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Authors · NYT Hardcover Fiction

Joan Didion portraitJoan Didion

Charting Sep 6, 1970Sep 29, 1996 · 21 weeks with chart power

Compare with other authors
Image credits
Peak Power
3.87%
week of Jul 31, 1977
Career Power
89
share-weeks
Crowns
0
weeks crowned Author of the Week
Peak Year
72
August 1976 – July 1977
Peak Five Years
72
August 1972 – July 1977
Top-five weeks
0
weeks ranked 1–5
Longevity
21
weeks with chart power
Dominance
5.50%
week of May 15, 1977
Comebacks
0
none detected

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

4 books · 89 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
A Book of Common Prayer#81571.7
Democracy#12411.1
Play It as It Lays#1014.2
The Last Thing He Wanted#1512.1

At their peak

1976 in books

Joan Didion's best twelve months on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list ran from August 1976 to July 1977. The most powerful authors over those weeks:

  1. 1Leon Uris645
  2. 2Paul E. Erdman327
  3. 3Agatha Christie300
  4. 4Erich Segal240
  5. 5John Cheever216
  6. 6Jack Higgins215
  7. 7Jacqueline Susann212
  8. 8Clive Cussler205
  9. 9Kurt Vonnegut191
  10. 10Mary Stewart191

Ranked by Era Power over the same weeks.

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