draw attention only to a few books to
the disadvantage of what are possibly more worthy books, it must be
added that this book is not designed to glorify the best seller per se,
but simply to give the facts. As long as newspapers and magazines find
best seller lists attractive features for their readers, the best seller
will be with us. Even if there were no organized best seller lists,
notable sales for a certain book would be news. When a book becomes
conspicuous for its fast and unusually large sales, people who are not
ordinarily book buyers or not particularly interested in books become
aware of it, even buy it. Sales themselves stimulate sales. They cannot
be ignored as a factor in the book business.
The term best seller is usually comparative rather than absolute. A book
may be the best seller in one store or one city; it may be the best
seller over the country for a week, or a year, for five years or for
sixty. The words used to designate such a book have become so
established in our language and are so often loosely used that “best
seller” has too often become synonymous with “book,” especially in
circles outside the book industry. Advertisers, magazine editors, and
program directors in radio and television, attempting to adhere to fair
standards when mentioning books, often query major review media,
libraries, trade magazines, book associations, etc. as to whether a
certain book may honestly be called a best seller. In the office of
_Publishers’ Weekly_, the book trade magazine where much of the material
for this present volume was developed, it has become the practice to
answer such questions in the affirmative if that book has appeared on
one of its monthly best seller lists, which are based upon bookstore
surveys. The book is a best seller for at least the moment at which the
question is asked. But is the book of the moment or month a best seller
as _David Copperfield_ or _Gone with the Wind_ is a best seller? In the
pages following I have attempted to illustrate the various states of
best sellerdom.
The reason why the story of best sellers begins in 1895 is that it was
in that year that the first best seller lists were printed in the United
States. Harry Thurston Peck, then editor of the literary magazine, _The
Bookman_, began to run each month the lists of the best-selling books in
a number of large cities. By 1902, “best seller” had been established,
mainly through the publicity derived from _The Bookman’s_ lists, as a
term specifically applied to books. About 1903 the magazine set the
limit of its monthly list of titles at six and called the lists “the six
best sellers.” From these _Bookman_ lists were formulated the best
seller lists for the years 1895 to 1912 when the _Publishers’ Weekly_
lists were begun. There were few and scattered records of best-selling
books previous to 1895. There are occasional lists in early literary
magazines, some in _Publishers’ Weekly_, a few lists of the most popular
reading matter in public libraries to be found, but all these give the
effect of rather random reporting. Without any methodical listing of
best sellers in the years previous to 1895, it is practically impossible
to arrive at exact figures of sales for the books of preceding centuries
or even at estimates except in the case of the books which have endured.
A list of “Early Best Sellers,” most of which have been read for more
than a century, is included in this book. It has been checked by a
number of authorities, and, while it may possibly not be complete, the
titles on it comprise a valid body of best sellers published before
1895.
The first edition of this book covered the years from 1895 to 1945.
Since then there have been tremendous changes in the business of
bookselling, principally in methods of selling. During and just after
World War II more books could have been sold than were available. This
was because of paper quotas, shortages in other materials, and wartime
demands. Children’s books, especially, sold as fast as they could be
placed on sale, for one reason because the metals used in making toys
for children were in even shorter supply than paper. All books sold very
well in spite of limitations placed upon their manufacture. There were
fewer titles published but those that were published and were successful
sold out all their printings. At about the time that paper restrictions
began to be lifted book clubs boomed. The major clubs had been in
existence for a number of years but it was not until the postwar period
that all their monthly selections sold into many hundreds of thousands.
The Book-of-the-Month Club distributed a total of 7,011,936 books in
1950. In its fiscal year of 1950 the Literary Guild sent out about
8,800,000 books. Compare these figures with those estimated by Maxwell
Aley in the June 6, 1931 _Publishers’ Weekly_. He concluded then that
there were “one million habitual book buyers, one million more
occasional buyers and beyond that a vague but large number who buy one
or two books a year.” Because of the popularity of the books in the
Armed Services Editions, distributed to men and women in the Armed
Services during the war, the book trade hoped that the many new readers
of books would continue to read in the postwar years, and that the book
boom of the late ’40’s and early ’50’s would continue.
The big totals piled up by the book clubs had a tremendous effect on
what I have called the overall best seller lists, the three lists that
include books that have sold 750,000 copies or more in the past sixty
years. Many books of the mid-century have displaced the favorites of the
century’s early years that once were high on the lists. The reading
picture given by the list is entirely different from what it was ten
years ago.
At almost the same time as wartime demands were creating new best
sellers, another tremendous change which affected the overall best
seller lists, was taking place in the book business. That was the
success of the 25-cent paperbound book. This was not a new development
in the trade. In the nineteenth century, in the “dime novel” period,
paper bound books had big sales. Dime novels flourished for years. There
were also many experiments in later years to launch paperbound lines,
but it was not until 1939 that the paperbound book came into its own for
moderns. Its success was due to new methods of cheaper manufacture, to
new methods of distribution through the magazine wholesaler system, and
to improved literary quality of the books chosen for reprint in paper
covers.
When the first edition of this book appeared, paperbound books were
established but had not yet attained the enormous sales that came later
on. There was one “overall” best-seller list, 1895-1945, in _Fifty Years
of Best Sellers_. Both hardbound books, including the reprints at 75
cents and $1 which sold well up to the 1940’s, and paperbound books were
lumped together on it. Paperbound sales account for the place of only a
few books on the list--books like _See Here, Private Hargrove_ and _The
Pocket Book of War Humor_. That list, made in 1944, was, on the whole,
not greatly affected by paperbound book sales. Since then the whole
picture has changed enormously. Paperbound sales, both reprints of
hardcover editions and books which have made their first appearance in
paper covers, account for by far the majority of titles.
That is why, for this new edition, I have arranged the overall list,
1895-1955, in three sections. Students of the book business and of
literary taste will find what books have sold to bookstore and book club
customers, what titles have sold to the so-called mass market. The
evidence is not quite what one would expect. While great numbers of
detective and western stories and some sensational fiction on the list
are due to paperbound sales, it is also true that paperbound
distribution accounts for the appearance of such authors as John
Steinbeck and William Faulkner on the overall combined list.
In general the sales figures on these three lists are much larger than
those on the 1945 list. The minimum sales figure on that list was half a
million copies. On two of the 1955 lists the minimum is one million; on
the hardbound list, 750,000. There are also many more titles on these
lists than on the 1945 list. Title production has increased every year
since the end of the war and the reading population has also increased.
While the sales figures for the most popular books are startlingly
larger than those of a decade ago, they are not so great as one must
believe they could be in relation to growth of population and the
increase in high school and college enrollment. Robert Frase, economic
consultant and associate director of the American Book Publishers
Council, has recently pointed out that this population pattern ought
soon to affect the book business favorably even if it has not yet
affected it as much as expected. This slow rate of increase in sales, if
not in title production, is illustrated by figures Mr. Frase has quoted
for trade books sold in 1929 and in 1954. The figures for both years are
practically the same, about 70,000,000 copies. Book club sales, however,
rose from about 2,000,000 to 50,000,000; paperbacks from zero to
190,000,000; juveniles, at all prices, from 37,000,000 to 95,000,000.
Among trade books, the topmost best sellers are selling in even greater
quantities than they did previously, but for the run-of-the-mill books
the situation is not so happy. Big best sellers, textbooks, children’s
books, and other special types of books are going along at a good rate.
The novel or book of non-fiction that may be worthy but is not
particularly outstanding has a rougher road. Because of increasing
manufacturing costs and the decrease in rental libraries, which once
absorbed a creditable number of the ordinary romances and novels
designed for a few hours’ diversion, it is difficult for the publisher
to sell the unassuming book profitably. Contrary to public assumption,
most authors of books do not make much money. They must either write a
great many books or else produce a few big best sellers in order to
attain satisfactory incomes. Laura Z. Hobson, author of _Gentleman’s
Agreement_ and other books, has made the statement that of the 2,000
members of the Authors’ Guild, less than half make an annual income of
$3,000 or more from all forms of writing. But an author may not have to
live on book sales alone. The sales of subsidiary rights, i.e., rights
to use a book as the basis of a movie, television show or condensation,
are becoming of more and more importance both to author and publisher;
but it is mainly the “big” books that bring in the big money, and they
are few and far between. _The Desperate Hours_, for example, brought
its author, Joseph Hayes, a quarter of a million dollars within a very
short time--but this included, besides sales of the book and of book
club editions, the sale of the play and screen rights, _Reader’s Digest_
condensation and magazine serialization. One book that almost reached
the ultimate in all types of sales was _The Razor’s Edge_ by W. Somerset
Maugham. It was serialized in _Redbook_, was a best seller in its trade
edition, was both a Literary Guild and a Dollar Book Club best seller,
sold in a clothbound $1 reprint and in a 25-cent paperbound reprint, and
was produced as a movie. Numerous foreign rights were sold.
Readers may wonder why many, if not most, of the best sellers on the
three overall lists do not appear on the annual lists of best sellers,
1895 through 1955, and, conversely, why many of the titles on the yearly
lists do not appear on the overall best seller lists. This situation
illustrates the difference between the best seller of the year and the
all-time best seller. These annual lists as compiled by the _Publishers’
Weekly_, are primarily for the interest of the retail bookseller. They
do not include book club sales or sales in paperbound reprint editions.
They are intended to show the reading tastes of the book buyers who
actually go to a store to select books, not of those who buy by mail or
pick up random reading from newsstands. Most of the books on the annual
lists of recent years sell a minimum of about 75,000 copies. It takes
several years’ big sales to put one of the books from the yearly lists
on the all-time list. Book club sales and paperbound sales will also
help do the job.
The reason why many of the books on the all-time lists do not appear on
yearly lists is, in general, the same. In the case where book club or
paperbound sales do not enter into the situation the books probably have
sold steadily, piling up sales over the years until they reach big
quantities. This is especially true of the cook books which stand high
on the hardbound list; four out of the first five titles on the list are
cook books.
These yearly lists are more interesting for the student of social
history and literary taste than are the overall lists. They reflect
events and crises in history over sixty years as well as the changing
mores--from Pollyanna to Polly Adler. There are books on these lists
that have made history and influenced American thinking. Consider _The
Honorable Peter Stirling_ by Paul Leicester Ford, _The Pit_ by Frank
Norris, _The Jungle_, by Upton Sinclair, _Mr. Britling Sees It Through_,
by H. G. Wells, _The Economic Consequences of the Peace_ by John Maynard
Keynes, _The Plastic Age_ by Percy Marks, _Mother India_ by Katherine
Mayo, _Looking Forward_ by Franklin D. Roosevelt, _It Can’t Happen Here_
by Sinclair Lewis, _The Grapes of Wrath_ by John Steinbeck, _For Whom
the Bell Tolls_ by Ernest Hemingway, _Berlin Diary_ by William L.
Shirer, _The White Cliffs_ by Alice Duer Miller, _You Can’t Do Business
with Hitler_ by Douglas S. Miller, _Victory Through Air Power_ by Major
Alexander P. de Seversky, _They Were Expendable_ by W. L. White, _One
World_ by Wendell L. Willkie, _Strange Fruit_ by Lillian Smith, _I Chose
Freedom_ by Victor Kravchenko, _Gentleman’s Agreement_ by Laura Z.
Hobson, _Kingsblood Royal_ by Sinclair Lewis, _The Wall_ by John Hersey,
_Witness_ by Whittaker Chambers, _But We Were Born Free_ by Elmer Davis,
_Why Johnny Can’t Read_ by Rudolf Flesch and _Year of Decisions_ by
Harry S. Truman. There are many books which have added new words and
phrases to the American language: _The Virginian_, _Pollyanna_, _Over
the Top_, _Main Street_, _Babbitt_, _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_, _Back
Street_, _Life Begins at Forty_, _Mr. Chips_, _Lost Horizon_, _The
Hucksters_, _The Snake Pit_, and _The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit_.
Some are known by more people because their titles are the titles of
songs: _The Trail of the Lonesome Pine_, _The Rosary_, _In Flanders
Fields_, _The Sheik_, _Stars Fell on Alabama_, _My Sister and I_, and
_The Last Time I Saw Paris_.
Of interest to publishers is the number of titles on the annual list
that specific firms have issued. The leaders are Doubleday (with
predecessor firms), 89; Harper, 80; Houghton Mifflin, 46; Scribner, 43;
Little, Brown, 41; Bobbs-Merrill (with predecessor firms) and Macmillan,
40 each; Appleton-Century-Crofts (with predecessor firms), 39; Simon and
Schuster, 31; Lippincott (with Stokes), 23; and Dodd Mead, 20. With one
exception all these houses were founded in the nineteenth century. Simon
and Schuster is the youngest, and its 31 best sellers appear only on the
annual lists since 1924. The authors who have had the most titles on the
sixty annual lists are Mary Roberts Rinehart with eleven; Sinclair
Lewis with ten; Zane Grey and Booth Tarkington with nine each; and Louis
Bromfield, Winston Churchill (the American novelist), George Barr
McCutcheon, Gene Stratton Porter, and Frank Yerby with eight each. In
the first twenty years, 1895-1914, the authors who appeared most
frequently were George Barr McCutcheon, with eight titles; Winston
Churchill with seven, and Mary Johnston and Sir Gilbert Parker with five
each. In the period 1915-1934, Zane Grey led with nine titles. He was
followed by Warwick Deeping, Sinclair Lewis, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and
Booth Tarkington, with seven each, and by Coningsby Dawson, Eleanor H.
Porter, Gene Stratton Porter, and H. G. Wells with five each. In the
past twenty years, the authors having most titles on the lists are Frank
Yerby with eight; Daphne du Maurier, John P. Marquand and John Steinbeck
with six each; and Thomas B. Costain, A. J. Cronin, Lloyd C. Douglas,
John Gunther, James Hilton, and Frances Parkinson Keyes with five each.
The authors whose books have covered the longest span on all the lists
are: Ellen Glasgow, whose first best seller appeared on the 1904 list
and her last on the 1935 list; Edna Ferber, 1924 and 1952; Mary Roberts
Rinehart, 1909 and 1936; Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1896 and 1922;
Sinclair Lewis, 1921 and 1947; and Louis Bromfield, 1927 and 1945.
As I have said, literary criticism does not enter into this book; it is
a guide to the past and present, and, for those looking toward future
best sellers, a starting-point for speculation. It is wise to bear in
mind Samuel Butler’s statement: “There are some things which it is
madness not to try to know but where it is almost as much madness to try
to know. Sometimes publishers hoping to buy the Holy Ghost with a price,
fee a man to read for them and advise them. This is but as the vain
tossing of insomnia. God will not have any human being know what will
sell.” Years ago the formula for a best seller was summed up as
Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog--because books about Lincoln, about doctors and
about dogs are always popular. Today the title might be amended to How
to Be Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog’s Psychiatrist. Or the writer might follow
the caption for a drawing by Alan Dunn in the _New Yorker_, “It can’t
miss, J. G.! The author got disillusioned with Communism, escaped from
behind the Iron Curtain, came to the United States, lived on a
sharecropper’s farm in Georgia, spent a year in a state insane asylum,
turned to religion, and now is a monk.”
What best sellers of today will become the classics of tomorrow? Malcolm
Cowley has pointed out, in an article in the _New Republic_ (Dec. 22,
1947), “Classics and Best Sellers,” the distinction between a classic (a
book admired by intelligent readers through several generations) and a
best seller (a book purchased by many readers in one generation). The
terms, he says, “are not mutually exclusive--a best seller may become a
classic in time, as happened with Dickens’ novels.” In order to try to
find out how many of the books on the early years’ lists were at all
familiar to today’s young generation, I read the titles and authors’
names to several recent college graduates. Only the most obvious authors
were known to most of them, and extremely few titles. The lists were
also tried out on freshman English composition classes in a New England
college, with equally negative results. I quote from a letter written by
the teacher of the classes. “These students are almost completely
ignorant of the best sellers you have listed. Occasionally the name of
an author may remind them of something they’ve heard their parents
discuss. In some cases, they had heard the name of the book, but knew
nothing of the author, e.g., _Seventeen_, _If Winter Comes_, _Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes_.... Generally the best sellers of yesterday are a dead
issue to the college freshman of today. The one exception is _Gone With
the Wind_ which has had a slight renaissance since the movie was
reissued.... My concern is not that these students are ignorant of the
best sellers of yesteryear, but that most of them know nothing about
contemporary American and English literature. Their ignorance is
appalling! Many have read nothing by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Eugene
O’Neill, Faulkner, Maugham, Hilton, Shaw, etc. A few have read _From
Here to Eternity_ and some are at least familiar with the titles of book
club books that they have seen around their homes. In school they may
have read _Arrowsmith_, but they have never heard of Dreiser, Edith
Wharton, Booth Tarkington, Winston Churchill, Willa Cather, or
practically anyone since Mark Twain.”
To relate the material, the facts and figures of this present book up to
1950, to their historical and sociological background, I heartily
recommend the reading of James D. Hart’s _The Popular Book_ (Oxford
University Press, 1950). For a final word on the whole business of best
sellers I quote from his concluding paragraphs. “If a student of taste
wants to know the thoughts and feelings of the majority who lived during
Franklin Pierce’s administration, he will find more positive value in
Maria Cummins’s _The Lamplighter_ or T. S. Arthur’s _Ten Nights in a
Bar-Room_ than he will in Thoreau’s _Walden_--all books published in
1854. The mores and manners prevailing in the year of the Teapot Dome
scandal can better be extrapolated from Gertrude Atherton’s _Black Oxen_
than from Wallace Stevens’s _Harmonium_. The book that time judges to be
great is occasionally also the book popular in its own period; but, by
and large, the longer-lived work reflects the demands of the moment only
in the most general sense. Usually the book that is popular pleases the
reader because it is shaped by the same forces that mold his non-reading
hours, so that its dispositions and convictions, its language and
subject, re-create the sense of the present, to die away as soon as that
present becomes the past. Books of that sort generally are unreadable
for succeeding ages; but like other fragments of the past, they help
form the present. The volumes themselves may gather dust on library
shelves, but they have left lasting impression on the American mind,
etched deeply into a national consciousness.”
BEST SELLERS
1895-1955
This overall list of best sellers includes books published in the United
States from 1895 through 1955, which have, over sixty years, sold one
million copies or more. Most of them have appeared in many different
editions and in both hardbound and paperbound format. Many have been
sold by book clubs, on newsstands, and by mail as well as through
bookstores. Most of the titles, with some notable exceptions, represent
the most popular reading habit, that is, reading for entertainment.
Pamphlets are not included in the list, nor are dictionaries,
encyclopedias, atlases, editions of the Bible, hymnals, prayer books,
manuals, textbooks, and certain other books, such as game and novelty
books. Best sellers in these specialized fields are, in general, covered
under other headings. Children’s books are included when they are
primarily juvenile novels and not picture or game books.
Publishers’ names are not given because most of the books have been
published by at least two firms and sometimes by five or six or even
more. The date of original publication in this country follows the
author’s name. “F” indicates fiction, “J” juveniles. Many of the titles
listed as juveniles were originally published as adult books, but
changing taste has now definitely placed them in the category of
juvenile reading, and they are so indicated in accordance with modern
standards.
Three hundred and six titles make up this list of books which have sold
over 1,000,000 copies in the years since 1895. In the original edition
of the present book a somewhat comparable list appeared, an overall
best-seller list of books which had sold 500,000 copies or more in the
years from 1895 through 1945. There were only 143 titles on that list.
The enormous increase in both number of best-selling books, and in sales
is due not only to the normal increase in the number of new titles
issued in the years since 1945 but in much greater part to the increase
in the production and distribution of paperbound books and to the big
jump in book club sales during the years immediately after World War II.
This revolution in the make-up of the overall best-seller list has
resulted in the elimination of most of the popular books that first
appeared in the years up to 1930. There are only 14 titles on the list
that were published in the years between 1916 and 1930. Some of the most
popular authors of the early part of this century like the novelist
Winston Churchill, whose historical tales were the best sellers of
almost every year from 1901 through 1915, and Harold Bell Wright and
Gene Stratton Porter, whose names predominated on the earlier list, have
all but disappeared from this one. On the other hand, the paperback
editions are responsible for the inclusion on this list of many of the
books of twenty or so years ago which never had extremely large sales in
their hardback editions--books by authors like Erskine Caldwell, Thorne
Smith, William Faulkner, and Paul De Kruif. It is the paperbacks, too,
that have created the large sales for the many detective and western
stories that appear here. _In His Steps_, _Gone with the Wind_, and _How
to Win Friends and Influence People_ are still right at the top. Some of
the older favorites are still here, but much farther down the list than
they were, such titles as _Pollyanna_, _The Rosary_, _The Little
Shepherd of Kingdom Come_, and _The Sheik_. One hundred and eighteen of
these 306 books have been published since 1945, and 43 of them since
1950.
F In His Steps, by Charles Monroe Sheldon. 1897 (est.) 8,000,000
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, by
Benjamin Spock. 1946 7,850,000
F God’s Little Acre, by Erskine Caldwell. 1933 6,582,553
Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. 1930 5,806,586
F Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. 1937 5,000,000
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale
Carnegie. 1937 4,877,511
F I, the Jury, by Mickey Spillane. 1947 4,441,837
F The Big Kill, by Mickey Spillane. 1951 4,158,840
A Message to Garcia, by Elbert Hubbard. 1898 (est.) 4,000,000
F My Gun Is Quick, by Mickey Spillane. 1950 3,912,419
The Pocket Cook Book, by Elizabeth Woody. 1942 3,800,000
F The Long Wait, by Mickey Spillane. 1951 3,774,374
F Kiss Me, Deadly, by Mickey Spillane. 1952 3,773,045
F One Lonely Night, by Mickey Spillane. 1951 3,737,882
F Vengeance Is Mine! by Mickey Spillane. 1950 3,649,500
The Greatest Story Ever Told, by Fulton Oursler.
1949 3,580,570
Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book. 1950 3,500,000
F Journeyman, by Erskine Caldwell. 1935 3,490,703
The American Woman’s Cook Book, ed. by Ruth
Berolzheimer. 1938 3,400,000
F Tragic Ground, by Erskine Caldwell. 1944 3,395,197
F The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham. 1944 3,221,843
F Tobacco Road, by Erskine Caldwell. 1932 3,168,321
The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, by Fannie
Farmer. 1896. Ninth ed. by Wilma Lord Perkins. 1951 3,058,778
The Story of the Bible, by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut. 1904 3,000,000
F From Here to Eternity, by James Jones. 1951 2,996,435
F The Chinese Room, by Vivian Connell. 1942 2,919,484
F A House in the Uplands, by Erskine Caldwell. 1946 2,871,332
F Duel in the Sun, by Niven Busch. 1944 2,850,347
J The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.
1900 2,830,049
F The Case of the Lucky Legs, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
1934 2,744,413
The Service Cook Book, by Ida Bailey Allen. 1933 2,750,000
F See Here, Private Hargrove, by Marion Hargrove.
1942 2,693,000
F The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas. 1942 2,674,951
F The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk. 1954 2,589,763
F Not as a Stranger, by Morton Thompson. 1954 2,575,000
F Topper, by Thorne Smith. 1926 2,557,806
F A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. 1943 2,539,000
F Trouble in July, by Erskine Caldwell. 1940 2,524,233
F Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and
James Norman Hall. 1932 2,523,846
F Georgia Boy, by Erskine Caldwell. 1943 2,488,616
F Pocket Book of Short Stories, ed. by M. E. Speare.
1941 2,438,000
F So Well Remembered, by James Hilton. 1945 2,402,225
Betty Crocker’s Good and Easy Cookbook. 1954 2,400,000
F The Golden Hawk, by Frank Yerby. 1948 2,384,663
F Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. 1938 2,358,468
F Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor. 1944 2,348,400
F The Case of the Curious Bride, by Erle Stanley 2,315,388
Gardner. 1934
F B.F.’s Daughter, by John P. Marquand. 1946 2,309,124
F The Sure Hand of God, by Erskine Caldwell. 1947 2,245,719
F The Silver Chalice, by Thomas B. Costain. 1952 2,236,004
F Kitty, by Rosamond Marshall. 1943 2,234,974
F The Glorious Pool, by Thorne Smith. 1934 2,227,945
F The Amboy Dukes, by Irving Shulman. 1947 2,213,167
F Tales of the South Pacific, by James Michener. 1947 2,208,270
F The Case of the Sulky Girl, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
1933 2,184,168
F Battle Cry, by Leon M. Uris. 1953 2,178,000
F Dinner at Antoine’s, by Frances Parkinson Keyes.
1948 2,142,000
F The Black Rose, by Thomas B. Costain. 1945 2,129,442
F Lost Horizon, by James Hilton. 1935 2,128,864
F Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger. 1947 2,127,969
The Pocket Book of Verse, ed. by M. E. Speare. 1940 2,127,000
F The Case of the Lame Canary, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1937 2,119,362
F Pocket Book of Erskine Caldwell Stories, ed. by
Henry Seidel Canby. 1947 2,107,000
J Freckles, by Gene Stratton Porter. 1904 2,089,523
I’ll Cry Tomorrow, by Lillian Roth, Mike Connolly
and Jerold Frank. 1954 2,075,000
F The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1937 2,073,589
F The Passionate Witch, by Thorne Smith. 1941 2,070,645
The Song of Our Syrian Guest, by William Allen
Knight. 1903 2,070,500
The Outline of History, by H. G. Wells. 1921 2,070,170
F Strange Fruit, by Lillian Smith. 1944 2,066,070
J The Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton Porter.
1909 2,053,892
F The Case of the Substitute Face, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1938 2,040,167
F Magnificent Obsession, by Lloyd C. Douglas. 1929 2,038,576
F Women’s Barracks, by Tereska Torres. 1950 2,036,048
F Leave Her to Heaven, by Ben Ames Williams. 1944 2,031,210
F The Case of the Baited Hook, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1940 2,023,489
F The Case of the Stuttering Bishop, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1936 2,019,162
The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent
Peale. 1952 2,000,000
F The Case of the Counterfeit Eye, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1935 1,980,198
F Giant, by Edna Ferber. 1952 1,889,001
F The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer. 1948 1,876,000
F Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck. 1945 (est.) 1,873,000
The Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer. 1931 (The
New Joy of Cooking, with Marion Rombauer Becker
1951) 1,855,434
F The Case of the Caretaker’s Cat, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1935 1,879,792
F This Is Murder, by Erle Stanley Gardner. 1935 1,868,039
F The Case of the Velvet Claws, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1933 1,863,346
F Nevada, by Zane Grey. 1928 1,834,116
F The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece, by Erle
Stanley Gardner. 1936 1,814,946
F The Bishop’s Jaegers, by Thorne Smith. 1932 1,814,649
F The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. 1931 1,811,500
F House of Flesh, by Bruno Fischer. 1950 1,800,212
F Désirée, by Annemarie Selinko. 1953 1,770,826
30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary, by Wilfred J.
Funk and Norman Lewis. 1942 1,766,454
Better Homes and Gardens Baby Book. 1943 1,766,284
F The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1944 1,764,784
One World, by Wendell L. Willkie. 1943 1,756,760
F The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. 1903 1,752,500
Jailbait, by William Bernard, 1949 1,750,000
F The Clue of the Forgotten Murder, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1935 1,737,780
You Are What You Eat, by Victor H. Lindlahr. 1940 1,730,000
F Impatient Virgin, by Donald Henderson Clarke. 1931 1,702,500
F The Case of the Haunted Husband, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1941 1,695,359
F The Wayward Bus, by John Steinbeck. 1947 1,687,000
F The Wild Palms, by William Faulkner. 1939 1,678,000
F Adventures of Ellery Queen. 1934 1,676,000
The Greatest Book Ever Written, by Fulton Oursler.
1951 1,674,438
F The Foxes of Harrow, by Frank Yerby. 1946 1,671,697
J Facts of Life and Love for Teen-Agers, by Evelyn
Willis Duvall. 1950 1,670,000
F A Woman in the House, by Erskine Caldwell. 1949 1,623,630
F The Virginian, by Owen Wister. 1902 1,623,000
F This Very Earth, by Erskine Caldwell. 1948 1,611,798
F The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter. 1911 1,611,007
F The New Adventures of Ellery Queen. 1940 1,603,000
F The Spanish Cape Mystery, by Ellery Queen. 1935 1,603,000
F Mr. Roberts, by Thomas Heggen. 1946 1,599,779
F The Song of Bernadette, by Franz Werfel. 1942 1,594,000
F The Case of the Howling Dog, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1934 1,593,199
J Laddie, by Gene Stratton Porter. 1913 1,586,529
F Strange Woman, by Ben Ames Williams. 1941 1,581,973
F The Chinese Orange Mystery, by Ellery Queen. 1934 1,565,000
F Pride’s Castle, by Frank Yerby. 1949 1,559,203
F Mother, by Kathleen Norris. 1911 1,553,792
F Yankee Pasha, by Edison Marshall. 1947 1,550,000
F Christmas Holiday, by W. Somerset Maugham. 1939 1,546,793
F Duke, by Hal Ellson. 1949 1,540,000
F The Vixens, by Frank Yerby. 1947 1,524,123
F The Case of the Borrowed Brunette, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1946 1,537,214
F The Case of the Buried Clock, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1943 1,530,206
Analysis of the Kinsey Reports on Sexual Behavior in
the Human Male and Female, ed. by Donald P. Geddes.
1954 1,519,380
F The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1943 1,510,245
In Tune with the Infinite, by Ralph Waldo Trine.
1897 1,507,314
Pocket Book of Cartoons, ed. by Bennett Cerf. 1943 1,507,000
F The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1938 1,506,660
F The Dutch Shoe Mystery, by Ellery Queen. 1931 1,506,000
F The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie.
1926 (est.) 1,500,000
F The Case of the Gold Digger’s Purse, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1945 1,492,948
F Floodtide, by Frank Yerby. 1950 1,492,413
Dear Sir, by Juliet Lowell. 1944 1,488,097
F Random Harvest, by James Hilton. 1941 1,476,460
F Young Lonigan, by James T. Farrell. 1932 1,475,311
F No Time for Sergeants, by Mac Hyman. 1954 1,473,400
F The Case of the Cautious Coquette, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1949 1,465,537
F Spring Fire, by Vin Packer. 1952 1,463,917
Believe It or Not, ed. by Robert L. Ripley. 1941 1,457,000
F Mr. Adam, by Pat Frank. 1946 1,445,156
F Duchess Hotspur, by Rosamond Marshall. 1946 1,440,668
F Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain. 1941 1,436,252
F The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain.
1934 1,435,000
F Lord Johnnie, by Leslie Turner White. 1949 1,432,000
F Serenade, by James M. Cain. 1937 1,428,765
F Green Dolphin Street, by Elizabeth Goudge. 1944 1,425,000
F All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria
Remarque. 1929 1,424,231
F The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1945 1,424,228
Pocket Book of War Humor, ed. by Bennett Cerf. 1943 1,422,000
F The River Road, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1946 1,421,000
F Calamity Town, by Ellery Queen. 1942 1,412,000
F Bedelia, by Vera Caspary. 1945 1,409,790
F The Case of the Turning Tide, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1941 1,408,319
F Cry Tough! by Irving Shulman. 1949 1,407,447
F The D.A. Calls It Murder, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
1937 1,407,310
F The Royal Box, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1954 1,406,000
F The Case of the Silent Partner, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1940 1,402,931
F Lydia Bailey, by Kenneth Roberts. 1947 1,400,616
Dennis the Menace, by Hank Ketcham. 1952 1,400,000
F A Swell Looking Girl, by Erskine Caldwell. 1950 1,397,583
Pocket Book of Boners. 1943 1,387,000
F A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. 1929 1,383,000
F The Case of the Empty Tin, by Erle Stanley Gardner
1941 1,377,388
F The Case of the Rolling Bones, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1939 1,368,767
F A Place Called Estherville, by Erskine Caldwell. 1949 1,368,066
F The Golden Fury, by Marian Castle. 1949 1,363,909
F Murder Up My Sleeve, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
1938 1,359,975
J Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas
Wiggin. 1904 1,357,714
F Knock on Any Door, by Willard Motley. 1947 (est.) 1,355,045
F The Revolt of Mamie Stover, by William Bradford
Huie. 1951 1,355,000
F The King’s General, by Daphne du Maurier. 1946 1,354,982
F The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson.
1955 1,350,000
F Joy Street, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1950 1,349,000
F The Tormented, by Theodore Pratt. 1950 1,344,912
F The Damned, by John D. MacDonald. 1952 1,335,768
F Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence.
1932 (est.) 1,329,228
F The Spirit of the Border, by Zane Grey. 1906 1,325,000
F Sanctuary, by William Faulkner. 1931 1,322,214
F The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, by James T.
Farrell. 1934 1,318,075
F Rampart Street, by Everett and Olga Webber. 1948 1,318,000
F Annie Jordan, by Mary Brinker Post. 1948 1,315,455
I Never Left Home, by Bob Hope. 1944 1,308,094
A Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall. 1951 1,303,000
F The Bigger They Come, by A. A. Fair. 1939 1,295,319
More Dennis the Menace, by Hank Ketcham. 1953 1,290,208
F The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, by John Fox, Jr. 1908 1,285,000
F The Saracen Blade, by Frank Yerby. 1952 1,284,042
F Came a Cavalier, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1947 1,279,000
F This Side of Innocence, by Taylor Caldwell. 1946 1,276,000
F The Case of the Crooked Candle, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1944 1,273,775
My Flag Is Down, by James Maresca. 1948 1,261,000
F Before the Sun Goes Down, by Elizabeth M. Howard.
1946 1,260,725
F Golden Sleep, by Vivian Connell. 1948 1,258,675
F The Cautious Amorist, by Norman Lindsay. 1932 1,253,793
Five Acres and Independence, by M. G. Kains. 1935 1,250,000
F Steamboat Gothic, by Frances Parkinson Keyes. 1952 1,247,000
F The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett. 1934 1,243,445
F Cocotte, by Theodore Pratt. 1951 1,237,773
F The Four of Hearts, by Ellery Queen. 1938 1,235,000
Washington Confidential, by Jack Lait and Lee
Mortimer. 1951 1,235,000
F The Crisis, by Winston Churchill. 1901 1,232,380
F Singing Guns, by Max Brand. 1938 1,229,000
F Farewell My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler. 1940 1,228,880
F The Citadel, by A. J. Cronin. 1941 1,228,797
F Hill Girl, by Charles Williams. 1951 1,226,890
F Gentleman’s Agreement, by Laura Z. Hobson. 1947 1,221,986
F Mrs. Miniver, by Jan Struther. 1940 1,218,849
F The Case of the Perjured Parrot, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1939 1,212,047
F Pocket Book of Modern American Short Stories, ed. by
Philip Van Doren Stern. 1943 1,205,000
The Microbe Hunters, by Paul De Kruif. 1926 1,202,913
F 13 French Street, by Gil Brewer. 1952 1,200,365
Love Without Fear, by Eustace Chesser. 1947 1,200,320
F The Best of Damon Runyon, ed. by E. C. Bentley.
1938 1,200,190
F David Harum, by Edward Noyes Westcott. 1900 1,200,000
F Midsummer Passions. 1948 1,200,000
The Settlement Cook Book, by Mrs. Simon Kander.
1930 1,200,000
Sex Habits of American Women, by Fritz
Wittels. 1951 1,200,000
F The Shepherd of the Hills, by Harold Bell Wright.
1907 1,200,000
F The Sheik, by E. M. Hull, 1921 1,194,000
F Michael O’Halloran, by Gene Stratton Porter. 1915 1,194,440
F The Egyptian Cross Mystery, by Ellery Queen. 1932 1,194,000
F The Case of the Lonely Heiress, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1948 1,193,009
F The D.A. Draws a Circle, by Erle Stanley Gardner.
1939 1,192,862
F The Case of the Drowning Duck, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1942 1,188,293
F Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse. 1924 1,183,063
F The Case of the Smoking Chimney, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1943 1,181,877
F The Young Lions, by Irwin Shaw. 1948 1,173,730
F The Case of the Backward Mule, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1946 1,164,181
Cartoon Laffs. True Magazine. 1952 1,162,375
F The Siamese Twin Mystery, by Ellery Queen. 1933 1,161,000
F Destry Rides Again, by Max Brand. 1930 1,158,000
F The Case of the Careless Kitten, by Erle Stanley
Gardner. 1942 1,153,876
A House Is Not a Home, by Polly Adler. 1953 1,150,000
J The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper. 1929 1,149,633
F The Turquoise, by Anya Seton. 1946 1,149,487
F 1984, by George Orwell. 1949 1,146,731
F The Tragedy of X, by Barnaby Ross. 1932 1,142,000
F Sangaree, by Frank G. Slaughter. 1948 1,138,891
F Halfway House, by Ellery Queen. 1936 1,138,000
F The Cardinal, by Henry Morton Robinson. 1950 1,136,817
F The Night Life of the Gods, by Thorne Smith. 1931 1,133,614
F Peony, by Pearl S. Buck. 1948 1,133,000
F And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie.
1940 1,128,776
F Darling, It’s Death, by Richard Prather. 1952 1,125,112
F The Street, by Ann Petry. 1946 1,124,811
The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald. 1945 (est.) 1,125,000
F Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan. 1955 1,120,000
Peace of Mind, by Joshua L. Liebman. 1946 1,102,364
F I Have Gloria Kirby, by Richard Himmel. 1951 1,100,617
Kon-Tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl. 1950 1,100,000