Bestseller: a century of America's favorite books

Reaching the top of the shelf: discovering a century of bestsellers

Birth of the bestseller : The 1890s to the 1930s

The 1940s : All the books fit to sell

The 1950s : Cold War anxiety: from Holden Caulfield to James Bond

The 1960s : New frontiers: from Harper Lee to Kurt Vonnegut

The 1970s : The age of narcissism

The 1980s: The rise of the superstar author

The 1990s : Means of ascent: publisher consolidation, superstores, and the Internet

The 2000s : E-books and the new millennium

The 2010s : James Patterson Inc. and the soul of America.