LOA's All-time best-sellers

I just posted the updated list of the LOA's best-selling titles on our blog:

http://blog.loa.org/2011/01/best-selling-titles-in-library-of.html

Thanks for that David.

I'm pleased to see I have 7 of those 10 in one form or another.

I'm curious - Jefferson - why is he so popular now in America. or has he always been?

Just notice Steinbeck at #38 - ??? This is a shock to me - he is a fantastic writer.

David, out of curiosity, do you at the LOA, see past volumes suddenly become popular again for a while then return to the norm? I mean without the inducement of a discount of course.

I think there are several reasons why the Jefferson volume has done particularly well, in addition to Jefferson's ongoing popularity with Americans.

(1) There really isn't anything else like it available--unlike, say, Franklin, whose major works are available from dozens of other publishers. And John Adams wrote far too extensively to fit his writing in a similar one-volume edition.

(2) The book is 1,600 pages, yet because it sells so well, we've (barely) managed to keep the retail price at $40.00.

(3) The mailing lists we used years ago for our subscription program used to be heavily history-oriented (History Book Club, History Channel, American Heritage, etc.), so the title has always been very popular with our subscribers.

The only other Founding Father who comes close is Thomas Paine (currently at #16, and probably breaking into the top 10 in a few years).

#1 thanks, intriguing information. Is the LOA collective ever surprised by a particular volume's sales? For instance, everyone thinks a volume will sell and it just doesn't. Or the opposite happens. An expected slow seller takes off in sales.

Re: Steinbeck

The Steinbeck volume at #38 is the third of four volumes. The first two Steinbeck volumes are at #22 and #23, however.

Ironically, the reason the third Steinbeck volume (which was published in 2001) did well is because "East of Eden" was an Oprah selection--so the answer to your other question is, yes, volumes often suddenly skyrocket for various reasons. Other examples are Flannery O'Connor (because of the recent biography) and John Muir (because of a TV show on the American national parks system).

> East of Eden is a great novel - so much in it - such great characters.

VisibleGhost:

Yes, to both questions. Nobody seems to believe us when we say this, but we were actually stunned by the success of the Lovecraft volume; we had to reprint before the publication date. There were so many other Lovecraft anthologies in print, that we hadn't really anticipated the interest the LOA anthology would generate.

The reverse often happens. The two volume Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, for example, sold at so-so levels for many years and suddenly, in the last twelve months, the sales have taken off. I still haven't been able to explain that one.

I checked the LT holdings of number one and ten.

Thomas Jefferson: Writings- 663 copies
Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works- 759 copies

I'm not exactly sure how to find the LOA volume most entered on LT. Mississippi Writings is tagged Library of America the most often on LT.

> 4

(2) The book is 1,600 pages, yet because it sells so well, we've (barely) managed to keep the retail price at $40.00.

David, that surely is the most remarkable value for money. And think, what else could you buy for $40 that will give you so much long term benefits?

Relative to other ways of spending your cash - it is a no-brainer.

Wow, this is fantastic. Thanks, David for sharing this information.

Thank you for the list David, interesting stuff. I've got the Twain volume from the number two spot, one of the few LoA volumes I have at the moment. I read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as a kid and am looking forward to revisiting both at some point. Still haven't got around to reading it though.

We just posted another list on the blog: the titles whose sales during this past fall and holiday season increased the most over the previous year's sales.

http://blog.loa.org/2011/01/of-book-is-greatly-exaggerated.html

The list is part of a bigger story: our retail backlist sales are up 18%--and the previous year had already been a banner year for backlist sales. Titles at the top of the list are selling three times as many copies as they did last year.

Congrats, David - and to the Library of America! It's nice to hear a bit of real, solid good news from the industry.

Just watched this documentary and fallen in love all over again with John Muir.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/john-muir-in-the-new-world/watc...

Fiscal Woe Haunting Baltimore Poe House:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/arts/edgar-allan-poe-house-in-baltimore-faces-...

Shame that it has to be located near a defacto 'inner city' prison called the projects.

Edited to add that if those pjs are anything as horrific as the one depicted on HBO's The Wire (season one), I sure as haydes wouldn't visit the Poe House either.

David, are you able to update the blog (and here) annually on the bestsellers list?

I'm not sure anything will shift the incumbent leading volume, but there is not much daylight around some of them.

It will be interesting to see how these volumes wax and wane in popularity.

The only change in the list is that Frost (now #8) has pulled ahead of Emerson (now #9), and Grant (now #10) has edged barely ahead of Flannery O'Connor--although they're so close that should be considered tied.

For the new year, I was thinking of putting together a list using different measurements: probably the best-selling "back-list" titles (i.e., excluding new titles) in retail outlets for the past twelve months.

> 18

Yes, I think that is a good idea. A list of back titles would give a good indication of the perennially popular choices.

I will be writing to the BBC in the hope that they would consider a return of the BBC Big Read in 2013, ten years on from the original Big Read, to see how people have changed in their views of the best read ever.

The final votes cast for the top 21 were as follows....

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchel

The whole list is here from 1-200 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/

In 2003, Pottermania was in full swing as you can tell from the list above. With those spotty 13 year old voters now twenty-somethings the list might have changed consistently.

There have been a nice couple of Booker winners since 2003 in there that might muscle their way in, like White Tiger or Wolf Hall.

David, a year on from you updating this thread, what does the pecking order look like now?

I have just read the most wonderful review of Grant's memoirs (Penguin 9780140437010) in Slightly Foxed (36), with the titulary: Muddy Boots and a Slouched Hat.

Isn't it just the case that when you order 25 LOA volumes in the last sale, you come across one that has dipped below your radar?

Yet I see after doing a search, that in #18 above, Grant had indeed made its way into the top ten.

Well, you have to start a new wish list sometime don't you?

And of course the Library of America edition will be the one I will be adding to my library, containing unlike the Penguin edition, the selected letters.

The LOA Grant was one of my first LOas, as I had always heard that his Memoirs were the finest literary work by any U.S. president. After reading them, I cannot dispute this claim. Grant hadn't Jefferson's intellect and erudition, nor Lincoln's poetic bent, but his qualities of clarity, honesty, his gift for vivid description, and his balanced perspective of the emotions that stirred the opposing forces in the great conflict, are unsurpassed.

David, do we have an updated list of bestsellers and a link? Thanks.

Thanks for the prompt. I will post new bestsellers list(s) on the blog within the next couple of weeks, and will add the link here.

--David

And here are not one, but two lists for your enjoyment:

http://blog.loa.org/2013/05/the-library-of-america-best-selling.html

--David

> 24

Great stuff, thanks for that David.

>24 DCloyceSmith:

What Halicarnassus said. As a hopeless Lovecraftian, it was particularly nice to see his LoA volume at #5 on the second list. 8)

All great titles, but I'm super excited for the forthcoming Susan Sontag volume. She might not end up on the bestseller list, but this will be an important release. Trying to figure out where to start with her, as a reader, is a little daunting. Now I can own her best and most essential works all in one volume. This is why I love LOA. Happy to be a new subscriber.

David
When do you expect to update the Reader's Almanac for The Library of America’s Best-Selling Titles (2014 update)

Do you expect that it will be around May again?

I just love comparing these lists year on year :-) (In fact I just like lists!)

PS Happy New Year David and to all you good people on this LOA Subscribers' Forum. Happy reading for 2014. For the record, my favourite LOA book read in 2013 was

The Mountains of California - John Muir

I still think my best LOA read to date has been East of Eden - John Steinbeck. I love the mythological allusion and allegory and the fullness of the story, combined to produce a great book.

PPS Just in case you don't read Story of the Week, please do: make it your 2014 New Years Resolution - I have discovered so many great works through that medium.

>28 LesMiserables: I concur fully. I too love these lists and am interested in the general welfare of the LoA. May I add my good wishes for 2014 to those of LesMis. I hope this is a bumper year for both the LoA and its supporters.

>28 LesMiserables: & 29

I have the final data for 2013 now, and I try to work something up in the next two weeks. There's no movement on the all-time list, so I'll post the backlist best-sellers.

--David

30

Thanks.

The latest list has now been posted on the blog: http://blog.loa.org/2014/02/the-library-of-americas-best-selling.html

--David

32

Thank you David.

Somewhat mysterious are the unexpected 30% increases in sales for such stalwart evergreens as John Muir...

I put that wholly down to my unceasing promotion of the giant of Dùn Bàrr :-)

Can we get an update?

I included the list for 2014 in a recent e-newsletter, since it reaches at least ten times as many people. Here it is:

http://links.loa.org/YesConnect/HtmlMessagePreview?a=rC5dPesGldIGh2zj1iCB#Also

The blog was semi-dormant for a while, as you all may have noticed. We were short-staffed, and so we had been trying to "streamline" as much of our work as we can while we've been preparing for our website overhaul and redesign.

We have a new employee helping out with social media, the website, and other items: Jeff Tompkins, a longtime LOA fan. So you may have noticed more recent activity on the blog, on Twitter, etc. I'm sure he'll be joining us here soon.

The new site is going live (we hope) in late September or October.

David

>35 DCloyceSmith:

Thanks, David.

I was on the verge of posting an observation about the very welcome return of higher activity levels on LOA's Reader's Almanac when I saw your post above, David. It's very welcome.

I'll be looking forward to the web site revisions later this year.