TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of March 8, 1964

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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2
THE GROUP
Mary McCarthy
Cover of THE GROUP

THE GROUP

by Mary McCarthy · Harcourt, Brace and World

27 wks on list

Eight Vassar girls, determined not to be like Mother, decide to move with the times and put into action the ideas they have learned about in college.

4
1
THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL
John Cheever
Cover of THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL

THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL

by John Cheever · Harper & Row

7 wks on list

Tells of the Wapshot family as they carom around the world with considerable velocity, at times veering into outbreaks of wild hilarity.

5
1
THE HAT ON THE BED
John O'Hara
Cover of THE HAT ON THE BED

THE HAT ON THE BED

by John O'Hara · Random House

14 wks on list

A collection of 24 hitherto uncollected stories.

8
1
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
Ian Fleming
Cover of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE

by Ian Fleming · New American Library

26 wks on list

James Bond 007 is back! Bond is approached by a crime boss to marry his daughter and in return both father and daughter help 007 hunt for his archenemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.Whilst on leave, British agent James Bond prevents a young woman, Tracy Draco, from committing suicide. Her father is the head of a powerful crime syndicate who is impressed by Bond and wants him to protect his daughter by marrying her. In exchange he offers Bond information which will lead 007 to his arch enemy Ernst Blofeld. At first Bond agrees to the deal purely to fulfil his objective to kill Blofeld but later he grows to love Tracy but when the British learn that Blofeld plans to destroy mankind with a deadly virus, 007 is torn between his loyalty to his county and his intent to marry Tracy.

10
NEW
THE FANATIC
Meyer Levin

THE FANATIC

by Meyer Levin · Simon & Schuster

"Maury Finkelstein, ex-rabbinical student, translates the book of the late Leo Kahn. Kahn's work is said to be a moving and mystic evocation of the Jewish resistance in WWII. Maury's idealism is fired by the book. He is not impelled by self-interest in searching out a producer for the play he has adopted from the book. He wants this for the world, for Israel, and for Jews everywhere. He is made a fanatic by the people with whom he must deal who are motivated by profit. For various private considerations, they twist his scenario and soften its impact; worse, they have cheated Maury of his rights to the play and changed its intent. The most embittering of Maury's problems were those Jews, powerful in the theater, who were more concerned with Gentile audience appeal than their heritage. Two inescapable things about fanatics are their ability to bore and irritate. To this extent, Levin has created an authentic figure in Maury whose naivete and reliance on rabbinical argument, long after the necessity for a good lawyer has become apparent, is extended and distressing. This is a long book made no easier by the clumsy narrative device -- it is told with the disembodied and dispassionate voice of the dead author Kahn, in whose literary genius it is hard to believe. This urges self-examination by American Jews -- a smaller, but active, portion of Levin's large general readership."--Kirkus

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