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Authors · NYT Hardcover Fiction

J.R.R. Tolkien portraitJ.R.R. Tolkien

Charting Sep 25, 1977Oct 7, 2018 · 85 weeks with chart power

Compare with other authors
Image credits

Honours

Author of the Year

Author of the Week

  • NYT Hardcover Fiction

    24 crowns

    19772018

    Longest reign 23 weeks (Oct 1977 – Mar 1978) · First crown Oct 1977

Peak Power
13.72%
week of Mar 5, 1978
Career Power
740
share-weeks
Crowns
24
weeks crowned Author of the Week
Peak Year
543
September 1977 – December 1978
Peak Five Years
699
January 1976 – April 1981
Top-five weeks
46
weeks ranked 1–5
Longevity
85
weeks with chart power
Dominance
16.77%
week of Dec 18, 1977
Comebacks
1
Jan 1981

Ranked by weekly Power Share, part of the ChartReign Power model — not the list's own positions. How it works →

Exponentially smoothed share of the week's total power (the primary metric).

Titles on the NYT Hardcover Fiction

5 books · 740 share-weeks of Career Power

Power contributed is what each book earned this author: their weekly Power Share, split across their books (a featured credit takes its reduced share). Book Power is the book's own figure, the same for every author on it. Bar length compares books within this list.

TitlePeakWeeksPower
The Silmarillion#159594.9
Unfinished Tales#320100.2
The Fall of Gondolin#1430.0
Beren and LÚThien#6210.9
The Hobbit#1223.7

At their peak

1977 in books

J.R.R. Tolkien's best twelve months on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list ran from September 1977 to December 1978. The most powerful authors over those weeks:

  1. 1J.R.R. Tolkien543
  2. 2Colleen McCullough477
  3. 3Richard Bach337
  4. 4Sidney Sheldon336
  5. 5John le Carré268
  6. 6Judith Krantz250
  7. 7Robert Ludlum189
  8. 8John Fowles174
  9. 9Marilyn French168
  10. 10Howard Fast142

Ranked by Era Power over the same weeks.

Their decades: the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s.