Rankings from Bowker's Annual/Publisher's Weekly
| 1930: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Cimarron | Ferber, Edna | |
| 2 | Exile | Deeping, Warwick | |
 | 3 | The Woman of Andros | Wilder, Thornton |
| 4 | Years of Grace | Barnes, Margaret Ayer | |
| 5 | Angel Pavement | Priestley, J. B. | |
| 6 | The Door | Rinehart, Mary Roberts | |
| 7 | Rogue Herries | Walpole, Hugh | |
| 8 | Chances | Gibbs, A. Hamilton | |
| 9 | Young Man of Manhattan | Brush, Katharine |
| 10 | Twenty-Four Hours | Bromfield, Louis | |
| 1930: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Story of San Michele | Munthe, Axel | |
| 2 | The Strange Death of President Harding | Means, Gaston B. and May Dixon Thacker | |
| 3 | Byron | Maurois, Andre | |
| 4 | The Adams Family | Adams, James Truslow | |
| 5 | Lone Cowboy | James, Will | |
| 6 | Lincoln | Ludwig, Emil | |
| 7 | The Story of Philosophy | Durant, Will | |
| 8 | The Outline of History | Wells, H. G. | |
| 9 | The Art of Thinking | Dimnet, Ernest | |
| 10 | The Rise of American Civilization | Beard, Charles and Mary | |
| 1931: Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Good Earth | Buck, Pearl S. |
| 2 | Shadows on the Rock | Cather, Willa |
| 3 | A White Bird Flying | Aldrich, Bess Streeter | |
| 4 | Grand Hotel | Baum, Vicki | |
| 5 | Years of Grace | Barnes, Margaret Ayer | |
| 6 | The Road Back | Remarque, Erich Maria | |
| 7 | The Bridge of Desire | Deeping, Warwick | |
| 8 | Back Street | Hurst, Fannie | |
| 9 | Finch's Fortune | de la Roche, Mazo | |
| 10 | Maid in Waiting | Galsworthy, John | |
| 1931: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | Education of a Princess | Grand Duchess Marie | |
| 2 | The Story of San Michele | Munthe, Axel | |
| 3 | Washington Merry-Go-Round | anonymous (Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen) | |
| 4 | Boners: Being a Collection of Schoolboy Wisdom, or Knowledge as It Is Sometimes Written | Abingdon, Alexander comp.; illustrated by Dr. Seuss | |
| 5 | Culbertson's Summary | Culbertson, Ely | |
| 6 | Contract Bridge Blue Book | Culbertson, Ely | |
| 7 | Fatal Interview | St. Vincent Millay, Edna | |
| 8 | The Epic of America | Adams, James Truslow | |
| 9 | Mexico | Chase, Stuart | |
| 10 | New Russia's Primer | Ilin, Mikhail | |
| 1932: Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Good Earth | Buck, Pearl S. |
| 2 | The Fountain | Morgan, Charles | |
| 3 | Sons | Buck, Pearl S. | |
| 4 | Magnolia Street | Golding, Louis | |
| 5 | The Sheltered Life | Glasgow, Ellen | |
| 6 | Old Wine and New | Deeping, Warwick | |
| 7 | Mary's Neck | Tarkington, Booth | |
| 8 | Magnificent Obsession | Douglas, Lloyd C. |
| 9 | Inheritance | Bentley, Phyllis | |
| 10 | Three Loves | Cronin, A. J. | |
| 1932: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Epic of America | Adams, James Truslow | |
| 2 | Only Yesterday | Allen, Frederick Lewis | |
| 3 | A Fortune to Share | Young, Vash | |
| 4 | Culbertson's Summary | Culbertson, Ely | |
| 5 | Van Loon's Geography | Van Loon, Hendrik Willem | |
| 6 | What We Live By | Dimnet, Ernest | |
| 7 | The March of Democracy | Adams, James Truslow | |
| 8 | Washington Merry-Go-Round | anonymous (Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen) | |
| 9 | The Story of My Life | Darrow, Clarence | |
| 10 | More Merry-Go-Round | anonymous (Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen) | |
| 1933: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Anthony Adverse | Allen, Hervey | |
| 2 | As the Earth Turns | Carroll, Gladys Hasty | |
| 3 | Ann Vickers | Lewis, Sinclair | |
| 4 | Magnificent Obsession | Douglas, Lloyd C. |
| 5 | One More River | Galsworthy, John | |
| 6 | Forgive Us Our Trespasses | Douglas, Lloyd C. | |
| 7 | The Master of Jalna | de la Roche, Mazo | |
| 8 | Miss Bishop | Aldrich, Bess Streeter | |
| 9 | The Farm | Bromfield, Louis | |
| 10 | Little Man, What Now? | Fallada, Hans | |
| 1933: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | Life Begins at Forty | Pitkin, Walter B. | |
| 2 | Marie Antoinette | Zweig, Stefan | |
| 3 | British Agent | Lockhart, R. H. Bruce | |
| 4 | 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs | Kallet, Arthur and F. J. Schlink | |
| 5 | The House of Exile | Waln, Nora | |
| 6 | Van Loon's Geography | Van Loon, Hendrik Willem | |
| 7 | Looking Forward | Roosevelt, Franklin D. | |
| 8 | Contract Bridge Blue Book of 1933 | Culbertson, Ely | |
| 9 | The Arches of the Years | Sutherland, Halliday | |
| 10 | The March of Democracy, Vol. II | Adams, James Truslow | |
| 1934: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Anthony Adverse | Allen, Hervey | |
| 2 | Lamb in His Bosom | Miller, Caroline |
| 3 | So Red the Rose | Young, Stark | |
| 4 | Good-Bye, Mr. Chips | Hilton, James |
| 5 | Within This Present | Barnes, Margaret Ayer | |
| 6 | Work of Art | Lewis, Sinclair | |
| 7 | Private Worlds | Bottome, Phyllis | |
| 8 | Mary Peters | Chase, Mary Ellen | |
| 9 | Oil for the Lamps of China | Hobart, Alice Tisdale | |
| 10 | Seven Gothic Tales | Dinesen, Isak | |
| 1934: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | While Rome Burns | Woollcott, Alexander | |
| 2 | Life Begins at Forty | Pitkin, Walter B. | |
| 3 | Nijinsky | Nijinsky, Romola | |
| 4 | 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs | Kallet, Arthur and F. J. Schlink | |
| 5 | The Native's Return | Adamic, Louis | |
| 6 | Stars Fell on Alabama | Carmer, Carl | |
| 7 | Brazilian Adventure | Fleming, Peter | |
| 8 | Forty-two Years in the White House | Hoover, Ike | |
| 9 | You Must Relax | Jacobson, Edmund | |
| 10 | The Life of Our Lord | Dickens, Charles | |
| 1935: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Green Light | Douglas, Lloyd C. | |
| 2 | Vein of Iron | Glasgow, Ellen |
| 3 | Of Time and the River | Wolfe, Thomas |
| 4 | Time Out of Mind | Field, Rachel | |
| 5 | Good-Bye, Mr. Chips | Hilton, James |
| 6 | The Forty Days of Musa Dagh | Werfel, Franz | |
| 7 | Heaven's My Destination | Wilder, Thornton |
| 8 | Lost Horizon | Hilton, James |
| 9 | Come and Get It | Ferber, Edna | |
| 10 | Europa | Briffault, Robert | |
| 1935: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | North to the Orient | Lindbergh, Anne Morrow | |
| 2 | While Rome Burns | Woollcott, Alexander | |
| 3 | Life with Father | Day, Clarence | |
| 4 | Personal History | Sheean, Vincent | |
| 5 | Seven Pillars of Wisdom | Lawrence, T. E. | |
| 6 | Francis the First | Hackett, Francis | |
| 7 | Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles | Zweig, Stefan | |
| 8 | Rats, Lice and History | Zinsser, Hans | |
| 9 | R. E. Lee | Freeman, Douglas Southall | |
| 10 | Skin Deep | Phillips, M. C. | |
| 1936: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Gone with the Wind | Mitchell, Margaret |
| 2 | The Last Puritan | Santayana, George | |
| 3 | Sparkenbroke | Morgan, Charles | |
| 4 | Drums Along the Mohawk | Edmonds, Walter D. | |
| 5 | It Can't Happen Here | Lewis, Sinclair | |
| 6 | White Banners | Douglas, Lloyd C. | |
| 7 | The Hurricane | Nordhoff, Charles, and James Norman Hall | |
| 8 | The Thinking Reed | West, Rebecca | |
| 9 | The Doctor | Rinehart, Mary Roberts | |
| 10 | Eyeless in Gaza | Huxley, Aldous |
| 1936: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | Man the Unknown | Carrel, Alexis | |
| 2 | Wake Up and Live! | Brande, Dorothea | |
| 3 | The Way of a Transgressor | Farson, Negley | |
| 4 | Around the World in Eleven Years | Patience, Richard, and Johnny Abbe | |
| 5 | North to the Orient | Lindbergh, Anne Morrow | |
| 6 | An American Doctor's Odyssey | Heiser, Victor | |
| 7 | Inside Europe | Gunther, John | |
| 8 | Live Alone and Like It | Hillis, Marjorie | |
| 9 | Life with Father | Day, Clarence | |
| 10 | I Write As I Please | Duranty, Walter | |
| 1937: Fiction | |||
| 1 | Gone with the Wind | Mitchell, Margaret |
| 2 | Northwest Passage | Roberts, Kenneth | |
| 3 | The Citadel | Cronin, A. J. |
| 4 | And So-Victoria | Wilkins, Vaughan | |
| 5 | Drums Along the Mohawk | Edmonds, Walter D. | |
| 6 | The Years | Woolf, Virginia | |
| 7 | Theatre | Maugham, W. Somerset | |
| 8 | Of Mice and Men | Steinbeck, John |
| 9 | The Rains Came | Bromfield, Louis |
| 10 | We Are Not Alone | Hilton, James | |
| 1937: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | How To Win Friends and Influence People | Carnegie, Dale | |
| 2 | An American Doctor's Odyssey | Heiser, Victor | |
| 3 | The Return to Religion | Link, Henry C. | |
| 4 | The Arts | Van Loon, Hendrik Willem | |
| 5 | Orchids on Your Budget | Hillis, Marjorie | |
| 6 | Present Indicative | Coward, Noel | |
| 7 | Mathematics for the Million | Hogben, Lancelot | |
| 8 | Life with Mother | Day, Clarence | |
| 9 | The Nile | Ludwig, Emil | |
| 10 | The Flowering of New England | Brooks, Van Wyck | |
| 1938: Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Yearling | Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan |
| 2 | The Citadel | Cronin, A. J. |
| 3 | My Son, My Son! | Spring, Howard | |
| 4 | Rebecca | du Maurier, Daphne |
| 5 | Northwest Passage | Roberts, Kenneth | |
| 6 | All This, and Heaven Too | Field, Rachel | |
| 7 | The Rains Came | Bromfield, Louis |
| 8 | And Tell of Time | Krey, Laura | |
| 9 | The Mortal Storm | Bottome, Phyllis | |
| 10 | Action at Aquila | Allen, Hervey | |
| 1938: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Importance of Living | Yutang, Lin | |
| 2 | With Malice Toward Some | Halsey, Margaret | |
| 3 | Madame Curie | Curie, Eve | |
| 4 | Listen! The Wind | Lindbergh, Anne Morrow | |
| 5 | The Horse and Buggy Doctor | Hertzler, Arthur E. | |
| 6 | How To Win Friends and Influence People | Carnegie, Dale | |
| 7 | Benjamin Franklin | Van Doren, Carl | |
| 8 | I'm a Stranger Here Myself | Nash, Ogden | |
| 9 | Alone | Byrd, Richard E. | |
| 10 | Fanny Kemble | Armstrong, Margaret | |
| 1939: Fiction | |||
| 1 | The Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John |
| 2 | All This, and Heaven Too | Field, Rachel | |
| 3 | Rebecca | du Maurier, Daphne |
| 4 | Wickford Point | Marquand, John P. | |
| 5 | Escape | Vance, Ethel | |
| 6 | Disputed Passage | Douglas, Lloyd C. | |
| 7 | The Yearling | Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan |
| 8 | The Tree of Liberty | Page, Elizabeth | |
| 9 | The Nazarene | Asch, Sholem |
| 10 | Kitty Foyle | Morley, Christopher | |
| 1939: Non-Fiction | |||
| 1 | Days of Our Years | van Paassen, Pierre | |
| 2 | Reaching for the Stars | Waln, Nora | |
| 3 | Inside Asia | Gunther, John | |
| 4 | Autobiography with Letters | Phelps, William Lyon | |
| 5 | Country Lawyer | Partridge, Bellamy | |
| 6 | Wind, Sand and Stars | de St. Exupery, Antoine | |
| 7 | Mein Kampf | Hitler, Adolf | |
| 8 | A Peculiar Treasure | Ferber, Edna | |
| 9 | Not Peace but a Sword | Sheean, Vincent | |
| 10 | Listen! The Wind | Lindbergh, Anne Morrow | |
Bestsellers
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