David A. Boehm

David Alfred Boehm (February 6, 1914 – February 6, 2000) was an American publisher known for founding Sterling Publishing and popularizing the Guinness World Records in the United States.^[1]

Biography[edit]

Boehm was born in Manhattan, attended George Washington High School and graduated from Columbia University in 1934, where he studied sociology and edited the Columbia Daily Spectator.^[2]

After graduation, Boehm worked for a number of publishers including McGraw-Hill Book Company, Cupples & Leon. In 1949, Boehm founded Sterling Publishing in a telephone booth in the Hotel Pennsylvania. His first books were a series of how-to books on subjects such as stamp collecting and coin collecting.^[3]

In 1956, after discovering 30,000 copies of The Guinness Book of Superlatives on the shelves of a Boston warehouse, Boehm rushed to secure publishing rights from Arthur Guinness Son & Co. of the magazine in the United States in return for a percentage of the sales. He also renamed it The Guinness Book of World Records and added in baseball records to appeal to the American audience.^[1]

In 1961, Boehm secured rights to publish a separate American version of the Guinness World Records, with sales rising to two to three million copies a year during the 1970s. Boehm began to license merchandise spinoffs in the 1980s as the series gained popularity, resulting in a series of legal fights that led to Guinness's buying back the license for $8 million in 1989.^[3]

He made regular appearances on the game show The Guinness Game as a judge of live attempts to break world records.^[3]

Boehm retired from the publisher in 1980 and died in his home on February 6, 2000, in New York City.^[4]

References[edit]