Am I the only one who looked up the real print run for 'The Catcher in the Rye'?

Our club was arguing about its impact, and I found out it sold under 30,000 copies in its first year. I saw that in a 2015 article from a rare book site. Does that change how we judge a book's initial success?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucaslee2mo ago

That initial print run number is interesting, but does it really matter for judging the book now?

leelewis2mo ago

Wait, are you serious? That first print run tells you everything about what the publisher really thought of the book before anyone read it. It's a huge sign of their confidence, or lack of it. If they only printed a tiny number, they didn't believe in it at all. That shapes the whole early buzz and chance for the book to even get seen. How can that not matter to the story of the book now?

parkerp801mo ago

I mean, I saw a thing once about how 'The Great Gatsby' was basically a flop when it first came out. Like, it sold so bad Fitzgerald died thinking he was a failure. Idk, it makes you wonder how many books we call classics now just had a slow start. Maybe the first print run just shows the publisher's guess, and they're wrong all the time. It's weird to think a book's whole story could be different if they'd printed more copies right away.