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Tuesday, 4 January 2022

Best Books of the Past 125 Years, and the Authors' Typewriters


The New York Times Book Review has marked its 125-year anniversary by asking readers to nominate the best book of the past 125 years. Submissions were narrowed down to a list of 25, which were voted on by more than 200,000 readers from all 50 US states and 67 countries. The top five books are:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)


2. The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)


Image courtesy of Mr & Mrs Vintage Typewriters

3. 1984 (George Orwell)


4. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez)


5. Beloved (Toni Morrison)


Also among the list (in the titles' alphabetical order) of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) were:

Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)


The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)


Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)


The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)


Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)


The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)


Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)


Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry)


A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)


A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)


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2 comments:

  1. Richard P5 January 2022 at 09:13

    Several photos here that I need to add to my collection!
    But can you identify the machines used by Morrison, Heller, and Salinger? I can't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robert Messenger5 January 2022 at 20:12

    My guess is that Salinger's is an Underwood and Morrison's is a Royal (white end to platen knob). I assumed Heller's is an SCM but I will need to have a closer look at the other images of him using it.

    ReplyDelete

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