{"id":12366,"date":"2007-12-21T11:30:24","date_gmt":"2007-12-21T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=12366"},"modified":"2014-01-09T17:48:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T22:48:34","slug":"yesterdays-bestsellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/21\/yesterdays-bestsellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday’s bestsellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a list of what America read slightly over a century ago, as compiled by The World’s Work<\/i> and reported in its July 1901 issue. (Thanks to Michael J. Ward<\/a> for bring this list to my attention.) These bestsellers are based on reports from book dealers of the day in Kansas City, Buffalo, Washington, Albany, Toronto, New Haven, Cincinnati, Rochester, Boston, Philadelphia, Louisville, St. Paul, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Cleveland and Pittsburgh:<\/p>\n

1. The Helmet of Navarre<\/i>, by Bertha Runkle
\n2. The Visits of Elizabeth<\/i>, by Elinor Glyn
\n3. Alice of Old Vincennes<\/i>, by Maurice Thompson
\n4. Penelope’s Irish Experiences<\/i>, by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
\n5. The Octopus<\/i>, by Frank Norris
\n6. Eben Holden<\/i>, by Irving Bacheller
\n7. Truth Dexter<\/i>, by Sidney McCall
\n8. Graustark<\/i>, by George Barr McCutcheon
\n9. The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay<\/i>, by Maurice Hewlett
\n10. In the Name of Woman<\/i>, by Arthur W. Marchmont
\n11. Quincy Adams Sawyer<\/i>, by Charles Felton Pidgin
\n12. Monsieur Beaucaire<\/i>, by Booth Tarkington
\n13. Like Another Helen<\/i>, by George Horton
\n14. Sky Pilot<\/i>, by Ralph Connor
\n15. The Turn of the Road<\/i>, Eugenia Brooks Frothingham
\n16. Juletty<\/i>, by Lucy Cleaver McElroy
\n17. Up From Slavery<\/i>, Booker T. Washington
\n18. Uncle Terry<\/i>, by Charles Clark Munn
\n19. Sir Christopher<\/i>, by Maud Wilder Goodwin
\n20. Every Inch a King<\/i>, Josephine Caroline Sawyer
\n21. The Story of Sarah<\/i>, by M. Louise Forsslund
\n22. Betsy Ross<\/i>, by Chauncey C. Hotchkiss
\n23. The Cardinal’s Snuff Box<\/i>, Henry Harland
\n24. Miss Pritchard’s Wedding Experience<\/i>, by Clara Louise Burnham
\n25. Crucial Instances<\/i>, Edith Wharton
\n26. Clayton Halowell<\/i>, by Francis W. van Praag
\n27. In Search of Mademoiselle<\/i>, by George Gibbs
\n28. A Carolina Cavalier<\/i>, George Cary Eggleston
\n29. Nell Gwyn, Comedian<\/i>, Frank Frankfort Moore
\n30. A Sailor’s Log<\/i>, by Robley D. Evans<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A confession—I consider myself literate, and yet I’ve never read any of these. I’ve only ever heard<\/i> of seven of them. The only one I feel I ought<\/i> to read is the Booker T. Washington. Perhaps I shouldn’t consider myself so literate after all.<\/p>\n

Are the bestsellers of 2008 likely to fare any better in 2115?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a list of what America read slightly over a century ago, as compiled by The World’s Work and reported in its July 1901 issue. (Thanks to Michael J. Ward for bring this list to my attention.) These bestsellers are based on reports from book dealers of the day in Kansas City, Buffalo, Washington, Albany, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-12366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-old-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12367,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12366\/revisions\/12367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}