The methodology and ranking criteria varied. Some lists were compiled according to votes from readers, other lists were created by panels of literary experts. Naturally, no two lists agree completely. We then combined the rankings from the various lists to create a composite index of The Best Novels of the 20th Century and The Best Nonfiction of the 20th Century . The rank of each book depends on the rank of the book on each of the various lists.
Extra credit is given to books that appear on multiple lists.
We have never seen an answer that would satisfy everyone. It means that these books are in the public domain, at least in the United States. With rare exceptions we are not able to offer any book or story that was published after 1922. Although the text is out of copyright, a considerable amount of work went into formatting each book. All rights reserved.