TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of May 25, 1958

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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3
ICE PALACE
Edna Ferber
Cover of ICE PALACE

ICE PALACE

by Edna Ferber · Doubleday

9 wks on list

Alaska is the setting for a novel of conflict covering three generations of two families as they pioneer and settle the territory

6
1
THE SERGEANT
Dennis Murphy

THE SERGEANT

by Dennis Murphy · Viking Press

8 wks on list

Printers copy and galley proofs.

9
THE MACKEREL PLAZA
Peter De Vries

THE MACKEREL PLAZA

by Peter De Vries · Little, Brown and Company

6 wks on list

Reverend Andrew Mackerel, a recent widower falls in love with Molly Calico, a clerk at City Hall, but must keep it a secret because of the plaza and shopping mall being planned to honor the late Mrs. Mackerel

12
4
RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS!
Max Schulman
Cover of RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS!

RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS!

by Max Schulman · Doubleday

39 wks on list

New York Times Bestseller : The US Army invades a small Connecticut town in this Cold War comedy classic. Harry Bannerman drinks his nightly bourbon on the train from New York City to Putnam's Landing, Connecticut. A typical commuter, he has a bald spot, a house, two mortgages, three children, and a wife who is a committed soccer mom and pillar of the community. Harry just wants to curl up on the couch with Grace when he gets home, but instead faces an endless round of PTA meetings, political rallies, little league games, and amateur theatricals. Second Lt. Guido di Maggio loves baseball less than his last name implies and his fiancée, Maggie Larkin, more than the army allows. College sweethearts, the couple has their future all mapped out: Guido will complete his military service in Maryland while Maggie starts her teaching career in Putnam's Landing, a five-hour train ride away. But when Guido is reassigned to Alaska and Maggie loses her job for giving a sex talk to second graders, their plans go up in smoke. To avoid Alaska and save his relationship with Maggie, Guido takes the thankless job directing public relations at a new anti-aircraft base in Putnam's Landing. What happens next in this national bestseller is a dark and funny story of the disaffected and disconnected in Cold War suburbia as tensions mount between the "invading" army ("invading" Connecticut, that is) and a bevy of local teenagers; between frustrated commuters and their frustrated wives; between social do-gooders and Yankee conservatives; and between romantic dreams of the artist's life in New York and the pedestrian reality of having to earn a living to house and feed a growing family.

13
LOVER'S POINT
C.Y. Lee

LOVER'S POINT

by C.Y. Lee · Farrar Straus Cudahy

2 wks on list

The love affair of a refugee from Communist China and a Japanese divorcee. Monterey and San Francisco Chinatown setting.

15
NEW
THE UNDERGROUND CITY
H.L. Humes
Cover of THE UNDERGROUND CITY

THE UNDERGROUND CITY

by H.L. Humes · Random House

1 wks on list

Back in print after nearly fifty years–the acclaimed fiction debut of novelist H. L. Humes, co-founder of The Paris Review “Immensely intelligent and energetic, intensely dramatic and melodramatic, heroically overwritten yet sharp, insightful, and precise, The Underground City is an astonishing book by a writer of abundant gifts whose resurrection is long overdue.” –Peter Matthiessen It is the late 1940s and Paris is in turmoil. A man named Dujardin is sentenced to death for treason, sparking general strikes and threats of riots across the city. In the meantime, John Stone, a war-weary American and former secret agent, finds himself being investigated as a suspected Communist. What has brought these two men to their fates? H.L. Humes spins a thrilling account of the French underground during the last years of World War II, and the events that lead to the Dujardin affair. His many memorable characters include Adriane, loved by both Stone and Carnot, a fanatic Communist; Bruce Sheppard, the American ambassador to France, a statesman of vision and compassion; and Solange Récamier, the sophisticated young Parisian widow who finds meaning in trying to salvage Stone’s broken life. The Underground City displays H.L. Humes’s youthful literary skill and a striking capacity for fast-paced narrative. This is a brilliant tour de force. “A major achievement . . . [The Underground City] attains its full stature in poetry and truth. . . . [This is a] many-sided, absorbing novel, written on a grand scale, that holds the reader’s attention from the first to the last of its many pages.” –New York Herald Tribune “Magnificent . . . [The Underground City] has verisimilitude and scope, action and depth of emotion.” –Chicago Tribune “A work of power, maturity and distinction.” –Newsweek

16
NEW
RIDE THE RED EARTH
Paul Wellman
Cover of RIDE THE RED EARTH

RIDE THE RED EARTH

by Paul Wellman · Doubleday

Based on the life of Louis Juchereau de St Denis.

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