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| Author | Comment |
Alan Shrives
Mar 18, 07 - 4:41 AM |
Scouting For Boys - best seller
Scouting Plus (Issue 52) email makes the claim that Scouting For Boys is the third best selling book of all time. I would like this to be true, but would like some facts to backup this assertion. It is not mentioned on published lists such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books There have been many editions and translations of Scouting For Boys, could it also be one of the most translated books? (see most translated author - http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001476331) Does anyone have any thoughts or information on these? |
Colin Walker (Johnny)
 Mar 18th, 2007 - 6:02 PM |
Re: Scouting For Boys - best seller
I am sure that Alan is right. 'Scouting for Boys' is a world best-seller, second only to religious tracts such as the Bible and the Qu'ran and possible Chairman Mao's 'Little Red Book'.Other than these examples I cannot think of any other work that has been translated into into many different languages, run into as many editions, over such a long period of time, can you? There are still current editions. Do you think it is still highly relevant to Scouting- and should be used directly in the training of our young people, or do you belong to the camp who feel that Scouting has moved on, the book has served its purpose and should now be viewed as a museum piece? 
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Scouting Radio
Mar 27th, 2007 - 4:37 PM |
Re: Scouting For Boys - best seller
 Is Scouting for boys still relevant  Why of course it is! Think every country should do this, Scouting is taught in Thailand in some schools as part of the education curiculm! Which we had that in my School days! |
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Alan Shrives
Apr 6th, 2007 - 2:29 AM |
Re: Scouting For Boys - best seller
Let me go part way to answering my own question. We know that the publisher, Pearsons, did not keep accurate sales records. However, we do know that a print run in 1909 consisted of 30 000 paperback and 30 000 hardback copies. We also know that in the first ten years there were 8 editions in 21 print runs, and this included the difficult years of the Great War. Assuming an average print run of 50 000, that would give us a total of over 2 million copies. However, my copy of the 9th edition (May 1918) states that 315 000 copies had been sold. There seems to be a very large discrepancy here. I would suggest that many copies were exported, before local editions or translations were established, and that the 315 000 figure is an estimate of UK sales. In 1948 Pearsons reported regular annual sales of around 50 000 copies and this is borne out by regular new editions, reaching the 30th edition in 1957 and a 34th edition by the early 1960s. There was also an abridged Boys Edition published from the early 1930s onwards. In the mid 1960s, Pearsons admitted than sales had slowed greatly. The Scout Association took over production, and the abridged 'Scouts' edition continued selling in modest numbers. I think we can assume average annual sales of 50 000 for a period of 60 years (and we have not included the original part edition or the 2004 annotated edition), that gives us total UK sales of around 3 million. The much more difficult task is to estimate sale elsewhere. We know that the book has been translated into many languages. An article in the Times (19 Oct 1908) tells us that it had already been translated into Norwegian and Russian. Estimating sales in the largest Scouting country, the USA, is difficult. The 'rewrite' by Ernest Thompson Seton, which resulted in The Boy Scouts Handbook, in 1910, would have severely impacted on sales of the original. Are we going to reach the 50 million plus sales of a world best seller, or the 100 million plus to be 'up there' with religious and political tracts? I would value others opinions on estimated sales in other countries. |
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Mark Dick
Jun 5th, 2007 - 11:18 AM |
Re: Scouting For Boys - best seller
I thought that 2007 was a good time to re-read Scouting for Boys so I ordered Prof Boehmer's book online from www.scouts.org.uk The best way to read it I think is 1 The 1908 Original Edition 2 Explanatory Notes 3 Prof Boehmer's Introduction I note Scouting's Milestones criticism. But I stood back a little and noted how B-P "learnt as he went along" re-writing editions as events and change took place eg WWI etc. I disagree slightly with our present modern Chief Scout in that traditions are often worth holding onto especially if they are the bedrock that allows one to cope with change positively. The Scout Movement has always done this very well. Even Prof Boehmer mentioned The Scout Matrix although I think she was referring also to The Navigator. NB Baden-Powell and Sherlock Holmes. |
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