Nils O. Monaghan writes:
[panegyric on Adolf Hitler]
> he wrote a book which has outsold every other book in history except
> for the Bible.

In the UK, the best seller for many years - way ahead of the Bible -
has always been the Highway Code. (I'd guess that Chairman Mao's
Little Red Book would be a long way ahead of Mein Kampf, too).

I suspect that, in the US, Fannie Farmer outsold Hitler by quite
a long way. Anybody got the figures?

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On 22 Apr 2004 13:57:30 GMT, (bogus address)
wrote:

>In the UK, the best seller for many years - way ahead of the Bible -
>has always been the Highway Code. (I'd guess that Chairman Mao's
>Little Red Book would be a long way ahead of Mein Kampf, too).
>
>I suspect that, in the US, Fannie Farmer outsold Hitler by quite
>a long way. Anybody got the figures?

There's a list he
http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/bestsellerFARQ.html

As you guessed, the Little Red Book was high on the list. However,
like Mein Kampf, owning a copy was required by law.

According to Bartleby, Fannie Farmer sold nearly 4 million copies in
the first 70 years of publication. "The Joy of Cooking" has sold over
15 million. I doubt that either of these books has ever been
purchased in order to placate the civil authorities.

This reminds me of William Pene du Bois' delightful childrens' book,
"The 21 Balloons", which features a hidden utopia with a restaurant
government.


Robin Carroll-Mann
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