S 100 YEARS. Top 100 « Modern Library. Since the “100 Best” story first broke in The New York Times on Monday, July 20, 1998, all kinds of opinions about the list – and theories about the Modern Library’s purpose in concocting such a contest of sorts – emerged.
The goal of the “100 Best” project was to get people talking about great books. We succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings — more than 400,000 avid readers rushed online to cast votes for their favorite books and the students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course quickly responded with rival list of 100 Best Novels. The reader’s poll for the best nonfiction published in the English language since 1900 opened on April 29, 1999 and closed on September 30, 1999 with a total of 194,829 votes cast. 100 Must Read Books: The Man’s Essential Library.