Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1970s

: "For other uses of the term, please see the disambiguation page at Best sellers".This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1970s, as determined by Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1970 through 1979.

The standards set for inclusion in the lists - which, for example, lead to the exclusion of the novels in the Harry Potter series from the lists for the 1990s and 2000s - are currently unknown.

1970

# "Love Story" by Erich Segal
# "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles
# "Islands in the Stream" by Ernest Hemingway
# "The Crystal Cave" by Mary Stewart
# "Great Lion of God" by Taylor Caldwell
# "QB VII" by Leon Uris
# "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" by Jimmy Breslin
# "The Secret Woman" by Victoria Holt
# "Travels with My Aunt" by Graham Greene
# "Rich Man, Poor Man" by Irwin Shaw

1971

# "Wheels" by Arthur Hailey
# "The Exorcist" by William P. Blatty
# "The Passions of the Mind" by Irving Stone
# "The Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth
# "The Betsy" by Harold Robbins
# "Message from Malaga" by Helen MacInnes
# "The Winds of War" by Herman Wouk
# "The Drifters" by James A. Michener
# "The Other" by Tom Tryon
# "Rabbit Redux" by John Updike

1972

# "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach
# "August 1914" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
# "The Odessa File" by Frederick Forsyth
# "The Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth
# "The Word" by Irving Wallace
# "The Winds of War" by Herman Wouk
# "Captains and the Kings" by Taylor Caldwell
# "Two from Galilee" by Marjorie Holmes
# "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok
# "Semi-Tough" by Dan Jenkins

1973

# "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach
# "Once Is Not Enough" by Jacqueline Susann
# "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut
# "The Odessa File" by Frederick Forsyth
# "Burr" by Gore Vidal
# "The Hollow Hills" by Mary Stewart
# "Evening in Byzantium" by Irwin Shaw
# "The Matlock Paper" by Robert Ludlum
# "The Billion Dollar Sure Thing" by Paul E. Erdman
# "The Honorary Consul" by Graham Greene

1974

# "Centennial" by James A. Michener
# "Watership Down" by Richard Adams
# "Jaws" by Peter Benchley
# "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" by John le Carré
# "Something Happened" by Joseph Heller
# "The Dogs of War" by Frederick Forsyth
# "The Pirate" by Harold Robbins
# "I Heard the Owl Call My Name" by Margaret Craven
# "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" by Nicholas Meyer
# "The Fan Club" by Irving Wallace

1975

# "Ragtime" by E. L. Doctorow
# "The Moneychangers" by Arthur Hailey
# "Curtain" by Agatha Christie
# "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" by Judith Rossner
# "The Choirboys" by Joseph Wambaugh
# "The Eagle Has Landed" by Jack Higgins
# "The Great Treasure" by Irving Stone
# "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton
# "Shogun" by James Clavell
# "Humboldt's Gift" by Saul Bellow

1976

# "Trinity" by Leon Uris
# "Sleeping Murder" by Agatha Christie
# "Dolores" by Jacqueline Susann
# "Storm Warning" by Jack Higgins
# "The Deep" by Peter Benchley
# "1876" by Gore Vidal
# "Slapstick or Lonesome No More!" by Kurt Vonnegut
# "The Lonely Lady" by Harold Robbins
# "Touch Not the Cat" by Mary Stewart
# "A Stranger in the Mirror" by Sidney Sheldon

1977

# "The Silmarillion" by J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
# "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough
# "" by Richard Bach
# "The Honourable Schoolboy" by John le Carré
# "Oliver's Story" by Erich Segal
# "Dreams Die First" by Harold Robbins
# "Beggarman, Thief" by Irwin Shaw
# "How to Save Your Own Life" by Erica Jong
# "Delta of Venus" by Anaïs Nin
# "Daniel Martin" by John Fowles

1978

# "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener
# "War and Remembrance" by Herman Wouk
# "Fools Die" by Mario Puzo
# "Bloodline" by Sidney Sheldon
# "Scruples" by Judith Krantz
# "Evergreen" by Belva Plain
# "" by Richard Bach
# "The Holcroft Covenant" by Robert Ludlum
# "Second Generation" by Howard Fast
# "Eye of the Needle" by Ken Follett

1979

# "The Matarese Circle" by Robert Ludlum
# "Sophie's Choice" by William Styron
# "Overload" by Arthur Hailey
# "Memories of Another Day" by Harold Robbins
# "Jailbird" by Kurt Vonnegut
# "The Dead Zone" by Stephen King
# "The Last Enchantment" by Mary Stewart
# "The Establishment" by Howard Fast
# "" by John Hackett
# "Smiley's People" by John le Carré