Classy Classics!

Some books don’t age well.  Here’s the Publishers Weekly best-seller list for 1950, courtesy of Wikipedia:

1.     The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson

2.    Joy Street by Frances Parkinson Keyes

3.    Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

4.    The Wall by John Hersey

5.    Star Money by Kathleen Winsor

6.    The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier

7.     Floodtide by Frank Yerby

8.    Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow

9.    The Adventurer by Mika Waltari

10.  The Disenchanted by Budd Schulberg

 

While I recognize most of the authors, I don’t recognize the titles. The top selling book of the year, The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson, I don’t find in the OWL catalog at any of the libraries even though it was made into a movie.

On the other hand, there are books written even centuries ago that have remained popular.  Recently, we decided that some of our copies of these books needed a refresh, so we bought some handsome new copies and put them on display as “Classy Classics.” It’s fun to watch people look at these older titles and check them out, whether to re-read a long ago school assignment or to read a book that’s been on the TBR (To Be Read) list for a long time.

Jane Austen is an author I have enjoyed for years, reading and re-reading.  I have yet to read Mansfield Park but this lovely new copy makes the book seem all the more enticing. The Sun Also Rises I read years ago, but now the new cover and knowing that Hemingway used his friends* as models for the characters makes me want to read it again. And that cover for Jane Eyre—it makes it worth the orphanage parts before she meets Mr. Rochester.

But while the new copy of  War and Peace is most attractive, I haven’t quite picked it up yet.  But never say never!

*After the book came out, many of these people became former friends.

** The reason there is no photo of The Sun Also Rises is that both of our spiffy new copies are out, which is just what we were hoping for!