Here are the Biggest Fiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years
(And What Everyone Read Instead)
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Henry Morton Robinson, The Cardinal
2. Frances Parkinson Keyes, Joy Street
3. Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and into the Trees
4. John Hersey, The Wall
5. Kathleen Winsor, Star Money
6. Daphne du Maurier, The Parasites
7. Frank Yerby, Floodtide
8. Gwen Bristow, Jubilee Trail
9. Mika Waltari, The Adventurer
10. Budd Schulberg, The Disenchanted
Also published that year:
Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. James Jones, From Here to Eternity
2. Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny
3. Sholem Asch, Moses
4. Henry Morton Robinson, The Cardinal
5. Frank Yerby, A Woman Called Fancy
6. Nicholas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea
7. John P. Marquand, Melville Goodwin, U.S.A.
8. James A. Michener, Return to Paradise
9. Cardinal Spellman, The Foundling
10. Mika Waltari, The Wanderer
Also published that year:
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha (English translation)
J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Thomas B. Costain, The Silver Chalice
2. Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny
3. John Steinbeck, East of Eden
4. Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel
5. Frances Parkinson Keyes, Steamboat Gothic
6. Edna Ferber, Giant
7. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
8. Agnes Sligh Turnbull, The Gown of Glory
9. Frank Yerby, The Saracen Blade
10. Howard Spring, The Houses in Between
Also published that year:
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt
Bernard Malamud, The Natural
Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood
Barbara Pym, Excellent Women
Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Lloyd C. Douglas, The Robe
2. Thomas B. Costain, The Silver Chalice
3. Annemarie Selinko, Désirée
4. Leon M. Uris, Battle Cry
5. James Jones, From Here to Eternity
6. Ernest K. Gann, The High and the Mighty
7. A. J. Cronin, Beyond This Place
8. James Hilton, Time and Time Again
9. Samuel Shellabarger, Lord Vanity
10. Ben Ames Williams, The Unconquered
Also published that year:
James Baldwin, Go Tell it on the Mountain
Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
William S. Burroughs, Junky
Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale
J. D. Salinger, Nine Stories
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Morton Thompson, Not as a Stranger
2. Daphne du Maurier, Mary Anne
3. Irving Stone, Love Is Eternal
4. Frances Parkinson Keyes, The Royal Box
5. Mika Waltari, The Egyptian
6. Mac Hyman, No Time for Sergeants
7. John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday
8. Hamilton Basso, The View from Pompey’s Head
9. Taylor Caldwell, Never Victorious, Never Defeated
10. Frank Yerby, Benton’s Row
Also published that year:
Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
Iris Murdoch, Under the Net
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Herman Wouk, Marjorie Morningstar
2. Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame
3. MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville
4. Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse
5. Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
6. Robert Ruark, Something of Value
7. Morton Thompson, Not As a Stranger
8. Mac Hyman, No Time for Sergeants
9. Thomas B. Costain, The Tontine
10. John O’Hara, Ten North Frederick
Also published that year:
J. P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. William Brinkley, Don’t Go Near the Water
2. Edwin O’Connor, The Last Hurrah
3. Grace Metalious, Peyton Place
4. Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame
5. Kay Thompson, Eloise
6. MacKinlay Kantor, Andersonville
7. Françoise Sagan, A Certain Smile
8. Nicholas Monsarrat, The Tribe That Lost Its Head
9. Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
10. Kenneth Roberts, Boon Island
Also published that year:
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. James Gould Cozzens, By Love Possessed
2. Grace Metalious, Peyton Place
3. Meyer Levin, Compulsion
4. Max Shulman, Rally Round the Flag, Boys!
5. Frances Parkinson Keyes, Blue Camellia
6. Kay Thompson, Eloise in Paris
7. Daphne du Maurier, The Scapegoat
8. Nevil Shute, On the Beach
9. Thomas B. Costain, Below the Salt
10. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Also published that year:
John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant
Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
2. Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Murder
3. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
4. Patrick Dennis, Around the World with Auntie Mame
5. John O’Hara, From the Terrace
6. Kay Thompson, Eloise at Christmastime
7. Edna Ferber, Ice Palace
8. Anya Seton, The Winthrop Woman
9. Jerome Weidman, The Enemy Camp
10. Frances Parkinson Keyes, Victorine
Also published that year:
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask (English translation)
Leon Uris, Exodus
T. H. White, The Once and Future King
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Leon Uris, Exodus
2. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
3. James Michener, Hawaii
4. Allen Drury, Advise and Consent
5. D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover
6. William J. Lederer and Eugene L. Burdick, The Ugly American
7. Taylor Caldwell, Dear and Glorious Physician
8. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
9. Paul Gallico, Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris
10. Robert Ruark, Poor No More
Also published that year:
Robert Bloch, Psycho
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
John Knowles, A Separate Peace
Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus
