David Alfred Boehm (February 6, 1914 – February 6, 2000) was an American publisher known for founding Sterling Publishing and popularizing the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

in the United States.

Biography

Boehm was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, attended George Washington High School and graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1934, where he studied sociology and edited the '' Columbia Daily Spectator''. 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. In 1956, after discovering 30,000 copies of ''The Guinness Book of Superlatives'' on the shelves of a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

warehouse, Boehm rushed to secure publishing rights from Arthur Guinness Son & Co. of the magazine in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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''.'' 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. He made regular appearances on the game show '' The Guinness Game'' as a judge of live attempts to break world records''.'' Boehm retired from the publisher in 1980 and died in his home on February 6, 2000, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boehm, David A. 1914 births 2000 deaths American publishers (people) American company founders American publishing chief executives George Washington Educational Campus alumni Columbia College (New York) alumni