1939 in books
Who ruled 1939? John Steinbeck was Author of the Year on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list. Every #1 bestseller of 1939, the biggest books and the top authors.
NYT Hardcover Fiction
Author of the Year 1939
24 crowns · 32 weeks among the top five authors · Era Power 458
| # | Author | Era Power | Crowns | Top-five weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Steinbeck | 458 | 24 | 32 |
| 2 | Rachel Field | 366 | 14 | 26 |
| 3 | Daphne Du Maurier | 207 | 1 | 15 |
| 4 | John P. Marquand | 187 | 2 | 16 |
| 5 | Ethel Vance | 156 | 5 | 13 |
| 6 | Elizabeth Page | 136 | 0 | 10 |
| 7 | Thomas Wolfe | 127 | 0 | 11 |
| 8 | F. Van Wyck Mason | 115 | 0 | 11 |
| 9 | Pietro di Donato | 114 | 0 | 9 |
| 10 | Lloyd C. Douglas | 114 | 0 | 10 |
| First week at #1 | Title | Author | Weeks at #1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 1939 | All This and Heaven Too | Rachel Field | 14 |
| Jan 9, 1939 | Rebecca | Daphne Du Maurier | 1 |
| Apr 3, 1939 | Wickford Point | John P. Marquand | 2 |
| May 1, 1939 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 24 |
| Oct 9, 1939 | Escape | Ethel Vance | 5 |
| Nov 20, 1939 | Kitty Foyle | Christopher Morley | 4 |
| Dec 18, 1939 | The Nazarene | Sholem Asch | 1 |
| Dec 25, 1939 | Moment in Peking | Lin Yutang | 1 |
| # | Title | Author | Peak | Weeks | Book Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | #1 | 35 | 458.1 |
| 2 | Kitty Foyle | Christopher Morley | #1 | 25 | 292.9 |
| 3 | The Nazarene | Sholem Asch | #1 | 24 | 281.7 |
| 4 | Wickford Point | John P. Marquand | #1 | 16 | 187.3 |
| 5 | Escape | Ethel Vance | #1 | 16 | 183.1 |
| 6 | Moment in Peking | Lin Yutang | #1 | 16 | 160.3 |
| 7 | The Tree of Liberty | Elizabeth Page | #3 | 15 | 135.7 |
| 8 | The Web and the Rock | Thomas Wolfe | #2 | 11 | 126.8 |
| 9 | Captain Horatio Hornblower | C. S. Forester | #4 | 15 | 123.5 |
| 10 | Christ in Concrete | Pietro di Donato | #2 | 11 | 114.4 |
Author of the Year and the rankings are the ChartReign Power model: the author with the most chart power over the year, not the most #1s. Crowns are weeks crowned Author of the Week. How it works