Bestselling Bloopers

YOUR COMMENTS... +++ B. Stover: This book will be a laugh a day! +++ B. Stover: I'm dying laughing here +++ Canberra Times: A good little book for a great big giggle +++ Canberra Times: Just in time for the Christmas buying spree as it's ideal for someone who'll enjoy the howlers +++ Canberra Times: For a good laugh you can't go past what kids think they hear and then write +++ Canberra Times: Mrs Malaprop, the doyenne of linguistic disaster, would get a good laugh as well as you out of Funny English +++ Jen S: Ha! What a great Christmas present! +++ Steven F: Definitely worth a look for your Christmas shopping list +++ Denise S: Your book had my dad and his wife in tears of laughter! +++ Kate O.D.: This book is far too hilarious to have at work. I have been in hysterics... +++ Andrew B: Wonderful book! +++ Shane S: What a fantastic book! +++ Jamie W: The collection of examples must have been an amazing and time consuming effort to find and collate. +++ Brett S: Hilarious! +++ Helen W: Great book +++ The Mitchells: A fantastic book +++ Nick B: Fantastic book. Well done. +++ Jean B: A great book. +++ Steven F: Great book! +++ Michael H: A very entertaining read +++

Bestselling Bloopers

In 1931, Viking Press published, under the pseudonym Alexander Abingdon, a "Collection of Schoolboy Wisdom, or Knowledge as It Is Sometimes Written, Compiled from Classrooms in Examination Papers by Alexander Abingdon, and Illustrated by Dr Seuss". Within two months, the book sold almost 100,000 copies, becoming the fourth highest selling non-fiction book of 1931.

The book was so successful that three sequels were fast-tracked the same year. By 1952, the total sale of the various editions had added up to almost 1.5 million copies.

In 1997, Viking Press reprinted, redesigned, and repackaged the 1931 book under the title Herrings Go About the Sea in Shawls: and Other Classic Howlers from Classrooms and Examination Papers. Black Dog and Leventhal reprinted the 1931 book again in 2007.

We are delighted to be able to reproduce a small selection of extracts from these best-selling blooper books, under the following headings.

Definitions Bestselling Bloopers 1931

Abingdon 1931b There are enough good specimens in the second compilation by Alexander Abingdon in 1931 that we have uploaded a selection of bloopers just from that compilation, under the following headings:

More Definitions

More History Bloopers

More Science Bloopers

More Miscellaneous Bloopers

The following selection of howlers come from the third book of bloopers published in 1931 by Viking Press under the pseudonym Alexander Abingdon:

Abingdon-Still-More-Bloopers Personalities

The Human Body

Still More Miscellaneous Bloopers

Vocabulary

Still More History Bloopers

Abingdon-1932

The fourth book in the series was published in 1932 with the label "Prize". We have reproduced a small selection of the quotes below, in the following categories:

Prize Definitions

Prize Science

Prize History

Prize Miscellaneous Bloopers

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