7.2 /10 1 Votes
Country Canada Subject Wrestling ISBN 978-0773760950 Genre Autobiography | 3.6/5 AbeBooks Language English Pages 128 Originally published 2000 Page count 128 Media types Hardcover, Paperback | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Followed by Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling Publishers Stoddart Publishing, Orion Publishing Group | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bret Hitman Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be is an illustrated autobiography by Calgary professional wrestler Bret Hart and co-written by Perry Lefko. It became a national bestseller in Canada. The preface was written by Hart's cousin Roddy Piper.
Contents
Background
Lefko first approached Hart's management about the book in 1998, and it went through numerous different phases until the incarnation which was eventually published.
Content
The books narrative is told majorly through images from Hart's career with text captions containing wrestling related anecdotes. Due to Hart's strained relationship with WWF at the time of the books release no pictures from his time working there are included. There are also several family photos and features never-before-seen photos from a private collection. The book also includes Hart's written tribute to his brother Owen who died in a wrestling related accident in 1999.
The book features quotes and comments from Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Sting, Hulk Hogan and Bill Goldberg.
Release
The book has an initial printing of 150.000 copies which beat the publisher; Stoddart's previous record which was at 20.000 copies. The president of Stoddart; Nelson Doucet said: "At the sales conference, the salespeople recognized that we had a winner, and we were too conservative with our 35,000 initial printing, It became very obvious, very quickly, that we had a very successful title on our hands. The initial reaction from the market has confirmed that. The initial 150,000 print run is just the beginning. The book appeals not only to traditional market but also to specialty markets." He added that Hart is a very popular figure and that his career was filled with a lot of controversy.
After the release Hart went on a book signing tour.
Kirsty Quested of the Online World Of Wrestling stated that she believed the book did not give great intel into Hart's life and that most fans are better of waiting for Hart's following biography but also stated that the foreword by Roddy Piper was good.
Followup
The book was at the time of its release one of the author Perry Lefko's two bestsellers, he would later go on to write several other books.