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.

Biography

Early life and education 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.

Career 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 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.