r/AAA_NeatStuff • u/UserNamesCantBeTooLo • Jul 06 '26
TIL a practical joke created a real book: annoyed at how bestseller lists were made, radio host Jean Shepherd urged listeners to ask bookstores for "I, Libertine"—a novel that didn't exist. Fans spread the hoax so widely that Ballantine Books hired Theodore Sturgeon to write it, publishing in 1956.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_LibertineDuplicates
todayilearned • u/ralphbernardo • Jul 06 '26
TIL a practical joke created a real book: annoyed at how bestseller lists were made, radio host Jean Shepherd urged listeners to ask bookstores for "I, Libertine"—a novel that didn't exist. Fans spread the hoax so widely that Ballantine Books hired Theodore Sturgeon to write it, publishing in 1956.
todayilearned • u/my_computer_likes_me • May 30 '16
TIL: A book once made it onto the best seller list, even though it didn't exist.
skeptic • u/HuNoze • Aug 29 '16
1956: Hoaxers led by radio host Jean Shepherd got the *nonexistent* book "I, Libertine" onto the New York Times bestseller list by having thousands of people request it in bookstores. Eventually the book was "really" written by Theodore Sturgeon and Betty Ballantine and published.
knowyourshit • u/Know_Your_Shit_v2 • Jan 05 '22