Eras
Who was the most powerful author in a year, who dominated a decade, who held #1 the longest. Every figure is a defined metric summed or maximised over a date range of stored weekly rows — nothing is weighted by opinion.
Leader of every year
Column height = the leader's average Power Share over the period. Click a column to explore that range.
- Robert Ludlum5 periods
- John Grisham5 periods
- James Patterson5 periods
- Lloyd C. Douglas3 periods
- Leon Uris3 periods
- Stephen King3 periods
- Dan Brown3 periods
- Hervey Allen2 periods
- Margaret Mitchell2 periods
- Herman Wouk2 periods
- James A. Michener2 periods
- Robert James Waller2 periods
- James Redfield2 periods
- Danielle Steel2 periods
- J. K. Rowling2 periods
- Gillian Flynn2 periods
- Anthony Doerr2 periods
- Delia Owens2 periods
- Rebecca Yarros2 periods
- John Galsworthy1 period
- Charles Morgan1 period
- A. J. Cronin1 period
- John Steinbeck1 period
- Richard Llewellyn1 period
- James Hilton1 period
- Franz Werfel1 period
- Lillian Smith1 period
- Samuel Shellaburger1 period
- Taylor Caldwell1 period
- Laura Z. Hobson1 period
- Norman Mailer1 period
- Henry Morton Robinson1 period
- James Jones1 period
- Annemarie Selinko1 period
- Morton Thompson1 period
- Francoise Sagan1 period
- Edwin O'Connor1 period
- Grace Metalious1 period
- Robert Traver1 period
- Harper Lee1 period
- Katherine Anne Porter1 period
- Morris L. West1 period
- John le Carré1 period
- Bel Kaufman1 period
- Jacqueline Susann1 period
- Elia Kazan1 period
- Arthur Hailey1 period
- Mario Puzo1 period
- Erich Segal1 period
- Frederick Forsyth1 period
- Peter Benchley1 period
- James Michener1 period
- Paul E. Erdman1 period
- J.R.R. Tolkien1 period
- James Clavell1 period
- Tom Wolfe1 period
- Tom Clancy1 period
- Khaled Hosseini1 period
- Stephenie Meyer1 period
- Kathryn Stockett1 period
- Donna Tartt1 period
- Matt Haig1 period
- Bonnie Garmus1 period
- Virginia Evans1 period
Leaders in 1979
Jan 7, 1979 → Dec 30, 1979 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Robert Ludlum402
- 2Herman Wouk390
- 3James A. Michener322
- 4William Styron292
- 5Howard Fast233
- 6Mary Stewart216
- 7General Sir John Hackett209
- 8Joseph Heller207
- 9Kurt Vonnegut185
- 10Arthur Hailey177
| # | Author | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Ludlum | 402 | 7.73% | 14.53% | 12.57% | 14 | 26 | 40 |
| 2 | Herman Wouk | 390 | 7.50% | 14.53% | 11.82% | 3 | 25 | 50 |
| 3 | James A. Michener | 322 | 6.19% | 14.53% | 12.70% | 8 | 18 | 36 |
| 4 | William Styron | 292 | 5.62% | 14.53% | 10.78% | 6 | 22 | 28 |
| 5 | Howard Fast | 233 | 4.48% | 14.53% | 9.51% | 6 | 14 | 24 |
| 6 | Mary Stewart | 216 | 4.15% | 14.53% | 9.26% | 4 | 15 | 21 |
| 7 | General Sir John Hackett | 209 | 4.02% | 11.01% | 7.95% | 0 | 15 | 31 |
| 8 | Joseph Heller | 207 | 3.98% | 14.53% | 9.39% | 2 | 13 | 25 |
| 9 | Kurt Vonnegut | 185 | 3.56% | 14.53% | 10.31% | 3 | 14 | 15 |
| 10 | Arthur Hailey | 177 | 3.40% | 14.53% | 8.51% | 2 | 12 | 19 |
| 11 | Trevanian | 176 | 3.38% | 11.01% | 7.78% | 0 | 12 | 23 |
| 12 | Ken Follett | 169 | 3.24% | 14.53% | 9.38% | 2 | 13 | 21 |
| 13 | Stephen King | 167 | 3.21% | 14.53% | 7.71% | 2 | 13 | 20 |
| 14 | Ruth Beebe Hill | 162 | 3.12% | 11.01% | 6.75% | 0 | 5 | 30 |
| 15 | John Cheever | 152 | 2.92% | 11.01% | 6.71% | 0 | 9 | 24 |
| 16 | M.M. Kaye | 129 | 2.48% | 11.01% | 5.89% | 0 | 2 | 24 |
| 17 | Richard Bach | 124 | 2.39% | 7.26% | 4.76% | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| 18 | Rona Jaffe | 112 | 2.16% | 9.58% | 5.43% | 0 | 2 | 21 |
| 19 | Peter Benchley | 107 | 2.06% | 9.58% | 5.64% | 0 | 6 | 18 |
| 20 | Len Deighton | 99 | 1.90% | 11.01% | 5.46% | 0 | 6 | 16 |
| 21 | Belva Plain | 86 | 1.66% | 6.32% | 5.13% | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| 22 | John Updike | 84 | 1.62% | 9.58% | 4.45% | 0 | 4 | 17 |
| 23 | John D. MacDonald | 72 | 1.38% | 9.58% | 4.23% | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| 24 | Mario Puzo | 69 | 1.32% | 11.01% | 7.08% | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| 25 | Lucian K. Truscott IV | 68 | 1.30% | 8.34% | 3.77% | 0 | 2 | 13 |
| 26 | Peter Straub | 67 | 1.29% | 6.32% | 3.02% | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| 27 | Norman Mailler | 55 | 1.07% | 8.34% | 4.01% | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| 28 | Lawrence Sanders | 50 | 0.96% | 9.58% | 3.58% | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 29 | Bernard Malamud | 46 | 0.89% | 5.50% | 3.22% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 30 | Harold Robbins | 42 | 0.81% | 9.58% | 3.57% | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| 31 | Taylor Caldwell | 41 | 0.80% | 5.50% | 3.95% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 32 | J.R.R. Tolkien | 40 | 0.78% | 11.01% | 6.75% | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 33 | Walter F. Murphy | 39 | 0.76% | 5.50% | 2.23% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 34 | William Goldman | 37 | 0.71% | 8.34% | 2.63% | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 35 | Helen Van Slyke | 35 | 0.68% | 5.50% | 1.87% | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 36 | Morris West | 34 | 0.66% | 5.50% | 2.40% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 37 | Jerzy Kusinski | 25 | 0.49% | 8.34% | 1.65% | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 38 | Robin Cook | 22 | 0.43% | 5.50% | 1.64% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 39 | Steve Shagan | 22 | 0.42% | 3.63% | 1.63% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 40 | Barbara Taylor Bradford | 20 | 0.38% | 4.17% | 1.40% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 41 | Neal Travis | 18 | 0.35% | 3.63% | 1.51% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 42 | Irving Wallace | 17 | 0.32% | 3.16% | 1.32% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 43 | John le Carré | 13 | 0.25% | 7.26% | 1.33% | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 44 | Mary Renault | 12 | 0.23% | 3.16% | 0.89% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 45 | Irwin Shaw | 10 | 0.19% | 4.17% | 1.00% | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 46 | Harry Patterson | 10 | 0.18% | 2.75% | 0.83% | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 47 | Helen MacInnes | 9 | 0.18% | 3.63% | 2.94% | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 48 | Philip Roth | 8 | 0.16% | 3.63% | 0.74% | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 49 | F. Lee Bailey | 5 | 0.10% | 2.75% | 0.47% | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 50 | Frank McDonald | 4 | 0.09% | 2.40% | 0.46% | 0 | 0 | 2 |