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The Bestselling Books of the Last One Hundred Years: 1959

We started at 1918, bringing you the bestselling books of the last one hundred years. We’re moving along now and we’re already into the middle of the twentieth century but there’s still a long way to go.

We’re covering each year at a time and we’re more than forty years in now with 1959 covered today!

1959 saw Fidel Castro come to power in Cuba after the revolution, while on the other side of the world the Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet. In popular culture the Barbie doll hit the shelves in the US, while Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states respectively. NASA also introduced its first astronauts to the world, while launching the first weather station into space.

Among all that, there were plenty of books published and read too, and today we’re featuring the bestselling novels of 1959, and some that didn’t make the list but have stood the test of time.

Exodus – Leon Uris

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Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

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Hawaii – James Michener

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Advise and Consent – Alan Drury

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Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D. H Lawrence

Buy

The Ugly American – Eugene Burdick/ William J. Lederer

Buy

Dear and Glorious Physician – Taylor Caldwell

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Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

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Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico

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Poor No More – Robert Ruark

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1959 also saw the release of Robert Bloch’s,  Psycho,  William Burrough’s controversial Naked Lunch, and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

We’ll continue this series right through to 2018, keep an eye out for 1960, coming soon!

If you’d like to see all the lists so far, try this search 

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