Back in 1940, 23-year-old Carson McCullers became an overnight literary sensation with her first novel,
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Houghton Mifflin reports that the book has sold over a million copies, in various editions, in the years since. Now, as the 50th Oprah book club pick, and the fourth in her classics book club, it could sell another million in the next few months. HM reports 780,000 copies in print of the Mariner edition. The book begins its run on the PW list in the #2 trade paper spot.