1931 Popular Books and Bestsellers

1931 Books & Bestsellers

1931 Fiction Top Ten Books

(according to Publisher’s Weekly)
1. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
2. Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
3. A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich
4. Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
5. Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
6. The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque
7. The Bridge of Desire by Warwick Deeping
8. Back Street by Fannie Hurst
9. Finch’s Fortune by Mazo de la Roche
10. Maid in Waiting by John Galsworthy

1931 Non-Fiction Books

1. Education of a Princess by Grand Duchess Marie
2. The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe
3. Washington Merry-Go-Round by Anonymous (Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen)
4. Boners: Being a Collection of Schoolboy Wisdom or Knowledge by Alexander Abingdon, illus. Dr. Seuss
5. Culbertson’s Summary by Ely Culbertson
6. Contract Bridge Blue Book by Ely Culbertson
7. Fatal Interview by Edna St. Vincent Millay
8. The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams
9. Mexico by Stuart Chase
10. New Russia’s Primer by Mikhail Ilin

1931 Notable Literature

Philosophy and Civilization by John Dewey
Axel’s Castle by Edmund Wilson
Autobiography by Lincoln Steffens
Reason and Nature by Morris R. Cohen
My Fight for Birth Control by Margaret Sanger
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
American Humor by Constance Rourke
The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
Permanent Revolution by Leon Trotsky

1931 Book of the Month Club Selections

Education of a Princess by Grand Duchess Marie
Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Men of Art by Thomas Craven
The Square Circle by Denis Mackail
New Russia’s Primer: The Story of the Five-Year Plan by Mikhail Ilin, translated by George S. Counts and Nucia P. Lodge
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
Living Philosophies by Albert Einstein et al.
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Susan Spray by Sheila Kaye-Smith
S.S. San Pedro by James Gould Cozzens
The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams
Job by Joseph Roth
Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen
1931 Nobel Prize in Literature
Most Popular Books of 1931, according to GoodReads
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