TheBestseller
Observatory

Best Sellers

Hardcover Nonfiction

Week of December 4, 1949

FictionNonfiction
WeekMonth
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1
WHITE COLLAR ZOO
Clare Barnes

WHITE COLLAR ZOO

by Clare Barnes · Doubleday

19 wks at #1 · 20 on list
11
2
A GUIDE TO CONFIDENT LIVING
Norman Vincent Peale
Cover of A GUIDE TO CONFIDENT LIVING

A GUIDE TO CONFIDENT LIVING

by Norman Vincent Peale · Prentice-Hall

61 wks on list

"Change your thoughts and change your life". Dr. Norman Vincent Peale demonstrates how you can think your way to success and happiness with his amazing time-tested techniques. Step-by-step, in clear readable language, Dr. Peale shows you how to release your inner powers to achieve confidence and contentment and to open the way to new energy that will actually revitalize your life. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

12
NEW
THE FRENCHMAN
Philippe Halsman
Cover of THE FRENCHMAN

THE FRENCHMAN

by Philippe Halsman · Simon & Schuster

1 wks on list

Una entrevista visual sumamente original con el actor cómico francés más querido. En 1948, el fotógrafo Philippe Halsman tuvo un encuentro fortuito en Nueva York con Fernandel, una estrella del cine francés de la mejor tradición de vodevil, y pidió al actor que participara en un experimento fotográfico totalmente original. Halsman preguntaría a Fernandel sobre Estados Unidos y éste le contestaría solamente con gestos de la cara. Con su entrañable y alargada cara de caballo, Fernandel gesticuló las respuestas a preguntas como - 'El francés de la calle sigue pellizcando las chicas bonitas entre la multitud?' (sonrisa pícara). Las reacciones de Fernandel son desternillantes y el libro, fruto de esta insólita colaboración, es realmente maravilloso.

13
2
BAGHDAD-BY-THE-BAY
Herb Caen
Cover of BAGHDAD-BY-THE-BAY
15
5
THE CONQUERORS
Thomas B. Costain
Cover of THE CONQUERORS

THE CONQUERORS

by Thomas B. Costain · Doubleday

4 wks on list

There are periods in history when things are seen dimly as through a veil. Such were the years from 1377 to 1485. During this time the Chronicles were silent and the sources of information few. And yet these were eventful years, filled with important, strange, colorful and sometimes mystifying events. The Wars of the Roses were fought; a few men began to preach and a nation began to listen to new beliefs; the stout men of the soil rose against feudal injustices; and the greatest of mysteries grew out of the deaths of two princes in the Tower of London. This is the period covered by Thomas B. Costain in THE LAST PLANTAGENETS. It is not claiming too much to say that here the veil has been raised and that throughout the book a bright light plays on this century of excitement and romance and stories stranger than fiction. Here we read of a king who devoted much of his reign to revenge; of the same young monarch riding out boldly to face the peasants demanding a fairer deal; of the winning of Fair Kate of France by the spectacular warrior king, Henry V; of the emergence of a commoner known in history as the Kingmaker; of a ruler who condemned his brother to death and the carrying out of the sentence, according to public report at the time, by drowning the prince in a butt of wine. By way of climax to the saga of the extraordinary Plantagenets with their brilliant successes, tragic reverses and wild extravagances, the last section of the book is devoted to a summary of the case of Richard III. Was Richard the villainous hunchback of stage and story who had his nephews murdered to clear his way to the throne? Or was he the whipping boy of history, whose voice could not be raised in defense from the grave and whose friends did not dare speak out? All the evidence in this unsolved mystery is gathered up and the author achieves in the telling a mounting tension which has never before, perhaps, been reached. Readers today might well raise their eyes from the perusal of newspaper murders to find in this case the strangest and most gripping story of all. This is the fourth, and last, volume in what Thomas B. Costain originally intended to be a history of England. The three earlier volumes were published under the titles The Conquerors, The Magnificent Century and The Three Edwards. Some time in the future the publishers may combine the four, with some necessary additions, to be issued as a history of the Plantagenet kings.

16
3
A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK
W. Somerset Maugham
Cover of A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK

A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK

by W. Somerset Maugham · Doubleday

4 wks on list

From 1892, when he was eighteen, until 1949, when this book was first published, Somerset Maugham kept a notebook. It is without doubt one of his most important works. Part autobiographical, part confessional, packed with observations, confidences, experiments and jottings it is a rich and exhilarating admission into this great writer's workshop

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