Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1890s


This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States from 1895–1899, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1895 through 1899.
The lists which Publishers Weekly have compiled only date back to 1895. For 1895–1912, the lists were compiled from the New York Bookman, which is the only comprehensive source. Eight of the ten are by non-American authors. Without the international copyright law which came into force in 1891, these volumes could have been printed and published by anyone, the change in this state of affairs made it possible to compile accurate sales figures.
Notable attempts to compile a list of best-selling books in the United States prior to 1895 include The Popular Book: A History of America's Literary Taste by James D. Hart.

1895

  1. Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren
  2. Trilby by George du Maurier
  3. The Adventures of Captain Horn by Frank R. Stockton
  4. The Manxman by Hall Caine
  5. The Princess Aline by Richard Harding Davis
  6. The Days of Auld Lang Syne by Ian Maclaren
  7. The Master by Israel Zangwill
  8. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
  9. Degeneration by Max Nordau
  10. My Lady Nobody'' by Maarten Maartens

    1896

  11. Tom Grogan by Francis Hopkinson Smith
  12. A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  13. The Seats of the Mighty by Gilbert Parker
  14. A Singular Life by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
  15. The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic
  16. A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs
  17. Kate Carnegie by Ian Maclaren
  18. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
  19. Sentimental Tommy by J. M. Barrie
  20. Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush by Ian Maclaren

    1897

  21. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
  22. The Choir Invisible by James Lane Allen
  23. Soldiers of Fortune by Richard Harding Davis
  24. On the Face of the Waters by Flora Annie Steel
  25. Phroso by Anthony Hope
  26. The Christian by Hall Caine
  27. Margaret Ogilvy by J. M. Barrie
  28. Sentimental Tommy by J. M. Barrie
  29. Pursuit of the House-Boat by John Kendrick Bangs
  30. The Honorable Peter Stirling by Paul Leicester Ford

    1898

  31. Caleb West by Francis Hopkinson Smith
  32. Hugh Wynne by Silas Weir Mitchell
  33. Penelope's Progress by Kate Douglas Wiggin
  34. Helbeck of Bannisdale by Mary Augusta Ward
  35. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
  36. The Pride of Jennico by Agnes and Egerton Castle
  37. The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling
  38. Shrewsbury by Stanley J. Weyman
  39. Simon Dale by Anthony Hope
  40. The Adventures of François by Silas Weir Mitchell and The Battle of the Strong by Gilbert Parker

    1899

  41. David Harum by Edward Noyes Westcott
  42. When Knighthood Was in Flower by Charles Major
  43. Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill
  44. The Day's Work by Rudyard Kipling
  45. Red Rock by Thomas Nelson Page
  46. Aylwin by Theodore Watts-Dunton
  47. Janice Meredith by Paul Leicester Ford
  48. Mr. Dooley in Peace and War by Finley Peter Dunne
  49. No. 5 John Street by Richard Whiteing
  50. The Market Place by Harold Frederic