TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of April 30, 1961

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
Jump to
4
HAWAII
James A. Michener
Cover of HAWAII
5
1
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Harper Lee
Cover of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee · J.B. Lippincott Company

39 wks on list

Look for The Land of Sweet Forever, a posthumous collection of newly discovered short stories and previously published essays and magazine pieces by Harper Lee, coming October 21, 2025.Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American ReadHarper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatredOne of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

7
1
CHINA COURT
Rumer Godden
Cover of CHINA COURT

CHINA COURT

by Rumer Godden · Viking Press

6 wks on list

Modern love story, set in Cornwall and interwoven with the living past of five generations of the Quin family, and illustrative of life - as Chaucer says - as a "thinne subtil knittinge of thinges". A medieval book of hours plays a part in the plot.

8
1
MIDCENTURY
John Dos Passos
Cover of MIDCENTURY

MIDCENTURY

by John Dos Passos · Houghton, Mifflin

7 wks on list

Billede af vor tid sammenstillede af autentiske beretninger, biografier og noveller

9
2
DON'T TELL ALFRED
Nancy Mitford
Cover of DON'T TELL ALFRED

DON'T TELL ALFRED

by Nancy Mitford · Harper and Brothers

3 wks on list

Fanny Wincham copes with crises among her friends and relations when her husband, now Sir Alfred, is unexpectedly appointed ambassador to Paris. Follows "Love in a cold climate" and "The pursuit of love."

10
1
WINNIE ILLE PU
A.A. Milnei
Cover of WINNIE ILLE PU
15
NEW
HEAVEN HAS NO FAVORITES
Erich Maria Remarque

HEAVEN HAS NO FAVORITES

by Erich Maria Remarque · Harcourt, Brace and World

1 wks on list

Tensions and problems of life in a tuberculosis sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps, and the tragic love story of a vivacious girl and a grand prix race-track driver.

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