The Great American Read--The Book of Books

by PBS

  here Sketch by J. K. Rowling. Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock.

  here Hatchet, 30th-anniversary edition cover. Courtesy Simon & Schuster.

  here Author Gary Paulsen, 2009. Photo by Brian Adams/Contour by Getty Images.

  here Trade paperback edition of Hatchet. Courtesy Simon & Schuster.

  here Conrad’s Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Author Joseph Conrad. © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here Blackwood’s Magazine. Courtesy Conrad First/The Joseph Conrad Periodical Archive, Uppsala University.

  here The Help, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Kathryn Stockett, 2011. Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.

  here Actress Octavia Spencer accepting her Academy award for her appearance in The Help. © Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

  here Isaac Asimov for Radio Shack, 1980 print ad. © Radio Shack / Bridgeman Images.

  here Protesters dressed as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” AP Photo/Eric Gay.

  here The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, first printing 1979. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Arthur Barker LTD.

  here Author Douglas Adams, 1978. Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images.

  here Still from the movie adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide. ©Touchstone/Courtesy Everett Collection.

  here The Hunger Games, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions © Scholastic Corporation.

  here Author Suzanne Collins. Photo by Todd Plitt © Scholastic Corporation.

  here Poster from The Hunger Games movie. Courtesy Heritage Auctions © Scholastic Corporation.

  here The Hunt for Red October, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Tom Clancy, 1985. Photo by Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.

  here Tom Clancy and President Ronald Reagan. Courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/NARA.

  here The Intuitionist, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Penguin Random House.

  here Author Colson Whitehead, 2014. © Rolf Vennenbernd/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images.

  here Sketch of the Otis elevator. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.

  here Invisible Man, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Ralph Ellison, 1966. Photo by David Attie/Getty Images.

  here Typescript of Invisible Man. I:101 Ralph Ellison Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  here Jane Eyre, 1848. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Author Charlotte Bronte, circa 1840. Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images.

  here First page from handwritten manuscript of Jane Eyre. © British Library/Granger Images.

  here Charlotte’s Web, original drawing for front cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here The Joy Luck Club, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Amy Tan, 2011. Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images.

  here Amy Tan with Stephen King performing as part of the Rock Bottom Remainders. Photo AP Images.

  here Jurassic Park, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Michael Crichton. Photo by Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

  here Poster for movie Jurassic Park. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Left Behind series. Photo by Urbano Delvalle/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

  here Authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

  here “The Day of Judgement” painting by John Martin. © The Day of Judgement (oil on canvas), Martin, John (1789-1854) (after) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images.

  here The Little Prince, first edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

  here Author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, circa 1922. Photo by Apic/Getty Images.

  here Drawing for The Little Prince. Photo REMY GABALDA/AFP/Getty Images.

  here Little Women, cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Author Louisa May Alcott. Bettmann/Getty Images.

  here Orchard House, Alcott’s home. © Andrew O›Brien / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here Lonesome Dove, first edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Simon & Schuster.

  here Author Larry McMurtry, 2006. Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage.

  here Trade paperback cover for Lonesome Dove. Courtesy Simon & Schuster.

  here Looking for Alaska, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author John Green, 2014. Photo by Christopher Patey/Contour by Getty Images.

  here Looking for Alaska, 10th anniversary edition. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Lord of the Rings, first complete American edition. Courtesy the Harry Lee Poe Collection.

  here Author J. R. R. Tolkien. Photo by PA Images via Getty Images.

  here Map of the Shire. Courtesy Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford © The Tolkien Estate Ltd 1988.

  here The Lovely Bones, cover. Courtesy of Hachette Books.

  here Author Alice Sebold. Photo by Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images.

  here Lucky, cover. Courtesy of Hachette Books.

  here The Martian, hardcover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Andy Weir, 2015. Photo by Jeff Vespa/Getty Images.

  here View of Martian landscape. NASA/JPL.

  here Memoirs of a Geisha, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here. Author Arthur Golden, 2005. © Allstar Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here Back view of two Geishas. Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images.

  here The Mind Invaders, cover. Courtesy The Berean Call.

  here Author Dave Hunt. Courtesy The Berean Call.

  here Cover, The God Makers. Courtesy The Berean Call.

  here Page from the Fitzgerald scrapbook. Courtesy F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers (C0187); Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. By permission of the Trustees of the Fitzgerald Estate Under Agreement Dated July 3, 1975. Created by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith.

  here Moby-Dick, first US edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Portrait of Herman Melville. Bettmann/Getty Images.

  here Original agreement between Herman Melville and Harper & Brothers for Moby-Dick. Courtesy Harper Collins.

  here Nineteen Eighty-Four, Signet Classic cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author George Orwell. Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images.

  here Poster for the 1956 film, 1984. Courtesy Everett Images.

  here The Notebook, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Hachette Books

  here Author Nicholas Sparks, 2017. Photo by Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images.

  here. The house on which Noah’s in The Notebook was modeled on. Courtesy Nicholas Sparks/Hachette Books.

  here One Hundred Years of Solitude, first US edition. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Author Gabriel García Márquez, 1982. Photo by Ulf Andersen/Getty Images.

  here Telegram regarding the publication of One Hundred Years Of Solitude. Courtesy Harper Collins.

  here Gabriel García Márquez’s office in his house in Mexico City. Courtesy Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

  here Outlander, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Penguin Random House.

  here Author Diana Gabaldon. © Colin McPherson / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here Clava Cairns to the East of Inverness. © Gerry McCann / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here The Outsiders Speak Platinum Edition. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author S.E. Hinton, 2017. Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.

  here Harvard Square, the setting for The
Handmaid’s Tale. Roman Babakin / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here The Cloisters. © Ian Good/Shutterstock.

  here Manhattan, aerial view. Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images.

  here A building in Aracataca. © EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images.

  here Bilbo Baggins’s home in Matamata, New Zealand. © Nolleks86/Shutterstock.

  here Advice from a Caterpillar, from ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll, published 1891 (litho). Tenniel, John (1820-1914) / Private Collection / Photo © Ken Welsh / Bridgeman Images.

  here Middlemarch (colour litho). Private Collection / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images.

  here The Picture of Dorian Gray, first edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Oscar Wilde, circa 1882. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.

  here First appearance of The Picture of Dorian Gray in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Title page of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images.

  here John Bunyan, engraving. © John Bunyan (engraving), English School, (19th century) / Private Collection / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images.

  here Commemorative illustrated edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here John Bunyan’s memorial, detail. © Kathy deWitt / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here The Pillars of the Earth, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Ken Follett, 2015. Photo by Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images.

  here Ken Follett on the set of the television adaptation of The Pillars of the Earth, 2009. Courtesy Everett Images.

  here A Prayer for Owen Meany, first trade edition cover. COPYRIGHT © 1989 BY GARP ENTERPRISES, LTD. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Author John Irving. © jeremy sutton-hibbert / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here Signed bookplate from 1st edition of A Prayer for Owen Meany. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here Pride and Prejudice, first edition. Courtesy National Library of Scotland.

  here English author Jane Austen, circa 1790. Photo by Stock Montage/Stock Montage/Getty Images.

  here “The Entreaties of Several,” illustration for Pride and Prejudice. Courtesy Jane Austen’s House Museum.

  here Ready Player One, hardcover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Ernest Cline, 2015. Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly.

  here Ready Player One, trade cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here. Jurassic Park, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here To Kill a Mockingbird, front cover, first edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here Catcher in the Rye, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com. © Hachette Books.

  here Catch-22, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com. © Simon & Schuster.

  here Ready Player One, hardcover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here The Martian, hardcover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Rebecca, first US edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Hachette Books.

  here Author Daphne Du Maurier. Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images.

  here Silk banner advertisement for the Hitchcock film, Rebecca. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here A Separate Peace, trade paperback edition. Courtesy Simon & Schuster.

  here Author John Knowles. Photo by Anacleto Rapping/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

  here Illustrated map of Phillips Exeter campus. Courtesy Phillips Exeter Academy.

  here Campus of Phillips Exeter. © MAXINE HICKS / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here The Shack, hardcover. © Hachette Books.

  here Author William P. Young. Photo by Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images.

  here Still from the film adaptation of The Shack. © Summit Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection.

  here Siddartha, Bantam edition. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Portrait of Hermann Hesse. Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images.

  here. Departure of Prince Siddhartha (c563-c483 BC), illustration. Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images.

  here The Sirens of Titan, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Kurt Vonnegut, early 1970s. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd/Getty Images.

  here Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., sitting in front of his typewriter. Photo by Gil Friedberg/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

  here Cover, A Game of Thrones, first volume of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Penguin Random House.

  here The dramatic landscape of Iceland. Russell Pearson / Barcroft Image / Barcroft Media via Getty Images.

  here HBO’s Game of Thrones Iron Throne. Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage.

  here Author George R.R. Martin, 2012. Photo by Clinton Gilders/FilmMagic.

  here Typescript page from Nineteen Eighty-Four. The manuscript of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is held by the John Hay Library at Brown University. The manuscript was presented to the Library in 1992 by Daniel G. Siegel. Remaining copies of the 1984 limited edition Facsimile of the Manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four, published by M & S Press, are available for purchase through M & S Press or through Amazon.

  here J.R.R. Tolkien’s note on the Elvish language. Courtesy Cushing Memorial Library and Archives,Texas A&M University.

  here William Shakespeare, “The Chandos Portrait.” IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo.

  here The Stand, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Penguin Random House.

  here Writer Stephen King, 2013. Photo by Steve Schofield/Contour by Getty Images.

  here Hardcover for The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here The Sun Also Rises, library edition cover. Courtesy Simon & Schuster

  here Portrait of Ernest Hemingway, Paris, March 1928. Ernest Hemingway Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

  here Last page of the first draft of The Sun Also Rises. Ernest Hemingway Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

  here Swan Song, cover. Courtesy Donald Maass Literary Agency, Desert Isle Design, David Ho.

  here Robert McCammon author portrait. Courtesy Donald Maass Literary Agency.

  here Swan Song author page with quote. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com and Donald Maass Literary Agency.

  here Tales of the City, first edition cover. Courtesy Harper Collins.

  here Author Armistead Maupin, 2006. Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images.

  here Still from the PBS series, Tales of the City. © PBS/Courtesy Everett Collection.

  here Their Eyes Were Watching God, first edition cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here Portrait of author Zora Neale Hurston, circa 1940s. Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images.

  here Page from Their Eyes Were Watching God. Courtesy Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

  here Things Fall Apart, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Writer Chinua Achebe. Photo by Juergen Frank/Corbis via Getty Images.

  here Poster for the film adaptation of Things Fall Apart. Courtesy Everett Collection.

  here Letter from Herman Melville to friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oct. 25, 1852. Courtesy New York Public Library.

  here Harper Lee and Truman Capote, 1976. © Harry Benson/Contour by Getty Images.

  here The Inklings. Used by permission of the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.

  here This Present Darkness, cover. Courtesy Crossway.

  here Author Frank E. Peretti. Courtesy Crossway.

  here To Kill a Mockingbird, front cover, first edition. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.<
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  here Harper Lee sitting in rocking chair, in her hometown of Alabama. Photo © Donald Uhrbrock/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

  here To Kill a Mockingbird, back cover, rare advance reading copy with paper covers. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, front cover art. Courtesy Heritage Auction/HA.com © HarperCollins.

  here Author Betty Smith using typewriter. Photo by Ann Rosener/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

  here A group of women smile as they read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, circa 1940s. Photo by Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images.

  here Twilight, trade cover. Courtesy Hachette Books.

  here Author Stephanie Meyer at the 10th anniversary of Twilight at Barnes & Nobles at The Grove. Photo by Amanda Edwards/WireImage.

  here Twilight, movie poster. Photo © RGR Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

  here War and Peace, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Leo Tolstoy reading a book, circa 1910. Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images.

  here War and Peace, title page, first American edition, later issue. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here Watchers, trade cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here Author Dean Koontz. Photo by Al Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.

  here Typed letter signed “Dean R. Koontz,” to a fan named Jim. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com.

  here James Baldwin in his New York apartment. Bettmann / Getty Images.

  here The first two volumes in the Wheel of Time series. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Tor/Macmillan.

  here Author Robert Jordan. Photo by Liza Groen Trombi/Locus Productions, Courtesy Macmillan.

  here Eye of the World preview booklet art. Courtesy Macmillan.

  here Where the Red Fern Grows, first edition, front cover. Courtesy of Rachel Phillips of Burnside Rare Books.

  here Where the Red Fern Grows, first edition, back cover. Courtesy of Rachel Phillips of Burnside Rare Books.

  here Where the Red Fern Grows, cover. Courtesy Penguin Random House.

  here White Teeth, cover. Courtesy Heritage Auctions/HA.com © Hamish Hamilton.

  here Zadie Smith, 2014. Photo by Linda Brownlee/Corbis via Getty Images.

  here Zadie Smith, speaking at Across the Pond at the New York Festival on October 10, 2014. Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images The New Yorker.