BEST SELLERS TAKE THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 238, 14 January 1944, Page 15

BEST SELLERS TAKE THE AIR

Announcement by Commercial Stations HEN a publisher strikes an Anthony Adverse or a Gone With the Wind, his fortune is made. But there is one book which has outsold every other book ever printed, with the exception of the Bible. This book is Dr. Charles M. Sheldon’s In His Steps, which in some form or another has had a sale to date of many millions of copies. Now the book has been adapted for radio, and the recorded version will be broadcast from the ZB stations, commencing at 1ZB on January 20, 2ZB on February 3, 3ZB on February 17, and 4ZB on March 2. In each case it will be heard at 7.30 p.m. on Thursdays and Saturdays. When this programme was broadcast in America, two Eastern Ohio churches installed radios and opened their services with the feature. Gale Gordon plays the part of Dr. Henry Maxwell, and the St. Brandan’s Boys’ Choir, under the direction of Robert Mitchell, provides musical backgrounds and interlude melodies. The world’s best sellers make an interesting list. Here are some of those that have sold a million copies or more, with their authors and the dates when they appeared:-8,000,000, In His Steps (Charles Munroe Sheldon) 1899; 2,868,100, Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 1936; 2,000,000 Freckles (Gene Stratton Porter) 1904; 1,950,000, Ben Hur (Lew Wallace) 1880; 1,700,000, Girl of the Limberlost (Gene Stratton Porter) 1909; 1,600,000, The Harvester (Gene Stratton Porter) 1911; 1,500,000, Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) 1875; 1,500,000, The Winning of Barbara Worth (Harold Bell Wright) 1911; 1,500,000, Laddie (Gene Stratton Porter) 1913; 1,454,000, The Virginian (Owen Wister) 1902; 1,412,000, The Call of the Wild (Jack London) 1917; 1,321,000, Story of the Bible (Jesse Lyman Hurlbut) 1904; 1,255,000, Trail of the Lonesome Pine (John Fox) 1909; 1,200,000, David Harum (Edward Noyes Westcott) 1898; 1,194,000, The Sheik (E, M. Hull) 1921; 1,100,000, Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (John Fox) 1903; 1,090,000, Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Margaret Sidney) 1881; 1,000,000, Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) 1884; 1,000,000, Black Beauty (Anna Sewell) — 1877; 1,000,000, Pollyanna (Eleanor Stewart) 1913; 1,000,000, Treasure Island (R. L. Stevenson) 1894; 1,000,000, Trilby (George du Maurier) 1894, In 1535 the first English Bible was printed by Miles Coverdale. It would be impossible to calculate how many Bibles have been published since that time, but the British and Foreign Bible Society has issued 550,000,000 copies since 1804 alone. The publication of unexpurgated editions of Mein Kampf led to prolonged copyright proceedings in America and produced the best seller of 1939. If, thereforé, publishers have their grievances, they cannot complain with Job that there are not enough books written.