1972 in books
Who ruled 1972? Herman Wouk was Author of the Year on the NYT Hardcover Fiction list. Every #1 bestseller of 1972, the biggest books and the top authors.
NYT Hardcover Fiction
| # | Author | Era Power | Crowns | Top-five weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Herman Wouk | 653 | 21 | 49 |
| 2 | Richard Bach | 463 | 27 | 32 |
| 3 | Irving Wallace | 308 | 2 | 21 |
| 4 | Taylor Caldwell | 293 | 0 | 24 |
| 5 | Frederick Forsyth | 290 | 0 | 22 |
| 6 | William Peter Blatty | 235 | 0 | 20 |
| 7 | Arthur Hailey | 231 | 3 | 18 |
| 8 | Chaim Potok | 208 | 0 | 18 |
| 9 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 173 | 0 | 15 |
| 10 | Fletcher Knebel | 131 | 0 | 7 |
| First week at #1 | Title | Author | Weeks at #1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 1972 | Wheels | Arthur Hailey | 3 |
| Jan 16, 1972 | The Winds of War | Herman Wouk | 21 |
| May 14, 1972 | The Word | Irving Wallace | 2 |
| Jul 2, 1972 | Jonathan Livingston Seagull | Richard Bach | 27 |
| # | Title | Author | Peak | Weeks | Book Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Livingston Seagull | Richard Bach | #1 | 70 | 840.2 |
| 2 | The Odessa File | Frederick Forsyth | #1 | 48 | 518.9 |
| 3 | The Word | Irving Wallace | #1 | 31 | 308.2 |
| 4 | Captains and the Kings | Taylor Caldwell | #2 | 31 | 293.3 |
| 5 | August 1914 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | #2 | 29 | 289.4 |
| 6 | Semi-Tough | Dan Jenkins | #3 | 29 | 273.8 |
| 7 | My Name Is Asher Lev | Chaim Potok | #3 | 26 | 207.6 |
| 8 | Green Darkness | Anya Seton | #3 | 25 | 197.5 |
| 9 | The Persian Boy | Mary Renault | #4 | 23 | 158.0 |
| 10 | The Camerons | Robert Crichton | #5 | 21 | 139.3 |
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