Library of America – List the Bestselling Books of All Time

The bestselling books of all time are not the latest bestsellers. This list contains those titles that have survived the test of time, censorship, changing morals and values and still manage in an era of instant-cyber gratification, to take use somewhere special.

The Library of America compiles the list yearly, and while the names in the top spots might jockey for position occasionally, it is usually a list that doesn’t change very much. The list began in 1982, and is based on sales through multiple venues.

Here is the list: 

1. Thomas Jefferson: Writings [1984]
2. Mark Twain: Mississippi Writings [1982]
3. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings 1832-1865 [two volumes, 1989]
4. Walt Whitman: Poetry & Prose [1982]
5. Henry David Thoreau: A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod[1985]
6. The Debate on the Constitution [two volumes, 1993]
7. Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose and Plays [1995]
8. Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters [1990]
9. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays & Lectures [1983]
10. Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works [1988]
11. Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry & Tales [1984]
12. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings [1995]
13. Jack London: Novels & Stories [1982]
14. William Faulkner: Novels 1930–1935 [1985]
15. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman [1990]

You can view last year’s list by following this link.