UK vs. US bestsellers, a century ago.

Annabel Wynne on the Guardian books blog, in the inevitable summing-up that occurs at the end of a decade, looks back at the popular UK writers of a century ago: Beatrix Potter, E. M. Forster, and, most of all, H. G. Wells.

I was curious about their U.S. equivalents, so I looked at the Publishers Weekly bestseller lists for 1909 and 1910, and found mostly names that are not prominent on today's literary landscape. The possible exception, and the only mystery writer to appear on these lists—Mary Roberts Rinehart, for The Man in Lower Ten (1909) and for The Window at the White Cat and When a Man Marries (both 1910). Irish novelist Katherine Cecil Thurston does appear on the 1910 list for Max, but she's best known for the thriller John Chilcote (1904), which was the basis for The Masquerader (1933) starring Ronald Colman.

Modern readers might be bemused to see A Modern Chronicle by one Winston Churchill on the 1910 list, but this is the American novelist Churchill, not the budding politician. The Canadian retired clergyman Basil King shows up both in 1909 (for The Inner Shrine) and 1910 (for The Wild Olive). The sentimental The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by Theodore Roosevelt friend John Fox Jr. appears on both the 1908 and 1909 PW lists. Hoosier George Barr McCutcheon appears on the PW lists from 1904 to 1909 (the latter for Truxton King), but he is perhaps best known for Brewster's Millions (1902) and also wrote Anderson Crow, Detective (1920). Britons Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson appear on the 1910 list for Lord Loveland Discovers America; Alice wrote the mystery A Woman in Grey (1898).

So does this somewhat depressing litany beg the questions: What names will still be known a century from now? Whose books will still be read?

About the images: Mary Roberts Rinehart, ca. 1920, LOC; John Fox Jr., NYPL

Bestsellers of 1909.

Over on Abebooks' Reading Copy blog, a look at the bestseller list of 100 years ago, including works by L. Frank Baum, Jack London, John Masefield, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, H. G. Wells, Beatrix Potter, Ernest Shackleton (later the leader of the Antarctic expedition known by its ship's name, Endurance), an ex-Boer War correspondent named Winston S. Churchill, and Mark Twain.

Note the former journalists: Baum, London, Churchill, Twain (Masefield did contribute some pieces to the Manchester Guardian)

(Hat tip to Philobiblos. About the photo: Ernest Shackleton, n.d. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.)

More on American Bestsellers.

The University of Virginia has an interesting online exhibit on bestsellers, "Rave Reviews: Bestselling Fiction in America." Authors and works featured include Mickey Spillane's I the Jury, Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber (dubbed "Trollop with a Wallop" by Bennett Cerf), Frank Yerby's The Foxes of Harrow, Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File, and nineteenth-century author E.D.E.N. Southworth (fictionalized in Joanne Dobson's The Northbury Papers).

Twentieth-century American bestsellers.

I stumbled on a fascinating online resource stemming from a 2006 class taught by John Unsworth, now vice provost at Brandeis University. It's a database of twentieth-century U.S. bestsellers, organized by author, with entries by students from Brandeis, the Catholic University of America, University of Illinois, and University of Virginia. The entries include physical descriptions of the particular work, publication history, analysis of sales (if information is available), and quotes from reviews. The mystery-related works range from S. S. Van Dine's The Bishop Murder Case (1929), Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1938), and Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (1969) to Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder (1976), Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October (1984), and Mary Higgins Clark's Loves Music, Loves to Dance (1991).

It's interesting to look at the posted bestsellers list by decade (from Publishers Weekly and Bowker's Annual) for a peek into their eras: The two Theodore Roosevelt books in 1920 after his 1919 death; the over-the-top The Sheik by Edith M. Hull (1919; US publication 1921. "'Oh you brute! You brute!' she wailed, until his kisses silenced her"); the reappearing names of Winston Churchill, A. J. Cronin, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Rafael Sabatini, and others over several years.

The entries, it must be noted, vary in writing quality, and not all bestsellers are covered. However, as it can be difficult to find accurate information on such works, this resource is very helpful.