TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of November 9, 1942

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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THE PRODIGAL WOMEN
Nancy Hale
Cover of THE PRODIGAL WOMEN

THE PRODIGAL WOMEN

by Nancy Hale · Scribner

5 wks at #1 · 5 on list

The other side of Gatsby: rediscover this sensational bestseller that unveiled the Jazz Age from the flappers' perspective Ranging from posh Beacon Hill to go-go New York City to stately Virginia, a sweeping coming-of-age story of three women's lives, loves, and ambitions in the 1920s, '30s and '40s An uncompromising literary portrait of the interior lives of women, The Prodigal Women was an explosive hit when published in 1942, the scent of scandal propelling it to the bestseller list. It tells the intertwined stories of Leda March, a lonely New England schoolgirl, and Betsy and Maizie Jekyll, daughters of a transplanted Virginia clan who upend Boston society, tracing their friendship from adolescence into adulthood, through childhood bullying, a string of abusive marriages, dangerous liaisons, botched abortions, and feminist awakenings, with Leda ultimately turning her back on love and desire and embracing her own mysterious inner strength. Fascinating and gripping, The Prodigal Women was a crucial influence on such later works as Mary McCarthy’s The Group and Jacqueline Susann‘s Valley of the Dolls, and it remains powerfully resonant today.

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THE VALLEY OF DECISION
Marcia Davenport
Cover of THE VALLEY OF DECISION

THE VALLEY OF DECISION

by Marcia Davenport · Scribner

2 wks on list

Story of several generations of an American steel manufacturing family, beginning in the 1880's.

4
NEW
LOOK TO THE MOUNTAIN
Legrand Cannon
Cover of LOOK TO THE MOUNTAIN

LOOK TO THE MOUNTAIN

by Legrand Cannon · Holt

1 wks on list

The million-copy bestselling novel of the New England frontier One of the most popular and enduring novels of the last century, Look to the Mountain is the epic story of two young settlers who start a new life in the foothills of New Hampshire's White Mountains on the eve of the American Revolution. They learn to survive amid the struggle in what was then a harsh and unforgiving landscape, forging a bond between both them and their adopted homeland. A critical and commercial success when it was first published in 1942, LeGrand Cannon, Jr.'s novel was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and translated into numerous languages throughout the world. It has sold over one million copies through various editions and has never been out of print. Seventy-five years on, Look to the Mountain is still a definitive American novel, offering a captivating glimpse of life at the edges of the original colonies, and the grit and determination of the earliest New Englanders.

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.