Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1970s
This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1970s, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1970 through 1975.[1]
The standards set for inclusion in the lists – which, for example, led to the exclusion of the novels in the Harry Potter series from the lists for the 1990s and 2000s – are currently unknown.
1970
- Love Story by Erich Segal
- The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
- Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway
- The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
- Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell
- QB VII by Leon Uris
- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin
- The Secret Woman by Victoria Holt
- Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
- Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw
1971
- Wheels by Arthur Hailey
- The Exorcist by William P. Blatty
- The Passions of the Mind by Irving Stone
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- The Betsy by Harold Robbins
- Message from Malaga by Helen MacInnes
- The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
- The Drifters by James A. Michener
- The Other by Tom Tryon
- Rabbit Redux by John Updike
1972
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
- August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- The Word by Irving Wallace
- The Winds of War by Herman Wouk
- Captains and the Kings by Taylor Caldwell
- Two from Galilee by Marjorie Holmes
- My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
- Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins
1973
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
- Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
- Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
- Burr by Gore Vidal
- The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart
- Evening in Byzantium by Irwin Shaw
- The Matlock Paper by Robert Ludlum
- The Billion Dollar Sure Thing by Paul E. Erdman
- The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
1974
- Centennial by James A. Michener
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Jaws by Peter Benchley
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
- Something Happened by Joseph Heller
- The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth
- The Pirate by Harold Robbins
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
- The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
- The Fan Club by Irving Wallace
1975
- Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
- The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey
- Curtain by Agatha Christie
- Looking for Mr. Goodbar by Judith Rossner
- The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh
- The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins
- The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone
- The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton
- Shōgun by James Clavell
- Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1976
- Trinity by Leon Uris
- Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
- Dolores by Jacqueline Susann
- Storm Warning by Jack Higgins
- The Deep by Peter Benchley
- 1876 by Gore Vidal
- Slapstick or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Lonely Lady by Harold Robbins
- Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart
- A Stranger in the Mirror by Sidney Sheldon
1977
- The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
- The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
- Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
- The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré
- Oliver's Story by Erich Segal
- Dreams Die First by Harold Robbins
- Beggarman, Thief by Irwin Shaw
- How to Save Your Own Life by Erica Jong
- Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin
- Daniel Martin by John Fowles
1978
- Chesapeake by James A. Michener
- War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
- Fools Die by Mario Puzo
- Bloodline by Sidney Sheldon
- Scruples by Judith Krantz
- Evergreen by Belva Plain
- Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
- The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum
- Second Generation by Howard Fast
- Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
1979
- The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum
- Sophie's Choice by William Styron
- Overload by Arthur Hailey
- Memories of Another Day by Harold Robbins
- Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Dead Zone by Stephen King
- The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart
- The Establishment by Howard Fast
- The Third World War: August 1985 by John Hackett
- Smiley's People by John le Carré
References
- ^ Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry (1977). 80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895–1975. New York: R. R. Bowker Company. pp. 209–210. ISBN 0-8352-0908-3.
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