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.
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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.
It was the '50s, a time when people were smitten with records -- the 4-minute mile, jet speeds, car speeds -- and Sir Hugh Beaver decided to compile a book of records and distribute them to pubs as conversation pieces while patrons enjoyed a pint of Guinness.
"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.
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.
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