Mary Johnston

The Top Selling Novels in the United States in 1900 Mary Johnston

The Top Selling Novels in the United States is a series of books containing the top 3 novels sold by year starting in 1900. This is the first book in the series and includes the novels To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston, Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley and Unleavened Bread by Robert Grant. Each of these novels were bought from the shelves of old bookstores more than any other novels during the year 1900. All materials have been carefully preserved so you can enjoy some of the best literature gathered together in one book just as they were when first released. To Have and to Hold (1899) is a novel by American author Mary Johnston. Published by Houghton Mifflin, it was the bestselling novel in the United States in the following year (1900). Red Pottage follows a period in the lives of two friends, Rachel West and Hester Gresley. Rachel is a wealthy heiress who falls in love with the weak-willed Hugh Scarlett after he has broken off an affair with Lady Newhaven (which he does not originally realize has been discovered by her husband). Hester, a novelist, lives with her judgmental brother, the pompous vicar of the fictional village of Warpington. Hester's brother disapproves of her writing and eventually burns the manuscript of a novel she has been writing. This leads Hester into a prolonged nervous illness. Scarlett who has not been entirely frank with Rachel about his past commits suicide when his dishonourable behaviour is revealed to her and she breaks off their engagement. Red Pottage caused a scandal when it was first published, in 1899, due to its themes of adultery, the emancipation of women and its satire of the clergy. It was adapted into a silent film in 1918 by Meyrick Milton starring C. Aubrey Smith, Mary Dibley and Gerald Ames. Unleavened Bread is a 1900 novel by American writer Robert Grant, and one of the best selling books of that year.