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DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER
William Brinkley
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Historical Note
The I, Libertine Hoax
In 1956, radio personality Jean Shepherd orchestrated one of the most audacious cons in publishing history. He instructed his late-night listeners to walk into bookshops and libraries and ask for a nonexistent book: I, Libertine by the equally nonexistent "Frederick R. Ewing." Demand reports from booksellers were enough to land it on regional bestseller lists — and eventually get it noticed by the NYT. Publisher Ian Ballantine called Shepherd's bluff and commissioned the book for real, hiring science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon to write it in a weekend. It was published later that year, making the hoax self-fulfilling.
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PEYTON PLACE
Grace Metalious
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THE LAST HURRAH
Edwin O'Connor
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A CERTAIN SMILE
Francoise Sagan
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THE LOVING COUPLE
Virginia Rowans
9
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THE MANDARINS
Simone de Beauvoir
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ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES
Angus Wilson
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THE NINTH WAVE
Eugene Burdick
THE NINTH WAVE
by Eugene Burdick · Houghton Mifflin
20 wks on list
The rise and near-success of Mike Freesmith, who tries to gain control of California politics by exploiting the fears and hatreds of voting groups.
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TOLBECKEN
Samuel Shellabarger
TOLBECKEN
by Samuel Shellabarger · Little, Brown and Company
8 wks on list
For five generations the ancestral home of the Tolbecken family had grown, but as their land and fortune dwindles, the Tolbecken family faces the loss of their home as well as a way of life. A well-characterized, well-written novel about life in America at the turn of 19th century.
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THE TRIBE THAT LOST ITS HEAD
Nicholas Monsarrat
THE TRIBE THAT LOST ITS HEAD
by Nicholas Monsarrat · William Sloane Associates
Five hundred miles off southwest Africa lies the island of Pharamaul. In dense jungle live the notorious Maula tribe, kept under surveillance by a solitary District Officer and his young wife. When Chief-designate, Dinamaula, returns England with a spirited desire to speed the development of his people, political crisis erupts.
Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.