Guinness
Book Origins
1955 Guinness Book
B e g i n n i
n g
The Guinness Book of Records
is the biggest-selling copyrighted book of all
time, according to Publisher, Young, with 92
million books sold since 1955. But when it was
first imagined, it wasn't even going to be for
sale.
S i r H u c h
B e a v e r
The book was the brainchild
of Sir Hugh Beaver. The managing director of
the Guinness Brewery in Ireland. on November
10, 1951, he got into an argument while hunting
with friends out in southeastern Ireland over
which was the fastest game bird. Sir Hugh Beaver
thought that hundreds of other such things were
apparently being discussed and a book of records
could resolve these differences.
1 9 5 0' s
It was the '50s, a time when
people were smitten with records -- the 4-minute
mile, jet speeds, car speeds -- and Sir Huch
Beaver decided to compile a book of records
and distribute them to pubs as conversation
pieces while patrons enjoyed a pint of Guinness
M a r k e t G
i v e w a y
"It was a marketing giveaway,
it wasn't supposed to be a moneymaker."
Sir Hugh Beaver printed 1,000 of the first book
and gave them away. The Guinness Book of World
Records publishing company eventually opened
at 107 Fleet Street in London
H a r d B a c
k P u b l i s h e d
The first hard back copy of
the 198-page book was bound on August 27th 1955.
One year after the series was originally launched
in London, the first edition of the Guinness
Book of World Records came out in the United
States. 70,000 of these books were sold. The
Guinness Book of Records English edition is
now distributed in 70 different countries with
another 22 editions in foreign languages.
G u i n n e s
s B o o k S u c c e s s
More than 65 million copies
were sold world wide by 1990. Only 2000 of the
5000 records that come in each year are published.
The other records are recorded but cannot be
published because of book size constraints.
Guinness Book Video Game High scores were published
from [1985] - [1987]
and then discontinued.
Original
Guinness Book of World Records 2004 Site |
