·     eNews     ·     Contact Us     ·

Literary Hit Parade: 1970s

1970 Nobel Prize for Literature Aleksandr (Alexander) I. Solzhenitsyn, (1918- ) Russian Pulitzer Prizes Fiction Collected Stories, Jean Stafford Poetry Untitled Subjects, Richard Howard Drama No Place To Be Somebody, Charles Gordone National Book Award Arts and Letters An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir, Lillian Hellman Children's Books A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing up in Warsaw, Isaac Bashevis Singer Fiction Them, Joyce Carol Oates History and Biography Huey Long, T. Harry Williams Philosophy and Religion Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, Erik H. Erikson Poetry The Complete Poems, Elizabeth Bishop Translation Celine's Castle to Castle, Ralph Manheim The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The New Ancestors, Dave Godfrey Best Sellers Fiction 1. Love Story, Erich Segal 2. The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles 3. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway 4. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart 9. Travels with My Aunt, Graham Greene 10. Rich Man, Poor Man, Irwin Shaw Nonfiction 1. Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, David Reuben, M. D. 2. The New English Bible 3. The Sensuous Woman, "J" 6. Ball Four, Jim Bouton 10. Caught in the Quiet, Rod McKuen 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature Pablo Neruda, (1904-1973) Chilean Bollingen Prize in Poetry Richard Wilbur & Mona Van Duyn Pulitzer Prizes Fiction No Award Given Poetry The Carrier of Ladders, William S. Merwin Drama The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel National Book Award Arts and Letters Cocteau: A Biography, Francis Steegmuller Children's Books The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, Lloyd Alexander Fiction Mr. Sammler's Planet, Saul Bellow History and Biography Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, James MacGregor Burns Poetry To See, To Take, Mona Van Duyn The Sciences Science in the British Colonies of America, Raymond Phineas Sterns Translation Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards, Frank Jones; Yasunari Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain, Edward G. Seidensticker The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) St. Urbain's Horseman, Mordecai Richler Best Sellers Fiction 1. Wheels, Arthur Hailey 2. The Exorcist, William P. Blatty 4. The Day of the Jackel, Frederick Forsyth 7. The Winds of War, Herman Wouk 9. The Other, Thomas Tryon 10. Rabbit Redux, John Updike Nonfiction 1. The Sensuous Man, "M" 2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown 4. I'm O.K., You're O.K, Thomas Harris 6. Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer 9. Honor Thy Father, Gay Talese 10. Fields of Wonder, Rod McKuen 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature Heinrich Boll, (1917-1985) German Appointed English Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman Pulitzer Prizes Fiction Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner Poetry Collected Poems, James Wright Drama No Award Given National Book Award Arts and Letters The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Charles Rosen Biography Eleanor and Franklin: The Story of Their Relationship, Based on Eleanor Roosevelt's Private Papers, Joseph P. Lash Children's Books The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or the Hithering Thithering Djinn, Donald Barthelme Contemporary Affairs The Last Whole Earth Catalogue, Stewart Brand, ed. Fiction The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor History Ordeal of the Union, Vols. VII & VIII: The Organized War, 1863-1864 and The Organized War to Victory, Allan Nevins Philosophy & Religion Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America, Martin Marty Poetry Selected Poems, Frank O'Hara-The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, Howard Moss The Sciences The Blue Whale, George L. Small Translation Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity, Austryn Wainhouse The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Manticore, Robertson Davies Best Sellers Fiction 1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Roth 2. August, 1914, Alexander Solzhenitsyn 5. The Word, Irving Wallace 6. The Winds of War, Herman Wouk 9. My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok 10. Semi-Tough, Dan Jenkins Nonfiction 1. The Living Bible, Kenneth Taylor 2. I'm O.K., You're O.K, Thomas Harris 4. Harry S. Truman, Margaret Truman 5. Dr. Atkin's Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins 7. The Peter Prescription, Laurence J. Peter 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature Patrick White, (1912-1990) Australian Bollingen Prize in Poetry James Merrill Pulitzer Prizes Fiction The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty Poetry Up Country, Maxine Winokur Kumin Drama That Championship Season, Jason Miller National Book Award Arts and Letters Diderot, Arthur M. Wilson Biography George Washington, Vol. IV: Anguish and Farewell, 1793-1799, James Thomas Flexner Children's Books The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. LeGuin Contemporary Affairs Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam, Frances Fitzgerald Fiction Augustus, John Barth; Chimera, John Williams History The Children of Pride Isaiah Trunk-Judenrat, Robert Manson Myers Philosophy and Religion A Religious History of the American People, S. E. Ahlstrom Poetry Collected Poems, 1951-1971, A. R. Ammons The Sciences The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations, George B. Schaller Translation The Aeneid of Virgil, Allen Mandelbaum The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Temptations of Big Bear, Rudy Wiebe The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) The Chip Chip Gatherers, Shiva Naipaul Best Sellers Fiction 1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Roth 2. Once Is Not Enough, Jacqueline Susann 3. Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut 5. Burr, Gore Vidal 10. The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene Nonfiction 1. The Living Bible, Kenneth Taylor 2. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins 4. The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort 7. The Art of Walt Disney, Christopher Finch 9. Alistair Cooke's America, Alistair Cooke 10. Sybil, Flora R. Schreiber 1974 Nobel Prize for Literature Eyvind Johnson (1900-1976), Harry Edmund Martinson (1904-1978), Swedish Pulitzer Prizes Fiction No Award Given Poetry The Dolphin, Robert Lowell Drama No Award Given National Book Award Arts and Letters Deeper into the Movies, Pauline Kael Biography Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian (also won History Award), John Clive Children's Books The Court of the Stone Children, Eleanor Cameron Contemporary Affairs The Briar Patch, Murray Kempton Fiction Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon; A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer Philosophy and Religion Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks, Maurice Natanson Poetry The Fall of America: Poems of These States, Allen Ginsberg; Driving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972, Adrienne Rich The Sciences Life: The Unfinished Experiment, S. E. Luria Translation The Confessions of Lady Nijo, Karen Brazell; Octavio Paz's Alternating Current, Helen R. Lane; Paul Valery's Monsieur Teste, Jackson Matthews The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Diviners, Margaret Laurence The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, Iris Murdoch Best Sellers Fiction 1. Centennial, James A. Michener 2. Watership Down, Richard Adams 3. Jaws, Peter Benchley 4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John Le Carre 5. Something Happened, Joseph Heller 6. The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth 8. I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven 9. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer Nonfiction 1. The Total Woman, Marabel Morgan 2. All the President's Men, Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward 3. Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller 8. All Things Bright and Beautiful, James Herriot 1975 Nobel Prize for Literature Eugenio Montale, (1896-1981) Italian Bollingen Prize in Poetry Archie Randolph (A. R.) Ammons Pulitzer Prizes Fiction The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara Poetry Turtle Island, Gary Snyder Drama Seascape, Edward Albee National Book Award Arts and Letters Marcel Proust, Roger Shattuck; The Lives of a Cell: Notes on a Biology Watcher (also won Science Award), Lewis Thomas Biography The Life of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall Children's Books M. C. Higgins the Great, Virginia Hamilton Contemporary Affairs All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw, Theodore Rosengarten Fiction Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone; The Hair of Harold Roux, Thomas Williams History The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, Bernard Bailyn Philosophy and Religion Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick Poetry Presentation Piece, Marilyn Hacker The Sciences Interpretation of Schizophrenia, Silvano Arieti Translation Miguel D. Unamuno's The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith, Anthony Kerrigan The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Great Victorian Collection, Brian Moore The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) Docherty, William McIlvanney Best Sellers Fiction 1. Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow 2. The Moneychangers, Arthur Hailey 4. Looking for Mister Goodbar, Judith Rossner 5. The Choirboys, Joseph Wambaugh 8. The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton 9. Shogun, James Clavell 10. Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow Nonfiction 1. Angels: God's Secret Agents, Billy Graham 2. Winning Through Intimidation, Robert Ringer 4. The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski 9. Bring on the Empty Horses, David Niven 10. Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon, Theodore H. White 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature Saul Bellow, (1915- ) American Pulitzer Prizes Fiction Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow Poetry Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery Drama A Chorus Line, Michael Bennett, James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban National Book Award Arts and Letters The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell Children's Books Bert Breen's Barn, Walter D. Edmonds Contemporary Affairs Passage to Ararat, Michael J. Arlen Fiction Jr, William Gaddis History & Biography The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, David Brion Davis Poetry Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) Bear, Marian Engel The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) The Children of Dynmouth, William Trevor Best Sellers Hardcover Fiction 1. Trinity, Leon Uris 2. Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie 5. The Deep, Peter Benchley Hardcover Nonfiction 1. The Final Days, Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein 2. Roots, Alex Haley 4. Passages: The Predictable Crises of Adult Life, Gail Sheehy 5. Born Again, Charles W. Colson 1977 Nobel Prize for Literature Vicente Aleixandre, (1898-1984) Spanish Bollingen Prize in Poetry David Ignatow Pulitzer Prizes Fiction No Award Given Poetry Divine Comedies, James Merrill Drama The Shadow Box, Michael Cristofer National Book Award Biography and Autobiography Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist, W. A. Swanberg Children's Books The Master Puppeteer, Katherine Paterson Contemporary Thought The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Bruno Bettelheim Fiction The Spectator Bird, Wallace Stegner History World of Our Fathers, Irving Howe Poetry Collected Poems, 1930-1976, Richard Eberhart Translation Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance, Li-Li Ch'en The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Wars, Timothy Findley The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) Injury Time, Beryl Bainbridge Best Sellers Fiction 1. The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien 2. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough Nonfiction 1. Roots, Alex Haley 2. Looking Out for #1, Robert Ringer 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991) American (born in Poland) Pulitzer Prizes Fiction Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson Poetry Collected Poems, Howard Nemerov Drama The Gin Game, Donald L. Coburn National Book Award Biography and Autobiography Samuel Johnson, W. Jackson Bate Children's Literature The View from the Oak, Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl Contemporary Thought Winners & Losers, Gloria Emerson Fiction Blood Ties, Mary Lee Settle History The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, David McCullough Poetry The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov, Howard Nemerov Translation Uwe George's In the Deserts of This Earth, Richard Winston & Clara Winston The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) Who Do You Think You Are?, Alice Munro The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) Picture Palace, Paul Theroux Best Sellers Fiction 1. Chesapeake, James A. Michener 2. War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk Nonfiction 1. If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries-What Am I Doing in the Pits?, Erma Bombeck 2. Gnomes, Wil Huygen with illustrations by Rien Pootvliet Mass Market Paperback 1. My Mother/My Self, Nancy Friday 2. The Women's Room, Marilyn French 1979 Nobel Prize for Literature Odysseus Elytis, (1911- ) Greek Bollingen Prize in Poetry W. S. Merwin Pulitzer Prizes Fiction The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever Poetry Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978, Robert Penn Warren Drama Buried Child, Sam Shepard National Book Award Biography and Autobiography Robert Kennedy and His Times, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Children's Literature The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson Contemporary Thought The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen Fiction Going after Cacciato, Tim O'Brien History Intellectual Life in the Colonial South, 1585-1763, Richard Beale Davis Poetry Mirabell: Book of Numbers, James Merrill Translation Cesar Vallejo's The Complete Posthumous Poetry, Clayton Eshleman & Jose Rubin Barcia The Governor General's Literary Award (Fiction) The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne, Jack Hodgins The Whitbread Prize (Fiction, Grand Prize) The Old Jest, Josephine Johnston Best Sellers Fiction 1. The Matarese Circle, Robert Ludlum 2. Sophie's Choice, William Styron Nonfiction 1. Aunt Erma's Cope Book, Erma Bombeck 2. The Complete Scarsdale Diet, Herman Tarnower, M.D., & Samm Sinclair Baker Mass Market Paperback 1. The Simple Solution to Rubbik's Cube, James G. Nourse 2. The Cardinal Sins, Andrew M. Greeley