1946

US Fiction

1. The King's General, Daphne du Maurier 174 copies on LT

2. This Side of Innocence, Taylor Caldwell 40 copies

3. The River Road, Frances Parkinson Keyes 31 copies

4. The Miracle of the Bells, Russell Janney 16 copies

5. The Hucksters, Frederic Wakeman 18 copies

6. The Foxes of Harrow, Frank Yerby 46 copies

7. Arch of Triumph, Erich Maria Remarque 105 copies

8. The Black Rose, Thomas B. Costain 710 copies

9. B. F.'s Daughter, John P. Marquand 17 copies

10. The Snake Pit, Mary Jane Ward 30 copies

N O N F I C T I O N

1. The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald 225 copies

2. Peace of Mind, Joshua L. Liebman 23 copies

3. As He Saw It, Elliott Roosevelt 9 copies

4. The Roosevelt I Knew, Frances Perkins 20 copies

5. Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle 11 copies

6. Starling of the White House, Thomas Sugrue and Col. Edmund Starling 8 copies

7. I Chose Freedom, Victor Kravchenko 19 copies

8. The Anatomy of Peace, Emery Reves 40 copies

9. Top Secret, Ralph Ingersoll 9 copies

10. A Solo in Tom-Toms, Gene Fowler 11 copies

The egg & I, Betty MacDonald. I can still fall off the chair laughing thru it. Since my first read of it, I had 50 years of raising chickens. But Betty Mac Donald was such a fun author. Her Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of books for children were still popular when I left the library. Also the movie made from The Egg & I introduced Ma & Pa Kettle who went on to make a string of funny movies on their own. In 1946, the country was ready for laughter.

I thought I Chose Freedom was an obscure book, but here it is on the bestseller list.

Zero here

I own The Roosevelt I Knew and The Hucksters but haven't read either yet.

I finally read The Hucksters and thought it was an enjoyable but flawed satire. I can see why it was popular but I can also see why it has largely been forgotten. My full review is on the book's work page.

Whew, a little-known Du Maurier and some Roosevelt bios, otherwise I don't see much of significance here. Would be interesting to know if anything else was published in 1946 that is better known today.

I read The Egg and I, but it's the only one I ever heard of. I may go scouting for book reviews from '46. I imagine coming out of the war things were a bit akilter. In the meantime, here's some somewhat relatable commentary from the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/17/critical-eye-book-reviews-roundup

eta - Here's a link to what was in the April 1946 issue of the NY Review of Books. https://sites.google.com/site/newyorkcityapril1946/books/book-reviews-this-week-... The ads were for books that eventually become more successful than anything that appeared on the best seller list that year. I see Delta Wedding reviewed and ads for Kristen Lavransdatter, The Joy of Cooking, My Friend Flicka, Emily Post's Etiquette, The Robe and a few others.

Currently Reading
The Roosevelt I Knew