1881 Best Seller.

The first of a series of books about the Pepper children. The story of their impoverished lives with their widowed mother. The book was part of a fantastically popular series of 12.

1888 Best Seller.

A utopian novel. Julian West falls into an hypnotic trance near the end of the 19th Century and awakens more than 100 years later (right around now) to find America transformed into a socialist utopia. Bellamy uses the conceit to explore his ideas of how to improve society.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1919.

A short time before the outbreak of WWI the Desnoyers family move from Argentina to France. The family includes both French and German elements and the war only amplifies existing tensions. Argentine son Julio must choose between his current dissolute lifestyle and stepping up to the responsibilities the war brings, and then live with the consequences...

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1920.

Milt Dale, the man of the forest, overhears a plot to kidnap a young woman and cannot in good conscience do nothing. He sets out to save the girl ...

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1906.

It is important to note that the author is not the famed English politician and author, but an unrelated American writer.

A fictionalized look at mid 1800s New Hampshire politics. Churchill shares with many a nostalgic view of the Granite State while exposing corruption at all levels of it's politics.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1922.

Hutchinson makes a compelling story out of a difficult subject; an unhappy marriage, a divorce, and an unwed mother who commits suicide. The book was almost immediately adapted as a film, and also republished in the 1940's.