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Authors · NYT Hardcover Fiction

Thomas Pynchon portraitThomas Pynchon

Charting Apr 22, 1973 → Oct 26, 2025 · 31 weeks with chart power

Compare with other authors →
Image credits
Peak Power
4.80%
week of Feb 25, 1990
Career Power
194
share-weeks
Crowns
0
weeks crowned Author of the Week
Peak Year
88
April 1989 – April 1990
Peak Five Years
88
April 1985 – April 1990
Top-five weeks
9
weeks ranked 1–5
Longevity
31
weeks with chart power
Dominance
12.64%
week of Feb 4, 1990
Comebacks
2
Jan 1990, after 16 quiet years · May 1997, 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

7 books · 194 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
Vineland#21388.1
Mason & Dixon#4854.4
Gravity's Rainbow#8420.6
Inherent Vice#5212.0
Bleeding Edge#629.7
Shadow Ticket#716.5
Against the Day#1312.8

At their peak

1989 in books →

Thomas Pynchon's best twelve months on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list ran from April 1989 to April 1990. The most powerful authors over those weeks:

  1. 1Tom Clancy373
  2. 2Danielle Steel285
  3. 3Amy Tan245
  4. 4John le Carré235
  5. 5Stephen King190
  6. 6Mary Higgins Clark187
  7. 7James A. Michener168
  8. 8Frederick Forsyth158
  9. 9Martin Cruz Smith150
  10. 10Ken Follett129

Ranked by Era Power over the same weeks.

Their decades: the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s, the 2020s.