# TIPS for the Bookseller

JOHN HERSEY'S "The Wall" has created more stir in book circles than any novel published in recent months. Less than two weeks following publication on February 27 Knopf had ordered paper for a sixth printing. The fifth printing, when it comes in on March 20, will bring the number of copies of the book in print to 88,000. Knopf's advance sale amounted to 40,000 copies. In the week following publication 11,000 copies were sold, and the sale last week came to 9,000. Macy's in New York sold out its first supply of 1,000 copies the first day, and on March 9 ran a large ad in the New York Times announcing that the book was back in stock at the store. At the Scribner Book Store in New York, Igor Kropotkin says, "It has been a long, long time since there has been so much excitement about a book. There has been nothing like it since 'Forever Amber.'"

Five days after the book was published it was given the Front Page Award of the Newspaper Guild of New York, probably something of a record for quick prize-winning. The author left on March 11 for Europe where he plans to spend several months.

MORROW has increased its advertising budget for "Comes the Comrade!" by Alexandra Orme and postponed publication date from March 29 to May 17 since the book is to be a dual selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club for June. The other June selection will be Gerald Johnson's "Incredible Tale" to be published by Harper.

SALES NOTES: Rinehart has made a sixth printing of Monica Baldwin's "I Leap Over the Wall," bringing the total number of copies in print to 35,000. During the first week of March alone the book sold 5,672 copies, and the average weekly sale has been about 3,000 copies. Rinehart plans ex-

tensive national advertising in April as well as ads to run within the next three weeks in *America, Commonweal* and the New York Times.

"Mr. Jones Meet the Master" (Revell) has sold 68,000 copies in the fifteen weeks since publication, with the average weekly sale running to over 4,000 copies. The book got its start in the South, but reorders are now coming in from all over the country. Revell has put a purple jacket on the book for the Lenten season, but will replace it with the original red jacket when the current printing is sold out.

Crown's advance for "Chicago Confidential!" by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, more than 18,000 copies, equals the total sale of the same authors' previous book, "New York Confidential" (Ziff-Davis). Circulars sent out by Chicago stores account for much of this (PW, March 4), though there has been considerable interest from the rest of the country as well. A first printing of 25,000 copies of "Chicago Confidential," published February 28, has now been sold out.

Vanguard received 3,000 reorders for "Geraldine Bradshaw" by Calder Willingham in the two weeks following publication on February 28. The firm made a first printing of 15,000 copies.

Lippincott has ordered a seventh printing of "Letters to Jane" by Gladys Denny Shultz, bringing the number of copies in print of this steady seller to 35,000. Lippincott has also made the 32nd printing of Munro Leaf's "Grammar Can Be Fun," now in its fourteenth year and still going strong. "Arithmetic Can Be Fun," published six months ago, is selling faster than any of the author's previous *Fun Books*. More than 25,000 copies have been shipped.

Little, Brown has sold a total of 234,545 copies of the six books in the *Sue Barton* series by Helen Dore Boylston, "Sue Barton, Student Nurse," the first of the books and

the best seller, was published in 1936 and has sold 60,554 copies as of March 1. Little, Brown has made a large poster for display in libraries.

During the first week of March, a year and a half after publication, Thomas Meriton's "The Seven Storey Mountain" (Hart court, Brace) sold 7,124 copies.

REORDERS for Commander William Lederer's "All the Ships at Sea" received in the Sloane offices during the first week of March total 1,702. The book was out of stock by publication date, February 23, and the late orders had to be rationed. A second printing has now been made, and a third is scheduled for March 24. Sloane attributes a good part of the sale, the fastest of any book the firm has published in the past two years, to the radio appearances Commander Lederer has made, most of them on daytime women's programs. This kind of success is not with-

out its drawbacks, however. When Commander Lederer appeared on the Barbara Wells program, he claimed that he could iron a shirt in three minutes and offered to explain his method to any woman in the radio audience who wrote in and asked him about it. There is a large and growing stack of mail in the Sloane offices waiting for his return to New York. Sloane has printed 16,000 copies of "All the Ships at Sea."

IN CONNECTION with the release of the film version of "Cheaper by the Dozen," Crowell is offering the trade a baker's dozen of that best seller for the price of 12 copies, an offer which will hold until April 30. The film, starring Clifton Webb, will open at the Roxy in New York on March 31 and will be released in 30 other cities within the following two weeks. Stills from the picture are available for display from Crowell. Managers of local theaters in which

This unusual display of Knopf's best seller, "The Wall," made by Bonnier's in New York, was inspired by the jacket design. (Photo by Elliott Erwitt)

MARCH 18, 1950

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

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