1959

I've selected 1959, because this is the beginning of my high school years, and was almost becoming aware of adult fiction. The top ten are from Bowker's Annual/Publisher's Weekly.

1. Exodus by Leon Uris, 625 own this with 6 reviews.

2. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 1403 owners with 11 reviews. It was ranked #1 in 1958. I own, but have not read, although my wife did.

3. Hawaii by James Michener, 579 owners with 4 reviews. This was also ranked 2nd in 1960. We do not own, but we both read this ages ago.

4. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury, 151 owners with 2 reviews. Was #1 in 1960. The first current adult fiction I read in high school.

5. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, 2185 owners with 18 reviews. Own.

6. The Ugly American by William J Lederer and Eugene L Burdick, 209 owners with 2 reviews. I remember hearing teachers talk about this book, and imploring us not to be like the charactes in the book. The teacher's comment had an impact, but I never did read the book.

7. Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell, 108 owners with 1 review. There is one more book with the same title but no author listing, but with a cover showing Taylor Caldwell's name.

8. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 6,128 owners with 70 reviews. I saw the movie in college, so I thought I didn't have to read the book! NOne of my parents or teachers told me about this book or #5 while in high school.

9. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico, 68 owners with 1 review.

10. Poor No More by Robert Ruark, 7 owners, no reviews. Ruark is better known for Uhuru a novel of Africa Today (39 owners) and Something of Value (35 owners).

Well you can definitely already notice a difference based on recent-ness. I've at least heard of all but one of these books - I could only claim to have heard of (and read) 3 of the books from the 1940 list. I wonder how much of an impact the depression had on the lastingness of books from the 40s - if people couldn't afford to buy them...

Some 1959 fiction award winners

Pulitzer- TheTravels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor.

National Book Award- The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud.

Hugo- Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.

Edgar- The Grey Flannel Shroud by Henry Sleasar.

Booker, Nebula, PEN/Faulkner and others not yet on the scene.

How far back can best sellers be tracked?

I've read Lolita and Lady Chatterley's Lover. The only award winner I heard of was starship troopers. This is fun to see what has stood up to 50 years in the publishing world.

I've seen bestseller lists back to 1900. The number one book in that year was "To Have and to Hold" by Mary Johnston.

The Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1959 was the Italian, Salvatore Quasimodo, known for "Nuovie Poesie" (1942). His "Selected Poems" is owned by 11 people. Of course, the Nobel Prize has almost nothing to do with any year's best sellers.

Mary Johnston's, "To Have and to Hold" (from 1900) is owned by 20 people.

Along with topping the charts, Lady Chatterley's Lover made a court appearance in 1959 in the USA because the postal authorities refused to mail it (to book club members and so forth) on the grounds that it was obscene.
In 1960, England also took Lady Chatterley to court; the late Sybille Bedford covered this criminal proceeding, The Crown v. Penguin Books Limited, and wrote a howlingly funny series of articles about the trial for Esquire. (The prosecution was obliged, during its lengthy harangues against "filth," to holler again and again the very words it found filthy!)

To have & to hold was made into a movie. It was also re-issued in paperback -- I read it in the 1950's. it was a really good historical novel about the settlement of early Virginia.

read the following;
1. Exodus by Leon Uris just finnished reading Armageddon; a novel of Berlin which was excellant
2. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
3. Hawaii by James Michener
4. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
5. Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell. She is another author that is not well read today. She steped on alot of toes and alot of scared cows in her day.

I just saw Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris on the sale shelf at the library yesterday! I like Paul Gallico, but wasn't especially fond of Mrs. 'Arris. I've read a lot of the others though -- used to read Lady Chatterly in high school for the racy bits. I expect it would seem pretty tame now!

None. But I don't feel bad about it.

I read Lolita recently, and was impressed by the language.

Exodus and Hawaii for me. I think Exodus really launched Uris' career. Enjoyed both books very much. Like aviddiva, looked for the racy parts in Lady Chatterley's Lover until my uncle found out and teased me about the book being missing from the shelf in the office.

NON-FICTION 1959 USA

We talked on another thread about spicing things up with other sorts of lists, so here you go.

1. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Pat Boone 24 copies on LT (and he can sing too)

2. Folk Medicine, D. C. Jarvis 73 copies

3. For 2¢ Plain, Harry Golden 18 copies

4. The Status Seekers, Vance Packard 65 copies

5. Act One: An Autobiography, Moss Hart 77 copies

6. Charley Weaver's Letters from Mamma, Cliff Arquette 3 copies

7. The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White 5,867 copies

8. The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook 20 copies

9. Only in America, Harry Golden 32 copies

10. Mine Enemy Grows Older, Alexander King 11 copies

Some real classics here. Who doesn't have Strunk & White? Trying to redirect touchstones.

I remember reading For 2 cents plain; essays (Bingo on the Touchstone) - I went and copied the title from the quthor page. Golden was a Southern Jew which gave him an interesting and funny perspective on things.

Wasn't the prescription in Folk Medicine either for honey or for Apple Cider Vinegar, depending on the ailment? Gosh, I tried Touchstoning 'apple cider vinegar' and then came up with a book that proves Jarvis remedies are right!

I didn't read Moss Hart's autobiography, but years later I did read that of Kitty Carlisle Hart, the wife of Moss Hart. It was titled: Kitty: An Autobiography -- I don't remember her using the "Hart" name much. Moss died only in 1961, at the age of 57.

Well of course I've read The Elements of Style many times, my only gripe being that it's almost fanatical. If all you did was follow White, your prose would be pretty dull.

I read Lolita. Can't say that I liked it or would recommend it. I guess you could call it dark comedy, of the darkest kind, with a moral backbone -- because no one escapes the consequences of their actions. I was disappointed to learn, in high school, college and grad school, that relationships between teachers and much younger students happened at all, let alone with the frequency that they appeared to. Nabokov is laughing at these people. I never thought I would see these situations so often in real life.

I've read all of the fiction and 7 of the non-fiction, have read Hawaii 3 times over the years, but only read Dear and Glorious Physician about 2 years ago and it was terrific. The Ruark novel Poor No More wasn't one of his best either, and I much preferred Something of Value, still a very exciting novel. I highly recommend Moss Hart's Act One which is one of the most entertaining show-biz memoirs ever written.

I own The elements of Style - cant say I've read it yet.

Other than than, Ive read nothing on the list

I've read Doctor Zhivago, Advise and Consent and Lolita. I own Only in America but haven't read it yet.

I just stumbled across this one. The number one best selling book in Canada for 1959 was The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler. 575 copies on LT.

Never read the book. Terrific movie, though. Richard Dreyfus' first starring role, I believe.

I thought his first starring role was in American Graffiti. Or was he just a secondary character? I haven't seen it since it came out, so my memory on this is rusty.

In the UK, the following won awards that year:

Patrick Lee Fermor, Mani

Patrick White, Voss - though I think this had originally been published a couple of years previously

Angus Wilson, The Middle Age of Mrs Elliot

>24 geneg:

Dreyfuss and Ron Howard were the main male characters in American Graffiti circa 1973.

24 & 26> Yeah, you guys are right. American Graffiti was in 1973 and Duddy Kravitz in 1974, at least according to Wikipedia. Dreyfuss was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" for American Graffiti, so we'd certainly have to call it a starring rather than a supporting role. I was amused to see that on the Wikipedia filmography for Dreyfuss, his first two screen appearances, both in 1967, are listed as

Valley of the Dolls - Assistant stage manager - uncredited
The Graduate - Boarding House Resident - uncredited

Anyway, I'd forgotten entirely that Dreyfuss was in American Graffiti. Good catch!

does anyone know a website that i can view books online for free. im doing a research project on the children of god cult but need more resources!!!! help pls notes due this tuesday.....thanks

I bought the new Bloomsbury Group reprint of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and Mrs. Harris Goes to New York last week. Looking forward to reading it in a couple of months.

I've just started reading Advise and Consent. Actually, it's a re-read for me, but I first read it so long ago that I remember essentially nothing of it.

Looking again at the 10 top fiction books for 1959, one can see that the typical book has 3½ times as many owners now, than 4½ years ago:

1. Exodus. 2231 copies with 24 reviews
2. Dr. Zhivago. 5246 copies with 54 reviews
3. Hawaii. 1961 copies with 17 reviews
4. Advise and Consent. 497 copies with 6 reviews
5. Lady Chatterly's lover. 7160 copies with 73 reviews.
6. The Ugly American. 703 copies with 7 reviews.
7. Dear and Glorious Physician. 471 copies with 4 reviews.
8. Lolita. 18252 copies with 243 reviews.
9. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris. 339 copies with 4 reviews.
10. Poor No More. 50 copies -- still no reviews.

Obviously a good number of these books have stood the test of time. As the originator of this thread, I know that there have been some years where almost none of the books are being read (or kept) today.

#31> Interesting! Of course that's also a testament to the growth of Library Thing, but the two ideas are certainly not mutually exclusive.

I tried reading Exodus in high school, but think it was a little over my head at the time so gave it up. I just remember reading up to where a blonde Jewish girl was on a boat and another fellow was listening to his neighbors making love through the walls. Does it count if you've seen the movie version of these? :) Dr. Zhivago made me have a crush on Omar Sharif. I hated the movie version of Hawaii and Julie Andrews' husband. The girth of the book was too daunting. I did read Lady C.'s lover and expected it to be really racy but by current standards it's positively tame. I was forced to read The Ugly American in high school and regret that American behavior is still pretty ugly. I liked Lolita for the beauty of the language and believe it might have been my first real experience with an unreliable narrator. Nabokov's characters as a whole are just so loathesome I've never been able to finish another of his books. Started Ada and put it down. The same with King, Queen, Knave and Pale Fire. Just not to my taste.

Wow - Zhivago, Chatterley and Lolita all made the list in 1959 and are considered classics today. You don't always get that kind of overlap with bestsellers. Loved Michener's Hawaii, but it hasn't earned the same status.