| Researcher | Author: Title | |
| Deanna Zwarich | Michener, James A.: Return to Paradise | |
| Assignment 1: Bibliographic Description | ||
| 1. First Edition Publication Information | Michener, James A. "Return to Paradise". New York: Random House, Inc., 1951.
Copyright, 1951, by James A. Michener. Copyright, 1950, 1951, by The Curtis Publishing Company. Parallel first editions: London, Secker & Warburg, 1951. | |
| 2. First Edition in Cloth, Paper, or Both? | First American edition published in linen-texture cloth, not embossed, over hard cardboard. | |
| 4. Pagination | 227 leaves, [6] pp. [1-2]3-437[438][2] | |
| 5. Edited and/or Introduced? | Includes publisher advertisement for other books by James A. Michener on page facing the title page: "Tales of the South Pacific", and "The Fires of Spring". No editor or introduction. Book is dedicated to "The Men and Women of the Islands: Fred Archer of Rabaul, Tom Harris of Santo, Yorky Booth of New Guinea, Lew Hirshon of Tahiti, Brett Hilder of all over, Eddie Lund of Quinn's Bar, and, above all, Tiger Lil of the Gold Fields". | |
| 6. Illustrated? | Book not illustrated. | |
| 8. General Appearance | The words are printed in average sized text, readable and well printed, with sufficient line spacing and margins. Easily readable, with the only problem being the slightly faded ink of the test, which has worn to a soft black/grey with age.
page length: 208 mm page width: 140 mm size of type: 97R top and side margins: 15 mm bottom margin: 25 mm | |
| 9. Image of Sample Chapter Page | A1919990920180724.jpg | |
| 10. Description of Paper | Paper is holding up very well. It is somewhat thick, of good quality, smooth texture, and creamy color. The paper stock is consistent throughout the book. No water stains, cracks or tears. Only slight yellowing of the paper from age. | |
| 11. Description of Binding | Binding is linen-texture cloth, not embossed, over hard cardboard. The color can be described as a light greyish yellowish brown, with medium green stamping on front cover and spine. Includes green lace design on spine with gold lettering. No illustrations. Endpapers not illustrated or colored.
Transcription of front cover: [Random House logo] PRESENTATION EDITION Transcription of spine: James A. Michener|Return|to|Paradise|Random House | |
| 12. Title Page Transcription | RETURN TO|PARADISE|by|JAMES A. MICHENER|[small illustration of Random House logo] RANDOM HOUSE [dot] NEW YORK
Title page verso transcription: Copyright, 1951, by James A. Michener|Copyright, 1950,1951, by|The Curtis Publishing Company|All rights reserved under the International and|Pan-American Copyright Conventions.|Published in New York by Random House, Inc.,|and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by|Random House of Canada, Limited.|Manufactured in the United States of America|FIRST PRINTING | |
| 13. Image of Title Page | A11319990920180724.jpg | |
| 14. Manuscript Holdings | Not Known. | |
| 15. Other | Seal attatched to inside of front cover with printed words, "Hic Fructus Virtutis", and below, the name Clifton Waller Barrett. Barrett's rare book collection has contributed a great deal to the Special Collections section of Alderman Library at the University of Virginia.
Also, on the front of the second leaf, it is printed, "THIS IN NUMBER [429]* OF A LIMITED EDITION SPECIALLY MADE FOR PRESENTATION TO THE BOOKSELLERS OF AMERICA." *This number was written in handwriting in red ink. | |
| Assignment 2: Publication History | ||
| 1. Other Editions: | Other than the edition aimed at the general public, Random House published a "Presentation Edition", which is described as a "limited edition specially made for the presentation to the Booksellers of America". Other than slight differences in cover art, it is ultimately identical to the edition aimed at the general public. | |
| 4. First Edition printings or impressions? | not found
| |
| 5. Editions from other publishers? | Only one other publisher, Bantam Books, issued an edition in the United States. The others were published in translation overseas.
N.Y., Bantam Books, 1952 London, Secker & Warburg, 1951 (simultaneous first edition) Milano, Rizzoli, 1955 Paris, Flammarion, 1954 | |
| 6. Last date in print? | The most recent printing was by the Fawcett Book Group, in November of 1984. It was bound in Mass Market Paper, and sold for the retail price of $6.99. A copy of the edition of the novel published by Random House, Inc., in 1951 has a retail price of $24.95. | |
| 7. Total copies sold? | Found in Hackett. "80 years of Best Sellers, 1895-1975".
65,000 copies in 1951 | |
| 8. Sales by year? | not found
search site: Publisher's Weekly (Feb. 1951-Sept. 1951) | |
| 9. Advertising copy: | No ads found.
search site: Publisher's Weekly (Feb. 1951-Sept. 1951) | |
| 11. Other promotion? | not found | |
| 12. Performances in other media? | Adapted into a motion picture in 1953. "Until They Sail", and "Mr. Morgan", both stories from the book, were also adapted into motion pictures. | |
| 13. Translations? | Translations include:
"Retour au Paradis", Translated by Max Roth. Paris, Flammarion, 1954. French. "Ritorno al Paradiso", (no translator given). Milano, Rizzoli, 1955. Italian. | |
| 14. Serialization? | N/A | |
| 15. Sequels or Prequels? | "Return to Paradise" is considered a result of another escapade into the South Pacific by Michener. Michener's novel "Tales of the South Pacific" was published in 1947. | |
| Assignment 3: Brief Biography | ||
| "When you grow up at the bottom of the totem pole, you see things from a different perspective, and with me there's always the circumstances of my birth. If I really don't know who I am, I can hardly look down on anyone. I seem to have a Germanic turn of mind, but I may be Jewish or Lithuanian or part black. With the uncertain background, one's attitude becomes quite liberal." (James A. Michener, 1977) James Michener was born on February 3, 1907. The "circumstances" that Michener describes in the above quotation are totally indefinite, and to this day the truth is not known. Who's Who In America says that James was the son of Edwin and Mabel Michener, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. This is doubtful, since Edwin Michener died in 1902, and James was not born until five years later. When asked to elucidate the situation, Michener claimed that he had never known his parents, and that he was a foundling saved from an orphanage by Mabel Michener, a loving, penniless widow. But on the contrary, several members of the Michener family and many lifelong residents of Doylestown claim that James was indeed the son of Mabel, born to her during her widowhood.
Michener's immediate family was extremely poor, his mother working in sweatshops, taking in laundry, sewing buttonholes, and mending clothes, in order to keep herself and her two sons alive. "Survival" was often a generous description of James Michener's childhood. From 1921-1925, Michener attended Doylestown High School, where he was a member of a championship basketball team. He earned money by mowing lawns and delivering newspapers, and when his companions wanted to play baseball or go fishing or swimming, James wanted to shoot baskets. He wanted to be the best, in whatever he was doing. In 1925 he was admitted into Swathmore College on an Open Scholarship, where he was enrolled in the Honors program and graduated with Highest Honors. While in college, he became a member of the Society of Friends. After graduating, Michener taught for two years at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. During his time there, he received the Joshua Lippincott fellowship, which he used to travel and study abroad. In 1933, James Michener visited Spain for the first time. From 1933-1936, Michener taught English at George School, a Quaker institution. In the summer of 1935, during a summer program at the University of Virginia, he met and married Patti Koon, a short, stocky, and muscular woman who had the unfortunate nickname of "Butch". She "looked like a boy", and spoke in a raspy southern drawl. In 1936, Michener tired of teaching English and decided to take an invitation to pursue a master's degree and teach social studies at the Colorado State College of Education at Greeley, now the University of Northern Colorado. He received in M.A. degree in 1937, and from there he went on to become the social studies editor with the Macmillan Publishing Company in New York City. Having enlisted in the Naval Reserve, Michener was activated in 1943, and was posted in the South Pacific in the spring of 1944. He left the service with the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1947, Tales of the South Pacific was published, and shortly after, in 1948, Michener was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, which was based upon Michener's first book, opened in New York and ran for 1,925 performances. Between 1950 and 1960, two more of Michener's books were published, the Bridge at Andau, and Hawaii, the first of his "blockbuster" novels. In 1962, as a Democrat, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress from the Eighth Congressional District in Pennsylvania. Both The Source and Iberia were published before 1972, when Michener visited China and Russia with President Nixon as a correspondent. After Centennial was published in 1974, he received the Medal of Freedom and began a series of television programs entitled "The World of James A. Michener." After Chesapeake was published in 1978, he received the Pennsylvania Society Gold Medal, the Franklin Award, and the Spanish Institute Gold medal. In 1979, Michener began serving on the NASA Advisory Council. A quote by Henry Denker best describes the way most viewed James Michener: "Frustrating fellow, this Michener. Usually when a person reaches the pinnacle of success in his profession his colleagues can at least vent their envy by attacking his personal life. But this Michener is such a thoroughly decent, honorable and charitable fellow that he denies us even that meager shred of satisfaction. What are we to do with him?" | ||
| Assignment 4 | ||
| Contemporary Reception: | ||
| Most reviewers see this novel as a linked successor to Michener's popular Tales of the South Pacific. Return to Paradise is a result of Michener's actual physical return to the South Pacific, and in it he writes eight fact-filled essays about each of the countries on his tour. To accompany each essay, an based upon its theme, he writes a short story. The essay is a report of observation; the story is a dramatizing of a significant problem. Some reviewers agree that the journalistic value of the essays is great; that Michener provides expert journalism relating to the postwar South Pacific. But many also accuse the short stories as being significantly mediocre in quality compared to the essays, and claim that the themes of the stories seem heavy-handed and often too obvious.
"The reporting in this book is unsurpassed; nowhere else can one find so much information so warmly and graphically presented about the vast realm of the South Pacific countries and their peoples. From the first sketch of the slow building of the coral island to the final dramatic picture of war-ruined Rabaul, the essays are superb. In brief space Mr. Michener provides a variety of information-about races, religions, trade, primitive culture, social and economic tensions-and does it all with unfailing zest, sympathy, and discernment." -Walter Havighurst, COLLEGE ENGLISH, Vol. 14, No. 1, October, 1952, pp. 4-5 "In Return to Paradise Mr. Michener invented a hybrid literary form, which consists of alternating excellent travel articles with short stories designed to dramatize the conditions described in the articles. As journalism, [the novel] is outstanding, a fine account of the postwar South Pacific crowded with concrete information and significant anecdotes. But the quality of the stories is much inferior to that of the reporting…" -Orville Prescott, THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 30, 1951, pp. 153-154 "An informative, attractive, and at times wonderfully awkward book. As a reader whose knowledge of the areas covered ranges from nothing to moderate familiarity, I found the essays packed with interesting detail and fresh information. They give, so far as I can judge, an accurate picture of the various islands' history, development, and present problems, and they do this in a thoroughly unaffected manner. The range of information, as one looks back over it, is enormous, and Mr. Michener has made it all painlessly available to the general reader." -J. J. Espey, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE BOOK REVIEW, April 22, 1951, p. 7 Cumulative Reviews: Atlantic Monthly 7/51 Booklist 4/15/51, 5/1/51 Bookmark 6/51 Catholic World 8/51 Chicago Sunday Tribune 5/6/51 Christian Science Monitor 5/1/51 Cleveland Open Shelf 7/51 New York Times 4/22/51, 10/30/51 New York Herald Tribune Book Review 4/22/51 Times (London) Literary Supplement 10/26/51 Time 4/23/51 United States Quarterly Book List 9/51 Kirkus Reviews 3/1/51 New Yorker 5/3/51 Nation 5/12/51 San Francisco Chronicle 5/6/51 New Republic 5/14/51 Commonweal 4/27/51 Wisconsin Library Bulletin 7/51 Saturday Review of Literature 4/28/51 College English 10/52 | ||
| Assignment 5 | ||
| Critical Essay: | ||
| James A. Michener's Return to Paradise: Why did it sell?
What makes a best seller? For every best selling book, the answer to this question is different. The creation of a best seller does not follow an exact pattern any more than does the making of a successful man. Moreover, since there is not just one best seller audience, analyzing the plight of a best selling book may involve learning much more about what seems to have made it succeed. Books dealing with religion, sensationalism, self-improvement, history, and personal adventure have seen the bestseller lists much more frequently, and other books often have found the lists for other, less justifiable reasons. James A. Michener's Return to Paradise may have been originally recognized for it's connection with his first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, but it eventually found the best seller lists by its own literary merit. It combined a successful style with elements of history, travel, adventure, humor, and fantasy. The successful combination was complimented by Michener's recognizable name, the new and different format of the book, and his unique idea of place used in the novel. Although readers had already been captivated by these elements in Tales of the South Pacific, they were attracted to the idea of a sequel, or even a mere continuation of the stories that resulted from Michener's actual return to the South Pacific. Michener didn't publish his first work of fiction until around the age of forty. It was not until he volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy in 1942 that he began to collect experiences he could visualize as marketable fiction. Although Tales of the South Pacific is considered a collection of short stories, Michener considered it a novel due to the book's overall theme of America's fight in the South Pacific theatre during World War II. Although it never became a best seller, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948, and it was the beginning of a recognizable reputation for the author himself. By the time his third novel, Return to Paradise, was released in 1951, Michener had made a definitive name for himself in the literary world. His tales of travels and adventures to new and different places of the world enthralled readers everywhere, and Michener began to realize a promising opportunity. His talents in observation, combined with his attention to detail and keen prose, captured the attention of readers and critics both. Return to Paradise benefited loosely from the fact that Michener's name was already known by readers. He could be recognized for his stories of vast travels and exotic settings, which had already begun to appeal to the popular audiences in the late forties and early fifties. Although Return to Paradise was a tentative continuation of Tales of the South Pacific, Michener created an entirely new form for the collection of short stories and essays. The popularity of the book reached best selling status in May of 1951, and remained there, on both the New York Times and the Publisher's Weekly Fiction Lists, for a combined total of forty-four weeks. Michener "is a born story teller," New York Times writer David Dempsey explains in a review of Tales of the South Pacific, "but, paradoxically, this ability results in the book's only real weakness-the interminable length of some of the tales. Mr. Michener saw so much, and his material is so rich, that he simply could not leave anything out." His first novels represent Michener's experimentation with form and story-telling strategy before he finally settled into "the Michener formula" that many critics speak of. The book Return to Paradise was a result of the author's return visit to the South Pacific, and out of this he waned to write a new kind of book-a book of mingled fact and fiction. The stories contained in the popular and highly readable Return to Paradise are each preceded by an interpretive essay about each of the countries on his tour. The essay provides a report of observation, while the story dramatizes a significant problem. "The evidence is piling up that as Mr. Michener becomes more expert as a journalist he is becoming less effective as a writer of fiction. But those who were excited by the appearance of wonderful tales cannot help being disappointed." Although some critics accuse the experimental form of failing in part, citing that Michener's journalistic talents were becoming more developed than his story writing ability, and because the book's readership was extremely diverse, the book became a huge success. Return to Paradise uses the idea of place to partly determine structure and meaning. By forming his stories around the exotic settings of the South Pacific, Michener can stimulate memories in the reader that in turn affect character psychology; he can provide symbols, such as beaches and gardens, that often carry certain conventional associations. His use of place encourages familiar metaphors such as earth and woman, forest and moral wilderness. Moreover, nearly one-fifth of the ninety-eight best selling books of the same decade were celebrating a vision of entrepreneurial success. "The story of individual achievement [was] at the center of many plots, protagonists [were] men in search of success, and the overriding tone in the universe of best sellers [was] optimistic and confident about the forward march of social progress and America's rightful place in its vanguard." Michener, on the other hand, was writing stories about history and religion, politics and drama. He was writing postwar fiction from the standpoint of a different place. His focus was not on the complexities of postwar life in America, but rather some similar complexities from a different place. For readers who had seen or wanted to see the South Pacific, Michener provided a personal introduction to an area followed by a short story which vaults off from the theme of the factual sketch. He likes to have his characters "perform against the background or in accordance with the events of history. The quirks of personality, the oddities of character, the unpredictable Brownian motions of human psychology appear to interest him little. He prefers to represent a history in action." Even by the time he wrote Return to Paradise, Michener had not yet become the universally known best selling author that we know him as today. His first novels were considered quality literary works, but it wasn't until he wrote the novel Hawaii that Michener established the format that would see him through several subsequent novels and make him a best selling author. New York Times writer Caryn James explained that it was "only when he moved from small stories of people to monolithic tales of places-beginning with the fictionalized history of Hawaii in 1959 through Israel in The Source, South Africa in The Covenant, Poland, Chesapeake, and Space-did he become the kind of brand name author whose books hit the best seller lists before they reach the bookstores." Jonathan Yardley reported in the New York Times Book Review that Michener "deserves more respect than he usually gets. Granted that he is not a stylist and that he smothers his stories under layers of historical and ecological trivia, nonetheless he has earned his enormous popularity honorably. Unlike many other authors whose books automatically rise to the upper reaches of best-seller lists, he does not get there by exploiting the lives of the famous or the notorious; he does not treat sex cynically or pruriently; he does not write trash. His purposes are entirely serious: he wants to instruct, to take his readers through history in an entertaining fashion, to introduce them to lands and peoples they did not know." Michener's attempt to share his experience of the South Pacific with his readers is seen by most as honest and valid, without any ulterior motives. He has never been known to struggle for popularity or fame, and his works speak for themselves. Readers appreciate his adventurous and inquisitive nature, and enjoy the way it comes through in his works of both fiction and nonfiction. Surprisingly, Michener considered himself a popular storyteller rather than a novelist, and while Michener's literary talents may be regarded by some as limited, his memoirs indicate that, "there is every chance that he will be remembered for being not an ordinary but a highly unusual fellow, almost a Renaissance man, adventurous, inquisitive, energetic, unpretentious and unassuming, with an encyclopedic mind and a generous heart." It can't be denied that many best selling books are lacking any of the literary graces. These books make it clear that a vast reading public is not concerned with the particulars of style. These are books that critics often call "typical best sellers", simply because their immense popularity seems to be their only quality worth considering. On the contrary, and although the popularity of Return to Paradise may have depended loosely on Michener's reputation as a best selling author since then, critics agree that his high status as an author is more than justified. In all his works, including Return to Paradise, Michener provides the reader with a valuable service. There are few works of fiction that, even now, can match a Michener novel's educational value. His inability to ignore the journalistic writer within himself has given rise to novels whose teaching value is as prevalent as its fictional content, if not more so. "A Michener novel is a tribute to the industriousness of both author and reader and, in addition to the easy-to-swallow data, it contains a morality tale about the heroism of hard work and guts. His thick, fact-filled books seem thoroughly impersonal, but several days in Michener's company show the novels to be perfect expressions of their author's anomalies-moral without being stern, methodical yet digressive, insistently modest yet bursting with ambition, full of social conscience yet grasping at facts as a way to avoid emotion."iv Michener, between his birth in 1907 and his death in 1997, wrote twenty-three novels, five books of short stories and sketches, and twenty-six non-fiction manuscripts. In Hackett's 80 Years of Best Sellers 1895-1975, which lists books which have, over 88 years, sold two million copies or more, there are nineteen entries under Michener's name. This number of entries is exceeded only by long-standing best selling authors like Lloyd C. Douglas (20 entries) and Sinclair Lewis (22 entries), and exceeds the number of entries for such well-known authors as Irving Wallace (17 entries) and John Steinbeck (18 entries). His first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, was released in 1947, and adapted for the stage by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II as the musical South Pacific. The play was filmed in 1958. Until They Sail and Mr. Morgan, both from Return to Paradise, were adapted into motion pictures. James noted that "the Michener formula might seem an unlikely one for the media age: big, old fashioned narratives weaving generations of fictional families through densely documented factual events, celebrating the All-American virtues of common sense, frugality, patriotism. Yet these straitlaced, educational stories are so episodic that they are perfectly suited to the movie and television adaptations that have propelled Michener's success."iv For Michener, making the bestseller list was not a particular goal. He spent his life and energy doing things that he loved-traveling and observing people and places all over the world, writing about them, and teaching-and his readership found this easy to recognize in his writing. Return to Paradise became a best seller largely by its own literary merit. Michener once told James, "I don't think the way I write books is the best or even the second-best. The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination. But people in my position also do some very good work. I'm not a stylist like Updike or Bellow, and don't aspire to be. I'm not interested in plot or pyrotechnics, but I sure work to get a steady flow. If I try to describe a chair, I can describe it so that a person will read it to the end. The way the words flow, trying to maintain a point of view and a certain persuasiveness-that I can do." Footnotes: Orville Prescott, In My Opinion, p. 154 Elizabeth Long, The American Dream and the Popular Novel, p. 63 Thomas Lask, New York Times Caryn James, New York Times Jonathan Yardley, New York Times Book Review Doris Grumbach, New York Times Book Review Sources: Books: · Becker, George J., James A. Michener, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc., 1983. · Day, A. Grove, James A. Michener, Twayne, 1964. · Hayes, J.P., James A. Michener, Bobbs-Merrill, 1984. · Hinckley, Barbara, and Hinckley, Karen, American Best Sellers: A Reader's Guide to Popular Fiction, Indiana University Press, 1989. · Hutner, Gordon, American Literature, American Culture, Oxford University Press, 1999. · Literary Taste, Culture, and Mass Communication, edited by Peter Davison/Rolf Meyerson/Edward Shils, Volume 12, Bookselling, Reviewing and Reading, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1978. · Long, Elizabeth, The American Dream and the Popular Novel, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. · Marx, Leo, The Pilot and the Passenger: Essays on Literature, Technology, and Culture in the United States, Oxford University Press, 1988. · Prescott, Orville, In My Opinion: An Inquiry into the Contemporary Novel, Bobbs-Merrill, 1952. · Rhine, C.D., Roberts, F.X., James A. Michener: A Checklist of His Works, with a Selected, Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Press, 1995. Periodicals: · Booklist, December 1, 1993, p. 671. · Chicago Tribune, January 17, 1982; September 29, 1983; June 27, 1985; October 17, 1985; July 2, 1989. · Insight, September 1, 1986. · Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1985. · Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 7, 1980; October 3, 1982; July 31, 1983; September 4, 1983; September 13, 1987; April 7, 1991. · Newsweek, January 25, 1954; May 14, 1962; August 12, 1963; May 24, 1965; May 6, 1968; September 16, 1974; July 24, 1978; November 24, 1980; January 16, 1984; September 23, 1985. · New York Times, February 2, 1947; February 3, 1947; February 6, 1949; February 7, 1949; April 22, 1951; April 23, 1951; October 30, 1951; July 12, 1953; January 24, 1954; December 12, 1954; March 3, 1957; August 3, 1958; May 1, 1968; June 10, 1971; September 27, 1974; July 1, 1976; August 1, 1978; November 14, 1980; September 29, 1982; September 3, 1983; February 20, 1984; September 25, 1984; October 9, 1985; October 31, 1985. · New York Times Book Review, May 16, 1948; May 22, 1949; July 12, 1953; March 3, 1957; November 8, 1959; November 22, 1959; June 18, 1961; August 11, 1963; May 23, 1965; July 24, 1966; May 12, 1968; May 25, 1969; June 6, 1971; June 27, 1971; September 30, 1973; February 10, 1974; September 8, 1974; June 27, 1976; July 23, 1978; November 26, 1978; July 15, 1979; November 23, 1980; September 19, 1982; June 12, 1983; September 4, 1983; November 20, 1983; October 13, 1985; September 6, 1987; June 26, 1988; July 9, 1989; November 5, 1989; November 12, 1989; September 30, 1990; March 31, 1991; January 19, 1992; November 28, 1993, p. 26; October 16, 1994, p. 20; January 7, 1996, p. 20. · Publishers Weekly, October 18, 1993, p. 54; August 21, 1995, p. 46. · Washington Post, September 2, 1983. · Washington Post Book World, June 4, 1972; September 1, 1974; July 9, 1978; September 30, 1979; November 2, 1980; December 6, 1981; September 12, 1982; September 29, 1985; July 3, 1988; March 2, 1991; December 8, 1991; October 16, 1994, p. 1. · Yale Review, spring, 1947; spring, 1949. | ||
| Supplementary Materials | ||
| Michener's "Return to Paradise" was first found on the New York Times Fiction Bestseller List on May 6, 1951. It was listed at #15. It reached it's peak position on June 17, 1951, where it remained at #3 for eleven weeks. It was on this list for a total of 26 weeks.
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| Michener's "Return to Paradise" was first found on the Publisher's Weekly Fiction Bestseller List on June 2, 1951. It was listed at #4. It reached it's peak position on June 30, 1951, where it remained at #3 for seven weeks. It was on this list for a total of 18 weeks. It's combined weeks on the NYT and PW Fiction Bestseller Lists total 44. | ||
Bestsellers
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