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This website was compiled by
Daniel Immerwahr




The Books of the Century: 1900-1909

1900


Fiction Bestsellers

1. Mary Johnston, To Have and To Hold

2. Mary Cholmondeley, Red Pottage

3. Robert Grant, Unleavened Bread

4. James Lane Allen, The Reign of Law

5. Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden

6. Paul Leicester Ford, Janice Meredith

7. Charles Frederic Goss, The Redemption of David Corson

8. Winston Churchill, Richard Carvel

9. Charles Majo, When Knighthood Was in Flower

10. Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant
Josiah Royce, The World and the Individual

Clarence Stedman, An American Anthology

Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie

Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams

L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

John Dewey, The School and Society

1901

Fiction Bestsellers
1. Winston Churchill, The Crisis

2. Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes

3. Bertha Runkle, The Helmet of Navarre

4. Gilbert Parker, The Right of Way

5. Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden

6. Elinor Glyn, The Visits of Elizabeth

7. Harold MacGrath, The Puppet Crown

8. Maurice Hewlett, Richard Yea-and-Nay

9. George Barr McCutcheon, Graustark

10. Irving Bacheller, D'ri and I

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Frank Norris, The Octopus

E. A. Ross, Social Control

Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

George A. Gordon, New Epoch for Faith

Rudyard Kipling, Kim

1902

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Owen Wister, The Virginian

2. Alice Caldwell Hegan, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

3. Charles Major, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall

4. Emerson Hough, The Mississippi Bubble

5. Mary Johnston, Audrey

6. Gilbert Parker, The Right of Way

7. A. Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

8. Booth Tarkington, The Two Vanrevels

9. Henry van Dyke, The Blue Flower

10. Lucas Malet, Sir Richard Calmady
Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics

William James, Varieties of Religious Experience

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

C. H. Cooley, Human Nature and Social Order

Owen Wister, The Virginian

André Gide, The Immoralist

Vladimir Lenin, What is to be Done?

Henry James, The Wings of the Dove

Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of To-morrow

1903

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Mary Augusta Ward, Lady Rose's Daughter

2. Thomas Nelson Page, Gordon Keith

3. Frank Norris, The Pit

4. Alice Hegan Rice, Lovey Mary

5. Owen Wister, The Virginian

6. Alice Hegan Rice, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

7. James Lane Allen, The Mettle of the Pasture

8. George Horace Lorimer, Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His Son

9. Thomas Dixon Jr., The One Woman

10. John Fox Jr., The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

John Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory

Jack London, Call of the Wild

Helen Thompson Wooley, Mental Traits of Sex

Bertrand Russell, Principles of Mathematics

G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica

Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh

Henry James, The Ambassadors   
Helen Keller, The Story of My Life


1904

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Winston Churchill, The Crossing

2. Ellen Glasgow, The Deliverance

3. Anonymous (Katherine Cecil Thurston), The Masquerader

4. Miriam Michelson, In the Bishop's Carriage

5. Mary Johnston, Sir Mortimer

6. George Barr McCutcheon, Beverly of Graustark

7. John Fox Jr., The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

8. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

9. Henry Harland, My Friend Prospero

10. Stewart Edward White, The Silent Places
Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Henry James, The Golden Bowl

Henry Adams, Mt.-St. Michel and Chartres

Thorstein Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Joseph Conrad, Nostromo

1905

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Mary Augusta Ward, The Marriage of William Ashe

2. Alice Hegan Rice, Sandy

3. Robert Hichens, The Garden of Allah

4. Thomas Dixon Jr., The Clansman

5. George Barr McCutcheon, Nedra

6. Katherine Cecil Thurston, The Gambler

7. Katherine Cecil Thurston, The Masquerader

8. Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

9. C. N. and A. M. Williamson, The Princess Passes

10. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rose o' the River
Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities

Thomas Dixon, Jr., The Clansman

Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

Mary Chesnut, Diary from Dixie

1906

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Winston Churchill, Coniston

2. Owen Wister, Lady Baltimore

3. Robert W. Chambers, The Fighting Chance

4. Meredith Nicholson, The House of a Thousand Candles

5. George Barr McCutcheon, Jane Cable

6. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

7. Margaret Deland, The Awakening of Helena Ritchie

8. Rex Beach, The Spoilers

9. Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth,

10. Ellen Glasgow, The Wheel of Life

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

William Graham Sumner, Folkways

George Santayana, The Life of Reason

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent

1907

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Frances Little, The Lady of the Decoration

2. Gilbert Parker, The Weavers

3. Meredith Nicholson, The Port of Missing Men

4. Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle

5. Louis J. Vance, The Brass Bowl

6. Hallie Erminie Rives, Satan Sanderson

7. George Barr McCutcheon, The Daughter of Anderson Crow

8. Robert W. Chambers, The Younger Set

9. Ralph Connor, The Doctor

10. Harold MacGrath, Half a Rogue

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

William James, Pragmatism

Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis

Henry James, The American Scene

Simon Patten, New Basis for Civilization

The Education of Henry Adams (privately published)

Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution

1908

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Winston Churchill, Mr. Crewe's Career

2. Rex Beach, The Barrier

3. John Fox Jr., The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

4. Harold MacGrath, The Lure of the Mask

5. Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle

6. F. Hopkinson Smith, Peter

7. Mary Johnston, Lewis Rand

8. Louis J. Vance, The Black Bag

9. George Barr McCutcheon, The Man from Brodney's

10. Gilbert Parker, The Weavers
Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Arthur Bentley, Process of Government

Vladimir Lenin, Materialism and Empirico-Criticism

Graham Wallas, Human Nature and Politics

E. M. Forster, A Room with a View

Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives’ Tale

Mohandas Gandhi, Hind Swaraj
Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot

1909

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Basil King, The Inner Shrine

2. Elinor Macartney Lane, Katrine

3. Rex Beach, The Silver Horde

4. Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Man in Lower Ten

5. John Fox Jr., The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

6. George Barr McCutcheon, Truxton King

7. Emerson Hough, 54-40 or Fight

8. Harold MacGrath, The Goose Girl

9. F. Hopkinson Smith, Peter

10. William J. Locke, Septimus

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life

William James, A Pluralistic Universe

W. C. Brownell, American Prose Masters