TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 26, 1950

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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THE WALL
John Hersey
Cover of THE WALL

THE WALL

by John Hersey · Alfred A. Knopf

5 wks at #1 · 3 on list

A novel describing the life of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during Poland's German occupation.

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1
THE PARASITES
Daphne du Maurier

THE PARASITES

by Daphne du Maurier · Doubleday

11 wks on list

The indolent offspring of two famous entertainers use their limited talents to maintain the fantasy world they have created.

3
1
THE EGYPTIAN
Mika Waltari
Cover of THE EGYPTIAN

THE EGYPTIAN

by Mika Waltari · Putnam

29 wks on list

Set in Egypt, more than a thousand years before Christ, it encompasses all of the then-known world. It is told by Sinhue, physician to the Pharaoh Akhenaton, and is the story of his life. Through his eyes are seen innumerable characters, fully drawn and covering the whole panorama of the ancient world.

5
THE HORSE'S MOUTH
Joyce Cary
Cover of THE HORSE'S MOUTH

THE HORSE'S MOUTH

by Joyce Cary · Harper and Brothers

7 wks on list

The Horse's Mouth is a portrait of an artistic temperament. Its principal character, Gulley Gimson, is an impoverished painter who scorns conventional good behavior. He may be a bad citizen, but he is a good artist, so wholly preoccupied with his art that he is willing to endure any privation for its sake. Such is his contempt for orthodox mores, he takes a delight in cocking a snook at them. For him there is only one morality: to be a painter.

6
1
JUBILEE TRAIL
Gwen Bristow
Cover of JUBILEE TRAIL

JUBILEE TRAIL

by Gwen Bristow · Ty Crowell Co

5 wks on list

Sheltered girl from the East makes the dangerous journey from Santa Fe to Los Angeles in pre-Gold Rush days and learns value of loyal friends.

7
1
GENTIAN HILL
Elizabeth Goudge
Cover of GENTIAN HILL

GENTIAN HILL

by Elizabeth Goudge · Grosset and Dunlap

11 wks on list

A collection of the author's short stories and selections from her novels.

8
MARY
Sholem Asch
Cover of MARY

MARY

by Sholem Asch · Putnam

23 wks on list
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A RAGE TO LIVE
John O'Hara
Cover of A RAGE TO LIVE

A RAGE TO LIVE

by John O'Hara · Random House

30 wks on list

'O'Hara is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust' The New York Times When the beautiful, imperious and moneyed Grace Caldwell Tate wants something she goes after it, men included. Her affair scandalises Pennsylvania's elite and she must face the costs to her marriage and the man she really loves. A bestseller on publication in 1949, A Rage to Live is a candid tale of idealists and libertines, tradesmen and crusaders, men of violence and goodwill, and women of fierce strength and tenderness.

10
ONE ON THE HOUSE
Mary Lasswell
Cover of ONE ON THE HOUSE

ONE ON THE HOUSE

by Mary Lasswell · Houghton Mifflin

16 wks on list

Flat broke at the end of their stay in New York City, Mrs. Feeley, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham can only make it as far as New Jersey on their voyage back home. When they stop by a local bar for something to lift their spirits, they find it in disrepair and the owner in none too better shape himself. As desperate as they are to make it back to San Diego, it's just not in their nature to leave the poor guy there. And if they're going to lend a helping hand, they might as well tidy up, serve a few beers, and see about breathing a little life into the joint—not that it does any harm to have a place to stay until they can find a way to get to the West Coast. Pull up a stool, crack open a cold one, and crack a smile with the third, uplifting and uproarious title from Mary Lasswell to feature her quick-witted altruists.

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I, MY ANCESTOR
Nancy Wilson Ross
Cover of I, MY ANCESTOR

I, MY ANCESTOR

by Nancy Wilson Ross · Random House

6 wks on list

New York psychiatrist helps father recover from nervous breakdown.

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NEW
MINGO DABNEY
James H. Street
Cover of MINGO DABNEY

MINGO DABNEY

by James H. Street · Dial Press

In this fifth and final novel of the Dabney family saga, the reader is introduced to the last of the gallant Dabney clan. Passionate and restless, Mingo Dabney falls in love with Rafaela Galban, a beautiful Cuban girl who was to her people what Joan of Arc had been to the French. But as Mingo rode his white horse from Lebanon on a frosty night in 1895 to follow Rafaela to Cuba, it was the woman herself he sought to win. Little did he dream that he would never see his home again, or that his quest for Rafaela was about to plummet him into the midst of flaming revolt on Spain's fortress-island in the Caribbean. As the lines of Mingo Dabney's destiny crossed Rafaela's, they also ran counter to colorful and unforgettable figures from Cuban history ― General Máximo Gómez, the "Old Fox", who armed a handful of peasants with machetes, and the incredible Antonio Macéo, whose mixed blood shaped him into a strange and formidable leader, a half consecrated fighter for liberty, a half debauchee and rake. In the pages of this robust and swaggering tale, you will walk arm in arm with Mingo Dabney and Antonio Macéo as they recruit their army of insurrectos under the eyes of the Havana police. You will follow the rebels through the vermin-infested jungle as they fight their running battles with Sagaldo's army of a quarter of a million men. You will thrill to the beat of native drums sounding the battle cry of the revolutionists ― "Venga Mambi! Come on you dirt, and die!" You will see drunken and disorderly scavengers, discarded men without shoes or guns or horses, transformed into heroes, ready to follow El Dabney ― the El Dabney of a hundred miracles, the tree cutter, the fire maker, the healer ― and ready to die for Cuba. You will live on an island aflame, and as Mingo Dabney moves to a thunderous climax in 1896, you will know that you have watched history being made.

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