As long as there are loony leftists who think that The Man is silencing them, or that they're being "kept down" by "The Establishment," then these pathetic one-sided polemics will continue to be sold.
Or, as in this case, supposedly "given away." Right. "We just wanted the truth to get out there." Suuuuure. In other words, "Once the MoveOn officers and the NY Times staff bought a few copies, we couldn't sell any more, so we had to start giving them away. We didn't want them piling up in the Dollar Bargain Bins at Borders."
Some in here might remember--I do not, of course--that during the 1964 presidential campaign, some rancher down in Texas put out a book named "A Texan Looks At Lyndon," which was, as one can infer from the title, not a book favorable to Lyndon Johnson.
I came across a copy of this book about thirty years after it had been published, in a used-book store, and was intrigued, because I had seen the book mentioned in histories of the 1964 presidential campaign.
The book, which apparently sold for 35 cents in 1964, advertised itself as a "sensation," as a "best-seller," and alleged that more than 1,000,000 had been "distributed."
Interesting choice of words; not "sold," but "distributed."
Anybody in here old enought to remember that book?
I have the impression it was very much like the recent biographies of William and Hilarity Clinton; that more copies were given away, rather than actually sold.
By the way, this is 2005, nearly 21 years after the presidential campaign of 1984.....and still, the used-book stores of Omaha, of Lincoln, of Denver, of Chicago, of Kansas City, of Pittsburgh (personal observation) are clogged with stacks and stacks of the biography of the failed vice-presidential candidate that year, Geraldine Ferrari, or whatever her name was.
All of these copies of that biography--in used-book stores, remember--appear to be in immaculate, new, and unread condition, but despite their usually being in the 25-cent section, they appear to sit there for years and years and years.....and decades.
Anybody else notice that phenomenon?