1958

US F I C T I O N

1. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak 2,071 copies on LT

2. Anatomy of a Murder, Robert Traver 195 copies

3. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov 8,212 copies

4. Around the World with Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis 132 copies

5. From the Terrace, John O'Hara 67 copies

6. Eloise at Christmastime, Kay Thompson 95 copies

7. Ice Palace, Edna Ferber 42 copies

8. The Winthrop Woman, Anya Seton 173 copies

9. The Enemy Camp, Jerome Weidman 11 copies

10. Victorine, Frances Parkinson Keyes 20 copies

N O N F I C T I O N

1. Kids Say the Darndest Things!, Art Linkletter 68 copies

2. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Pat Boone 28 copies

3. Only in America, Harry Golden 34 copies

4. Masters of Deceit; The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It, J. Edgar Hoover 80 copies on LT

5. Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr 120 copies

6. Better Homes and Gardens Salad Book 292 copies

7. The New Testament in Modern English, J. P. Phillips, trans. 292 copies

8. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, Thor Heyerdahl 206 copies on LT

9. Dear Abby, Abigail Van Buren 5 copies

10. Inside Russia Today, John Gunther 45 copies

That's what I'm talkin about!

Read none of these either - man - Im not very well read :(

Lolita is the only one of this bunch I've read. Nabokov's use of the English language is beautiful, but it seems every character in everything I've read of his is just loathesome.

I remember seeing (knowing) people, who owned Kids say the darndest things, but at the aage of 13 I wouldn't eventhink of readin it.

A relative did give me (maybe second hand) Harry Golden's book, Only in America. I think she thought it really captured the idea of the U.S. pretty well. So, I read "at it."

At some point, I remember owning The New Testament in Modern English. I took a look at the cover shown on the work page, and definitely recognize it. But I don't have it in my LT catalog, although I have two other books by J. B. Phillips.

I've only read Lolita. Certainly a good book, but not the most sympathetic protagonist.

I've read quite a few of these; Inside Russia Today, Doctor Zhivago, Anatomy of a Murder, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and Lolita. I remember only the first and last. I may have read Kids Say the Darnedest Things, as that was another one that was kicking around the house, but I really don't remember anything about it.

4 and 6 >

Yeah, that! Lolita made a huge impression on me at the time because of the writing -- the way he jumped in style from 19th-century epic to hard-boiled detective to midcentury romance, and wrote so atmospherically about roadside America. I enjoyed some of his other books, but eventually drifted away because of an essential coldness at the core of almost every one of them. Pnin was the exception; it actually had heart.

I tried to reread Lolita maybe ten or twelve years ago and just couldn't get through it at all. I don't care about "writing" the way I used to, and...well, Humbert. Not a real great guy. I just can't go there any more.

Uncharacteristically for me, the only ones I've read are on the non-fiction list. I remember reading Please Don't Eat the Daisies (maybe because they made a TV show out of it), Aku-Aku, and Kids Say the Darndest Things.

I remember Linkletter on the radio with "Kids Say the Darnedest Things". I sat next to him on a flight once. We didn't speak. He was busy and I don't know how to act around celebrities.

I've read Aku Aku and Only in America. I think Harry Golden had quite an eye for the poignant. His tales are of the feel good sort. Jewish life in the American South in the forties and fifties.

Otto Preminger turned Anatomy of a Murder into a great motion picture starring Jimmy Stewart.

I read Doctor Zhivago and Lolita long ago, the latter way too early to be able to truly appreciate it. I own Only in America and will get to it one of these days.

I read Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and I saw Eloise on TV a few years ago. Apparently Eloise was written about Lisa Minnelli with Mama being Judy Garland. I've also seen Mame and Dr. Zhivago, of course, and Kids Say the Darndest Things too.

How old AM I, anyway?

I loved Around the World with Auntie Mmame - Patrick Dennis is brilliant - but just cannot get into Nabokov and found Lolita boring. I read Dr Zhivago in my parent's library when I was quite young but did not enjoy it enough to buy it for my own library.

I just read Anatomy of a Murder and enjoyed it.

Since 1959 was updated, I figured I'd update 1958.

US Fiction

1. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak 5,246 copies on LT (popularity 650)
2. Anatomy of a Murder, Robert Traver 430 copies
3. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov 18,527 copies (popularity 59)
4. Around the World with Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis 272 copies
5. From the Terrace, John O'Hara 132 copies
6. Eloise at Christmastime, Kay Thompson 214 copies
7. Ice Palace, Edna Ferber 106 copies
8. The Winthrop Woman, Anya Seton 426 copies
9. The Enemy Camp, Jerome Weidman 21 copies
10. Victorine, Frances Parkinson Keyes 49 copies

Nonfiction

1. Kids Say the Darndest Things!, Art Linkletter 142 copies
2. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Pat Boone 54 copies
3. Only in America, Harry Golden 124 copies
4. Masters of Deceit; The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It, J. Edgar Hoover 187 copies on LT
5. Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr 266 copies
6. Better Homes and Gardens Salad Book 73 copies (apparently gone through some separation since the start of this thread)
7. The New Testament in Modern English, J. P. Phillips, trans. 730 copies
8. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, Thor Heyerdahl 508 copies on LT
9. Dear Abby, Abigail Van Buren 7 copies
10. Inside Russia Today, John Gunther 82 copies

Interesting story about how the CIA was responsible for Doctor Zhivago's best-seller status:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak#Nobel_Prize

The issue of whether or not the CIA had a hand in creating the international controversy that led to Pasternak's winning the Nobel Prize was definitively settled on 11 April 2014 when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency released "nearly 100 declassified documents" confirming that it had, in fact, undertaken a massive propaganda campaign to influence the Nobel Prize committee to consider Zhivago for the award, starting as early as 12 December 1957: "Dr. Zhivago should be published in a maximum number of foreign editions, for maximum free world discussion and acclaim and consideration for such honor as the Nobel prize"

In order to turn Pasternak's novel into an international bestseller worthy of consideration for the Nobel Prize, the CIA purchased thousands of copies of the novel as they came off the presses throughout Europe. When in the summer of 1958 the Dutch publishing house of Mouton brought out an edition of Zhivago, the CIA secretly arranged to "obtain first thousand copies of the book off the press and of these send 500 copies to the Brussels Fair" (i.e. the World's Fair held that summer in Brussels, Belgium).

In its announcement of the declassification of the Zhivago documents the CIA states that it also published "thousands" of copies of Zhivago and gave them out to Soviet tourists on holiday in Western Europe and had them smuggled into the Soviet Union: "After working secretly to publish the Russian-language edition in the Netherlands, the CIA moved quickly to ensure that copies of Doctor Zhivago were available for distribution to Soviet visitors at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. By the end of the Fair, 355 copies of Doctor Zhivago had been surreptitiously handed out, and eventually thousands more were distributed throughout the Communist bloc. Subsequently, the CIA funded the publication of a miniature, lightweight paperback edition of Doctor Zhivago that could be easily mailed or concealed in a jacket pocket. Distribution of the miniature version began in April 1959."

>15 Cecrow: Wow! That's interesting stuff.

>15 Cecrow: great info!