Authors · NYT Hardcover Fiction

John Steinbeck

Charting Mar 8, 1937 → Dec 24, 1961 · 206 weeks with chart power

Compare with other authors →

Image credits

Photo: McFadden Publications, Inc.; no photographer credited; photo likely the work of Sonya Noskowiak, as Steinbeck is wearing the same clothes from her 1935 studio session that produced the work shown here: https://www.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2006.74, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Honours

Author of the Year: 1939

Author of the Week

NYT Hardcover Fiction
47 crowns
19371961
Longest reign 23 weeks (May–Oct 1939) · First crown May 1939

Peak Power: 13.60%; week of Oct 16, 1939
Career Power: 1,912; share-weeks
Crowns: 47; weeks crowned Author of the Week

Peak Year: 458; December 1938 – December 1939
Peak Five Years: 699; July 1937 – July 1942
Top-five weeks: 131; weeks ranked 1–5
Longevity: 206; weeks with chart power
Dominance: 14.53%; week of May 1, 1939
Comebacks: 6; May 1939 · Apr 1942 · Mar 1945 · Apr 1947 · Nov 1952, after 5 quiet years · Aug 1961, after 7 quiet years

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

10 books · 1,912 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.

Title	Peak	Weeks	On chart	Power contributedPower	Book Power
The Grapes of Wrath	#1May 1939	35	April 1939 – December 1939	458.1	458.1
East of Eden	#1November 1952	39	October 1952 – July 1953	401.3	401.3
The Moon Is Down	#1March 1942	18	March 1942 – July 1942	233.6	233.6
Sweet Thursday	#3July 1954	25	June 1954 – December 1954	206.5	206.5
The Wayward Bus	#2March 1947	18	March 1947 – July 1947	162.0	162.0
The Winter of Our Discontent	#5July 1961	23	July 1961 – December 1961	144.2	144.2
Of Mice and Men	#4March 1937	16	March 1937 – August 1937	121.3	121.3
The Short Reign of Pippin IV	#7May 1957	17	May 1957 – September 1957	85.0	85.0
Cannery Row	#3February 1945	8	January 1945 – April 1945	79.7	79.7
The Pearl	#11December 1947	7	December 1947 – February 1948	20.0	20.0

At their peak

1938 in books →

John Steinbeck's best twelve months on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list ran from December 1938 to December 1939. The most powerful authors over those weeks:

Ranked by Era Power over the same weeks.

Their decades: the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s, the 1960s.