McCullough = 1 Million

That's right. Amid all the buzz about Knopf buying former President Clinton's memoirs for an estimated $10 million–$12 million, Simon & Schuster proudly announced that its 19th printing for David McCullough's John Adams takes the in-print figure to more than one million copies. The book was published May 22 with a first printing of 265,000; back-to-press activity was fast, and within 10 days the book had been reprinted five times, making the total 400,000. The new seven-figure print total was achieved in less than three months, making this one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books ever. According to S&S executive v-p and publisher David Rosenthal, the house is hoping to reach 1.5 million by Christmas. John Adams is the biggest hardcover bestseller for McCullough; his earlier Pulitzer Prize– winning presidential biography, Truman (published in 1992), sold about 630,000 copies in its first six months.

The hoopla around the Clinton record advance centered on whether the book will earn out and how previous presidential memoirs have fared. Well, none have achieved the numbers reached by the Adams book. In fact, the most successful recent political memoir was by Colin Powell; his My American Journey sold about 1.5 million copies in its first year and, at that time, the hope was that he would toss his hat into the presidential race. Hillary Clinton should take note that both Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan enjoyed stronger sales with their respective books than their husbands did with their memoirs.

With reporting by Dick Donahue