1929

US F I C T I O N

1. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque 3,601 copies on LT

2. Dodsworth, Sinclair Lewis 129 copies

3. Dark Hester, Anne Douglas Sedgwick 1 copy

4. The Bishop Murder Case, S. S. Van Dine 46 copies

5. Roper's Row, Warwick Deeping 1 copy

6. Peder Victorious: A Tale of the Pioneers Twenty Years Later, Ole Edvart Rölvaag 39 copies

7. Mamba's Daughters, DuBose Heyward 7 copies

8. The Galaxy, Susan Ertz 1 copy

9. Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia Peterkin 24 copies

10. Joseph and His Brethren, H. W. Freeman 6 copies

N O N F I C T I O N

1. The Art of Thinking, Ernest Dimnet 57 copies

2. Henry the Eighth, Francis Hackett 63 copies

3. The Cradle of the Deep, Joan Lowell 9 copies

4. Elizabeth and Essex, Lytton Strachey 134 copies

5. The Specialist, Chic Sale 34 copies

6. A Preface to Morals, Walter Lippmann 98 copies

7. Believe It or Not, Robert L. Ripley 28 copies

8. John Brown's Body, Stephen Vincent Benét 156 copies

9. The Tragic Era; The Revolution After Lincoln, Claude G. Bowers 26 copies

10. The Mansions of Philosophy, Will Durant 78 copies

DuBose Heyward is best known for his story Porgy which George & Ira Gershwin used as the story for their operetta Porgy & Bess

DuBose Heyward was a white man who wrote about the African-American life of Charleston SC in a district called "Catfish Row". Although he is regarded as sympathetic to the people he writes about (& he made a lot of $$ doing so ) he sees that world through the eyes of an outsider & one whose heritage conditioned him to the belief in the superiority of the white race. Some have defended Mr. Heyward for his sympathy to his characters, but as African Americans have taken their place as the righrful chroniclers of their own history, writers like Mr. Heyward have slipped into the dustbin of history. However, the music of Porgy & Bess written by the son of European Jewish immigrants & Ira Gershwin's re-write of the libretto have earned it a place of honor in the annals of American Culture. It is still popular & performed today.

I haven't read any of these but I have seen the movie based on Dodsworth. I loved the movie and have been looking forward to reading the book.

Well we do have a "big" book this year with Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Big selling translations are not common.

We had to recite John Brown's Body in high school. He's "a'mouldering in the grave". It's one of those things that get indelibly marked in your brain at a young age and never get rid of. We also had to sing all of the "King and I" that year, the words of which I also still remember. Especially traumatic since I can't sing.

Four!
The "big book" and 8-10 of the non-fiction.

I've only read All Quiet on the Western Front, which was terrific. I remember liking the movie as well.

I've actually read The Bishop Murder Case which features Philo Vance as the detective. I think the mystery appeals if one has an interest in how the mystery form developed over the course of time. It is still worth pointing out that someone of note (Ogden Nash, I think) once made the crack, "Philo Vance needs a kick in the pants." He is written in the tradition of the Great Detective (Holmes, Nero Wolfe, etc.) but he is sometimes a bit much to take.

Like varielle, I was forced to recite John Brown's Body in high school. I read Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front auf Deutsch, for a German lit class in college.

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that the only one I've read is Ripley's Believe it or not.

How did I miss All quite on the western front - and I have read this book.

With Ripley's Believe It or Not coming about every year for 80+ years, there are lots of editions.

I've read All Quite On the Western Front. An excellent book. I also have Sinclair Lewis on my To Be Read list.

Have you read the sequel "Not quite on the Eastern Front"?

How does All Quite on the Western Front get a touchstone? One should at least have to spell correctly to get a touchstone.

I think the 'mispelling' gets a Touchstone because there exists someone who added the book to their library "quite" wrongly. And the mispelled work got combined with the other 1,700 correctly spelled editions. This isn't the only bogus word in the title on LT.

I've read (and own) All Quiet on the Western Front and also Mamba's Daughters.

I have no disagreement about the description of DuBose Heyward in Post 2, but would emphasize that whatever the ethnicity of the writers of Porgy and Bess, and notwithstanding the undisputed fact that "African Americans have taken their place as the rightful chroniclers of their own history," Porgy and Bess, and the music thereof, continues to receive enthusiast interpretation by African American artists of all generations.

>10 aviddiva: I’ve been reading A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe it or Not” Ripley. It claims that sales were so good in 1929, that Ripley’s sales were competitive with Hemingway’s.

I had a history professor last term who liked to teach from fiction of the time period. I think it’s a terrible approach for multiple reasons.

But I was exposed to All Quiet on the Western Front; which I appreciated.