These Books Were Everywhere
Some of the biggest books of the 1970s have almost vanished from popular memory. They sold hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies, dominated bestseller lists, inspired movies and television events, and became books seemingly everyone was talking about. Fifty years later, many of their titles barely ring a bell.
Here are 28 novels that once seemed to define the 1970s, only to fade from memory.
Factinate Ltd. Love Story
Erich Segal's Love Story was the bestselling American novel of 1970. Its tragic romance between wealthy Harvard student Oliver Barrett IV and working-class Jenny Cavilleri became a publishing phenomenon just as the film adaptation was reaching theaters. Few books captured the decade's appetite for emotional melodrama quite so completely.
Wheels
Arthur Hailey specialized in taking huge institutions apart and showing readers how they worked from the inside. Wheels applied that formula to Detroit's automobile industry and became the bestselling American novel of 1971. Hailey was one of the era's most commercially successful writers, although this sprawling automotive drama receives far less attention today.
The Drifters
James A. Michener tried to capture a generation in upheaval with The Drifters. The novel follows six young people traveling through Europe and Africa while confronting war, politics, drugs, and rapidly changing social values. It reached the American top ten in 1971 and was presented as a sweeping portrait of a new generation.
The Betsy
Harold Robbins turned the American automobile industry into the setting for another huge 1971 bestseller. The Betsy follows a powerful industrial family as its members battle over business, money, ambition, and control of their company. Robbins was one of the world's most commercially successful novelists, yet individual blockbusters like this one have largely slipped out of mainstream conversation.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Few publishing crazes were stranger than Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The short philosophical tale about a bird determined to transcend the limits of his flock became America's bestselling novel in both 1972 and 1973. Its message of personal freedom and self-discovery fit the era perfectly, but the book's once-enormous cultural presence has faded considerably.
The Word
Irving Wallace turned biblical scholarship into mass-market suspense with The Word. The plot revolves around the supposed discovery of a previously unknown gospel and the religious, academic, and commercial turmoil that follows. It finished among America's five bestselling novels of 1972, proving that theological intrigue could compete with the decade's biggest thrillers.
John Malmin, Los Angeles Times, Wikimedia Commons
Captains And The Kings
Taylor Caldwell went big with Captains and the Kings. The sprawling saga follows an impoverished Irish immigrant as he rises into America's circles of wealth and political power. It became one of the ten bestselling novels of 1972 and later inspired a television miniseries.4
NBC Television, Wikimedia Commons
Two From Galilee
Marjorie Holmes transformed the biblical story of Mary and Joseph into a romantic historical novel. Two From Galilee presents them as young people facing family expectations, uncertainty, and extraordinary responsibility before the birth of Jesus. The novel became one of America's ten biggest fiction bestsellers of 1972 and eventually launched a trilogy.
Once Is Not Enough
Jacqueline Susann followed Valley of the Dolls and The Love Machine with another blockbuster. Once Is Not Enough entered the glamorous world of entertainment through January Wayne, the daughter of a powerful movie producer. The book ranked second among American fiction bestsellers for 1973 and helped make Susann the first novelist to have three consecutive books reach No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Photo by "Bruno of Hollywood", Wikimedia Commons
History's most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily.
The Hollow Hills
Mary Stewart's Arthurian novels became major commercial successes long before fantasy dominated modern publishing. The Hollow Hills, the second book in her Merlin series, follows Merlin as he protects and prepares the young Arthur. It became one of America's ten bestselling novels of 1973, although the series receives far less mainstream attention today.
Centennial
James Michener had a talent for writing novels that seemed to contain entire civilizations. Centennial traced the history of a region in Colorado across centuries and became America's bestselling novel of 1974. It later inspired an ambitious television miniseries, but the book now feels closely associated with an earlier era of blockbuster publishing.
Screenshot from Centennial, NBC (1978-1979)
The Pirate
Harold Robbins returned to the bestseller lists in 1974 with The Pirate. The novel follows a wealthy Middle Eastern businessman caught between family conflicts, international politics, and an extravagant jet-set world. It finished among America's ten bestselling novels that year but is rarely mentioned alongside the decade's best-remembered popular fiction.
The Moneychangers
Arthur Hailey returned to his favorite formula in The Moneychangers, this time examining the workings of a major American bank. Readers remained fascinated by his behind-the-scenes approach, and the novel finished second on Publishers Weekly's 1975 fiction ranking. Its success shows how completely a writer can dominate bestseller culture and still fade from later popular memory.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
Looking For Mr. Goodbar
Judith Rossner's Looking for Mr. Goodbar became one of the most talked-about novels of the mid-1970s. Inspired by a real murder case, it follows a New York schoolteacher whose nighttime life in the city's singles-bar scene grows increasingly dangerous. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times list and eventually had more than four million copies in print.
The Choirboys
Former police officer Joseph Wambaugh offered a much darker picture of policing in The Choirboys. The novel follows Los Angeles officers dealing with fear, cynicism, trauma, and the pressures of the job through gatherings they call "choir practice." It became one of America's bestselling novels of 1975 and helped cement Wambaugh's reputation for gritty police fiction.
Mark Coggins from San Francisco, Wikimedia Commons
Trinity
Leon Uris's Trinity was nearly impossible to avoid in 1976. The historical saga follows Irish families through poverty, sectarian conflict, British rule, and the events leading toward the Easter Rising. It became America's bestselling novel of the year and spent months at No. 1 on the New York Times fiction list.
Boris Carmi, Wikimedia Commons
The Deep
Peter Benchley followed the enormous success of Jaws by going underwater again. The Deep traded sharks for sunken treasure, shipwrecks, crime, and dangerous diving around Bermuda. It ranked among America's five bestselling novels of 1976 but never came close to achieving the lasting recognition of Benchley's earlier hit.
Screenshot from Jaws, Universal Pictures (1975)
The Lonely Lady
Harold Robbins was still a bestseller-list powerhouse when The Lonely Lady appeared. The novel dealt with ambition, fame, relationships, and exploitation in the entertainment world and ranked among America's ten bestselling works of fiction in 1976. Robbins once occupied an enormous place in popular publishing, but many of his individual titles now feel inseparable from their era.
A Stranger In The Mirror
Sidney Sheldon brought his television and Hollywood instincts to publishing with enormous success. A Stranger in the Mirror follows two fictional entertainment figures through dramatic swings between obscurity, fame, and personal collapse. It ranked among America's ten bestselling novels of 1976 and was later adapted for television.
Screenshot from A Stranger In The Mirror, ABC (1993)
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds was a genuine publishing event. The Australian family saga ranked second among America's bestselling novels of 1977 before becoming an enormously successful television miniseries. The title remains recognizable, but its sheer dominance of late-1970s popular culture can be difficult to appreciate today.
Screenshot from The Thorn Birds, ABC (1983)
Oliver's Story
Seven years after Love Story, Erich Segal returned to Oliver Barrett IV. Oliver's Story follows the widowed protagonist as he tries to rebuild his life after Jenny's death. The sequel became the fifth-bestselling American novel of 1977, yet it never developed anything close to the cultural afterlife of the original.
Dreams Die First
Harold Robbins remained a bestseller machine deep into the decade. Dreams Die First landed among the ten bestselling American novels of 1977 while once again mixing money, ambition, glamour, and the darker side of success. Its ranking is striking now because the book rarely appears in modern discussions of defining 1970s fiction.
Beggarman, Thief
Irwin Shaw returned to the world of Rich Man, Poor Man with Beggarman, Thief. The sequel made the 1977 American bestseller list, showing how strongly readers remained invested in the Jordache family saga. Television helped keep that fictional world in the public eye, but the novels themselves are far less prominent today.
Screenshot from Beggarman, Thief, NBC (1979)
Chesapeake
James Michener did it again in 1978. Chesapeake, his multigenerational story of communities around the Chesapeake Bay, finished the year as America's bestselling novel. It sold more than 850,000 hardcover copies that year, an extraordinary figure even by blockbuster standards.
Fools Die
Mario Puzo had already created one of popular culture's most famous crime sagas with The Godfather. In Fools Die, he turned toward the connected worlds of gambling, publishing, Hollywood, and organized crime. The book ranked third among America's bestselling novels of 1978 but has been thoroughly overshadowed by the Corleones in Puzo's legacy.
Scruples
Judith Krantz's debut novel Scruples offered readers an extravagant world of fashion, wealth, romance, and luxury. It became one of 1978's biggest American bestsellers and launched Krantz into a hugely successful commercial career. Critics could be dismissive, but readers embraced exactly the glossy escapism that made the novel such a distinctive product of its time.
Evergreen
Belva Plain's Evergreen introduced readers to Anna Friedman, a Polish immigrant whose family story unfolds across generations. The saga moves through immigrant New York, wealth, war, family conflict, and changing fortunes. It ranked sixth among America's bestselling novels of 1978 and helped turn Plain into a longtime fixture of commercial fiction.
Screenshot from Evergreen, NBC (1985)
The Matarese Circle
Before Jason Bourne became Robert Ludlum's most famous creation, The Matarese Circle was his biggest book of 1979. The thriller forces a CIA officer and a Soviet KGB operative to cooperate against a powerful international conspiracy. It finished as America's bestselling novel of the year, although Ludlum is now much more closely associated with Bourne.
Fairchild Archive, Getty Images
Yesterday's Blockbusters
These books were anything but obscure. They topped national charts, sold staggering numbers of copies, inspired movies and television productions, and helped define what mainstream popular fiction looked like during the 1970s. Their disappearance from everyday conversation proves that being a bestseller and being remembered forever are two very different things.
Fairfax Media Archives, Getty Images
You May Also Like:
Books Every Baby Boomer Has Probably Read But Younger Generations Only Know The Movie
Book Crazes From The 1970s Where It Felt Like Everyone Was Reading The Same Thing
Great Books Baby Boomers Loved That Most Millennials Have Never Even Heard Of (Let Alone Read)
