• Here are the Biggest Nonfiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years

    (And the Books We Remember Instead)

    1960

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. D. C. Jarvis, Folk Medicine
    2. Better Homes and Gardens First Aid for Your Family
    3. The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook
    4. Alexander King, May This House Be Safe from Tigers
    5. Better Homes and Gardens Dessert Book
    6. Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Ideas
    7. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
    8. Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative
    9. Jack Paar, I Kid You Not
    10. Pat Boone, Between You, Me and the Gatepost

    Also published that year:

    Elie Wiesel, Night (English translation)

    1961

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. The New English Bible: The New Testament
    2. William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
    3. Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book
    4. Casserole Cook Book
    5. William Lederer, A Nation of Sheep
    6. Better Homes and Gardens Nutrition for Your Family
    7. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960
    8. Dr. Herman Taller, Calories Don’t Count
    9. Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cook Book: New Edition
    10. Gavin Maxwell, Ring of Bright Water

    Also published that year:

    Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking
    Jane Jacobs, The Life and Death of Great American Cities
    C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

    1962

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. Dr. Herman Taller, Calories Don’t Count
    2. The New English Bible: The New Testament
    3. Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book: New Edition
    4. Virginia Cary Hudson, O Ye Jigs & Juleps!
    5. Charles M. Schulz, Happiness Is a Warm Puppy
    6. Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking: New Edition
    7. Louis Nizer, My Life in Court
    8. Frederic Morton, The Rothschilds
    9. Helen Gurley Brown, Sex and the Single Girl
    10. John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

    Also published that year:

    Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
    Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
    Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (English translation)

    1963

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. Charles M. Schulz, Happiness Is a Warm Puppy
    2. Charles M. Schulz, Security Is a Thumb and a Blanket
    3. Victor Lasky, J.F.K.: The Man and the Myth
    4. John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage: Inaugural Edition
    5. Virginia Cary Hudson, O Ye Jigs & Juleps!
    6. Better Homes and Gardens Bread Cook Book
    7. The Pillsbury Family Cookbook
    8. Bob Hope, I Owe Russia $1200
    9. Heloise’s Housekeeping Hints
    10. Better Homes and Gardens Baby Book

    Also published that year:

    James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
    Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
    LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Blues People
    Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death

    1964

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. American Heritage and United Press International, Four Days
    2. Charles M. Schulz, I Need All the Friends I Can Get
    3. John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage: Memorial Edition
    4. John Lennon, In His Own Write
    5. Charles M. Schulz, Christmas Is Together-Time
    6. Jim Bishop, A Day in the Life of President Kennedy
    7. Bill Adler, ed., The Kennedy Wit
    8. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
    9. General Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences
    10. Mark Shaw, The John F. Kennedys

    Also published that year:

    Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics
    Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait

    1965

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. Dan Greenburg, How To Be a Jewish Mother
    2. Ruth Montgomery, A Gift of Prophecy
    3. Eric Berne, Games People Play
    4. Billy Graham, World Aflame
    5. Johnny Carson, Happiness Is a Dry Martini
    6. Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings
    7. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., A Thousand Days
    8. Bill Sands, My Shadow Ran Fast
    9. Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy
    10. Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1964

    Also published that year:

    Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land
    Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
    Ralph Nader, Unsafe at Any Speed

    Norman F. Dacey, How to Avoid Probate1966

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. Norman F. Dacey, How to Avoid Probate
    2. William Howard Masters and Virginia E. Johnston, Human Sexual Response
    3. Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
    4. Eric Berne, Games People Play
    5. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., A Thousand Days
    6. Sam Levenson, Everything but Money
    7. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language
    8. Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment
    9. Cornelius Ryan, The Last Battle
    10. Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints

    Also published that year:

    Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anais Nin Vol. 1 (expurgated version)
    Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation
    Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (English translation)

    1967

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. William Manchester, Death of a President
    2. Johnny Carson, Misery Is a Blind Date
    3. Eric Berne, Games People Play
    4. Rod McKuen, Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows
    5. Father James Kavanaugh, A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church
    6. Sam Levenson, Everything but Money
    7. Stephen Birmingham, Our Crowd
    8. Jess Stearn, Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet; Better Homes and Gardens Favorite Ways with Chicken; Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Marriage Manual (three-way tie)

    Also published that year:

    Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
    Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape
    Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto

    1968

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
    2. Laurence Urdang, ed., The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: College Edition
    3. Rod McKuen, Listen to the Warm
    4. Haim G. Ginott, Between Parent and Child
    5. Rod McKuen, Lonesome Cities
    6. Erwin M. Stillman and Samm Sinclair Baker, The Doctor’s Quick Weight Loss Diet
    7. Adam Smith, The Money Game
    8. Rod McKuen, Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows
    9. Jean Nidetch, The Weight Watcher’s Cook Book
    10. Better Homes and Gardens Eat and Stay Slim

    Also published that year:

    Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
    Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem
    James D. Watson, The Double Helix
    Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

    1969

    The best-selling nonfiction of the year:

    1. William Morris, ed., American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
    2. Rod McKuen, In Someone’s Shadow
    3. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle
    4. Dr. Haim G. Ginott, Between Parent and Teenager
    5. The Galloping Gourmet, The Graham Kerr Cookbook
    6. Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968
    7. Marjorie Craig, Miss Craig’s 21-Day Shape-Up Program for Men and Women
    8. Jeane Dixon with René Noorbergen, My Life and Prophecies
    9. Linda Goodman, Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs
    10. Rod McKuen, Twelve Years of Christmas

    Also published that year:

    Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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    Emily Temple
    Emily Temple
    Emily Temple is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020. You can buy it here.
    https://www.emilytemple.net/





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