Classic & Best Selling Fiction of the 20th Century

What follows is a comprehensive list, culled from several sources, of best selling and classic fiction from the 20th century. Some of the listed works are considered literary treasures, while others are labeled as commercially successful pulp fiction and are disregarded by the literary elite. Many titles became best sellers because they were highly controversial and attained the label of “banned books.” Some became best sellers long after they were originally published. Regardless of the reason, all the novels on this list are classic fiction or were successful best sellers and have contributed to the sum total of publishing , literary, and pop culture history in the 20th century.

1900 – Sister Carrie – Theodore Dreiser

1900 – To Have and To Hold – Mary Johnston

1902 – Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

1902 – The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle

1902 – The Virginian – Owen Wister

1902 – The Wings of the Dove – Henry James

1903 – The Call of the Wild – Jack London

1903 – The Way of All Flesh – Samuel Butler

1905 – The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton

1906 - The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

1908 – A Room With a View – E.M. Forster

1912 – Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs

1913 – Pollyanna – Eleanor H. Porter

1913 – Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence

1915 – Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

1917 – The Red Planet – William J. Locke

1918 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – V. Blasco Ibanez

1918 – The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington

1919 – Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson

1920 – The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

1920 – Main Street – Sinclair Lewis

1920 – Women in Love – D. H. Lawrence

1922 – Ulysses – James Joyce

1924 – A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

1925 – An American Tragedy – Theodore Dreiser

1925 – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Anita Loos

1925 – The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

1925 – Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

1926 – The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

1927 – Elmer Gantry – Sinclair Lewis

1927 – To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf

1928 – Home to Harlem – Claude McKay

1928 – Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence

1929 – A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

1929 – All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

1929 – The Blacker the Berry – Wallace Thurman

1929 – Cimarron – Edna Ferber

1929 – Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe

1929 – Magnificent Obsession – Lloyd C. Douglas

1929 – The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

1930 – As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

1930 – Not Without Laughter – Langston Hughes

1931 – Back Street – Fannie Hurst

1931 – The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

1932 – Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

1933 – Anthony Adverse – Hervey Allen

1933 – God’s Little Acre – Erskine Caldwell

1933 – Tobacco Road – Erskine Caldwell

1934 – Goodbye, Mr. Chips – James Hilton

1934 – Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

1934 – Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller

1935 – Studs Lonigan – James T. Farrell

1936 – Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

1937 – The Citadel – A.J. Cronin

1937 – Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

1938 – Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier

1938 – U.S.A. (trilogy) – John Dos Passos

1938 – The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1939 – And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie

1939 – The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

1939 – How Green Was My Valley – Richard Llewellyn

1939 – Mrs. Miniver – Jan Struther

1940 – For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

1940 – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

1940 – Native Son – Richard Wright

1943 – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith

1944 – Forever Amber – Kathleen Winsor

1944 – The Razor’s Edge – W. Somerset Maugham

1945 – Animal Farm – George Orwell

1945 – Brideshead Revisted – Evelyn Waugh

1946 – All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

1946 – The Snake Pit – Mary Jane Ward

1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement – Laura Z. Hobson

1948 – The Loved One – Evelyn Waugh

1948 – The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

1948 – The Young Lions – Irwin Shaw

1949 – 1984 – George Orwell

1949 – A Rage to Live – John O’Hara

1950 – The Cardinal – Henry Morton Robinson

1951 – The Arrangement – Elia Kazan

1951 – The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk

1951 – The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

1951 – From Here to Eternity – James Jones

1952 – Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

1952 – East of Eden – John Steinbeck

1952 – Giant – Edna Ferber

1952 – Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

1952 – The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

1952 – A Stone for Danny Fisher – Harold Robbins

1952 – Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor

1953 – Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

1953 – Go Tell It On the Mountain – James Baldwin

1954 – Bonjour Tristesse – Francoise Sagan

1954 – Lord of the Flies – William Golding

1954 – The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

1955 – Andersonville – MacKinley Kantor

1955 – Auntie Mame – Patrick Dennis

1955 – Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

1955 – 79 Park Avenue – Harold Robbins

1956 – Peyton Place – Grace Metalious

1957 – Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

1957 – Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

1957 – Mandingo – Kyle Onstott

1957 – On The Road – Jack Kerouac

1958 – Anatomy of a Murder – Robert Traver

1958 – The Best of Everything – Rona Jaffe

1958 – Candy – Terry Southern

1958 – Exodus – Leon Uris

1958 – From the Terrace – John O’Hara

1959 – Advise and Consent – Allen Drury

1959 – Goldfinger – Ian Fleming

1959 – Hawaii – James Michener

1959 – Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs

1959 – Toys in the Attic – Lillian Hellman

1960 – The Chapman Report – Irving Wallace

1960 – Rabbit, Run – John Updike

1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

1961 – A Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein

1961 – The Agony and the Ecstasy – Irving Stone

1961 – The Carpetbaggers – Harold Robbins

1961 – Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

1961 – Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger

1961 – Youngblood Hawke – Herman Wouk

1962 – A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

1962 – The Group – Mary McCarthy

1962 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

1962 – Ship of Fools – Katherine Anne Porter

1963 – The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

1963 – The Spy Who Came in From the Cold – John LeCarre

1964 – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden – Joanne Greenberg

1964 – The Learning Tree – Gordon Parks

1965 – Hotel – Arthur Hailey

1965 – The Looking Glass War – John LeCarre

1965 – The Source – James A. Michener

1966 – The Adventurers – Harold Robbins

1966 – The Fixer – Bernard Malamud

1966 – Tai-Pan – James Clavell

1966 – Valley of the Dolls – Jacqueline Susann

1967 – The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton

1967 – Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

1967 – Topaz – Leon Uris

1968 – Airport – Arthur Hailey

1968 – Couples – John Updike

1968 – Myra Breckinridge – Gore Vidal

1969 – The Godfather – Mario Puzo

1969 – The Love Machine – Jacqueline Susann

1969 – Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth

1969 – The Seven Minutes – Irving Wallace

1969 – Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

1969 – Travels With My Aunt – Graham Greene

1970 – The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison

1970 – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

1970 – Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

1970 – Love Story – Erich Segal

1970 – Rich Man, Poor Man – Irwin Shaw

1970 – QB VII – Leon Uris

1971 – The Betsy – Harold Robbins

1971 – The Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsyth

1971 – The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty

1971 – The New Centurians – Joseph Wambaugh

1971 – Rabbit Redux – John Updike

1971 – The Winds of War – Herman Wouk

1972 – Captains and the Kings – Taylor Caldwell

1972 – The Optimist’s Daughter – Eudora Welty

1972 - The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin

1973 – Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

1973 – Once is Not Enough – Jacqueline Susann

1974 – Carrie – Stephen King

1974 – Centennial – James A. Michener

1974 – Jaws – Peter Benchly

1974 – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John LeCarre

1975 – The Choirboys – Joseph Wambaugh

1975 – Looking for Mr. Goodbar – Judith Rossner

1975 – Shogun – James Clavell

1976 – 1876 – Gore Vidal

1976 – Night Chills – Dean Koontz

1976 – Ordinary People – Judith Guest

1976 – Roots – Alex Haley

1977 – The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough

1978 – Bloodline – Sidney Sheldon

1978 – Delta of Venus – Anais Nin

1978 – Scruples – Judith Krantz

1978 – The World According to Garp – John Irving

1980 – The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum

1980 – The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean M. Auel

1980 – The Covenant – James A. Michner

1980 – The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

1980 – Princess Daisy – Judith Krantz

1980 – Rage of Angels – Sidney Sheldon

1981 – Cujo – Stephen King

1981 – Gorky Park – Martin Cruz Smith

1981 – The Hotel New Hampshire – John Irving

1981 – Noble House – James Clavell

1982 – The Color Purple – Alice Walker

1982 – The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende

1982 – Mistral’s Daughter – Judith Krantz

1983 – Heartburn – Nora Ephron

1983 – Hollywood Wives – Jackie Collins

1983 – Pet Sematary – Stephen King

1985 – Cider House Rules – John Irving

1985 – The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

1985 – Secrets – Danielle Steel

1986 – The Bourne Supremacy – Robert Ludlum

1986 – It – Stephen King

1986 – The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy

1987 – Beloved – Toni Morrison

1987 – Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe

1987 – Misery – Stephen King

1988 – Fallen Angels – Walter Dean Myers

1988 – The Queen of the Damned – Anne Rice

1988 – The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

1989 – Clear and Present Danger – Tom Clancy

1989 – The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

1989 – Like Water For Chocolate – Laura Esquivel

1990 – The Bourne Ultimatum – Robert Ludlum

1990 – Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton

1990 – The Plains of Passage – Jean M. Auel

1991 – American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis

1991 – The Firm – John Grisham

1992 – The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller

1992 – The Pelican Brief – John Grisham

1993 – The Client – John Grisham

1994 – The Chamber – John Grisham

1994 – The Gift – Danielle Steel

1994 – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt

1996 – Bridget Jones’ Diary – Helen Fielding

1996 – Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk

1997 – Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier

1997 – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

1997 – Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

1997 – Sex and the City – Candace Bushnell

1998 – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

1999 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling

1999 – Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

1999 – The Testament – John Grisham

 

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