| 100% | BLIFIL | 6 | Nephew of Squire Allworthy in 1749 Henry Fielding novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling |
| 70% | SOPHIA | 6 | & 16D Heroine of 1749 Henry Fielding novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling |
| 34% | THEHISTORY | 10 | —, a Foundling, 1749 novel by Henry Fielding |
| 31% | LEWYCKA | 7 | Marina —, author of the novels Two Caravans and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian |
| 29% | INJUNJOE | 8 | Villain in 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain |
| 29% | TRASHIEST | 9 | In the poorest of taste, as a novel |
| 28% | CIRCA | 5 | Around the year of, in a history book |
| 28% | THEGOAT | 7 | Nickname for the best player in the history of a sport |
| 28% | SSN | 3 | Tom Clancy's '96 techno-thriller novel about a nuclear attack sub that tied in with a video game of the same name |
| 28% | BRIDGET | 7 | "___ Jones's Diary," 1996 novel by Helen Fielding in which the titular character meets her lover at a New Year's party |
| 28% | CLARISSA | 8 | 1748 novel by Samuel Richardson subtitled The History of a Young Lady |
| 28% | FORRESTGUMP | 11 | Tom Hanks' 1994 drama film based on a Winston Groom novel of the same name in which 20a plays his love interest: 2 wds. |
| 27% | CASE | 4 | Word in the title of many a detective novel |
| 27% | ARK | 3 | ___ of the Covenant (chest Indiana Jones sought in a 1981 movie) |
| 27% | LOLITA | 6 | Noted novel in the guise of a posthumously published memoir |
| 27% | EYRE | 4 | "The ___ Affair" (murder mystery set in the universe of a Brontë novel) |
| 27% | FOB | 3 | A gift in O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" |
| 27% | DATE | 4 | Field in the top right corner of a check |
| 27% | EVELINA | 7 | 1778 Frances Burney novel subtitled The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World |
| 27% | DYLAN | 5 | About whom Obama said "There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music" |
| 27% | OLCOTT | 6 | Henry Steel —, a founder of the Theosophical Society in 1875 |
| 26% | EVELINA | 7 | 1778 novel by Frances Burney subtitled The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World |
| 26% | SOCIALSTUDIES | 13 | Field including history, and a hint to the ends of the answers to starred clues |
| 26% | NIN | 3 | Anais —, author of 1954 short novel A Spy in the House of Love |
| 26% | IMAGINE | 7 | Word at the center of a mosaic in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields |
| 26% | TARBABY | 7 | 1981 novel about the interplay of privilege and poverty in a Caribbean romance |
| 26% | EDGEOF | 6 | & 10A The —, subtitle of 1999 novel Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding |
| 26% | ESAU | 4 | "A cunning hunter, a man of the field," in Genesis |