Hello Everyone!
I have chosen one popular book from each year of 1900 to 1999, and there were many I did not include but might another time. Note: Winston Churchill on this list is the American novelist, not the British prime minister – although Sir Winston Churchill was a prolific writer and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
Many of these I had not known of and only a few I have read.
1900: To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston
1901: The Crisis by Winston Churchill
1902: The Virginian by Owen Wister
1903: Lady Rose’s Daughter by Mary Augusta Ward
1904: The Crossing by Winston Churchill
1905: The Marriage of William Ashe by Mary Augusta Ward
1906: Coniston by Winston Churchill
1907: The Lady of the Decoration by Frances Little
1908: Mr. Crewe’s Career by Winston Churchill
1909: The Inner Shrine by Basil King
1910: The Rosary by Florence Barclay
1911: The Broad Highway by Jeffrey Farnol
1912: The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter
1913: The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill
1914: The Eyes of the World by Harold Bell Wright
1915: The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington
1916: Seventeen by Booth Tarkington
1917: Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H.G. Wells
1918: The U.P. Trail by Zane Grey
1919: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by V. Blasco Ibanez
1920: The Man of the Forest by Zane Grey
1921: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1922: If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchison
1923: Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton
1924: So Big by Edna Ferber
1925: Soundings by A. Hamilton Gibbs
1926: The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine
1927: Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1929: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
1930: Cimarron by Edna Ferber
1931: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932: Light in August by William Faulkner
1933: Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen
1934: I, Claudius by Robert Graves
1935: Green Light by Lloyd C. Douglas
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1937: Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts
1938: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
1941: The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
1942: The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel
1943: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
1944: Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith
1945: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
1946: The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
1947: The Miracle of the Bells by Russell Janney
1948: The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas
1949: The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
1950: The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson
1951: From Here to Eternity by James Jones
1952: The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain
1953: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
1954: Not as a Stranger by Morton Thompson
1955: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
1956: Don’t Go Near the Water by William Brinkley
1957: By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
1958: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
1959: Exodus by Leon Uris
1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
1962: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
1963: The Shoes of Fisherman by Morris L. West
1964: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carre
1965: The Source by James A. Michener
1966: Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
1967: The Arrangement by Elia Kazan
1968: Airport by Arthur Hailey
1969: Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
1970: Love Story by Erich Segal
1971: Wheels by Arthur Hailey
1972: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
1973: Once is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
1974: Centennial by James A. Michener
1975: Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
1976: Trinity by Leon Uris
1977: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
1978: Chesapeake by James A. Michener
1979: The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum
1980: The Covenant by James A. Michener
1981: Noble House by James Clavell
1982: E.T. the Extraterrestrial Storybook by William Kotzwinkle
1983: Return of the Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vinge
1984: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
1985: The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
1986: It by Stephen King
1987: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
1988: The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
1989: Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
1990: The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
1991: Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” by Alexandra Ripley
1992: Dolores Claiburne by Stephen King
1993: The Bridges of Madison County by James Robert Waller
1994: The Chamber by John Grisham
1995: The Rainmaker by John Grisham
1996: The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
1997: The Partner by John Grisham
1998: The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
1999: The Testament by John Grisham
I hope you’ve done better than I. Of the 100 listed I’ve read only these 6: All Quiet on the Western Front; Gone With the Wind; The Grapes of Wrath; Doctor Zhivago; The Spy Who Came in From the Cold; Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Of the many I have not read on the list, I think I have only two in my personal library: Ship of Fools; The Runaway Jury.
How many of the above have you read? Are there others on the list that you plan to read?
Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! – Lynn
Polilla Writes 