7.4 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publication date November 7, 1995 Genre Autobiography Subject Autobiography | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Originally published 7 November 1995 Preceded by Private Parts Publisher ReganBooks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cover artist Jack Heller (Design)
Oscar Gonzalez (Design)
Paul Aresu (Photo) Media type Hardcover (1995)
Paperback (1996) Pages 482 (Hardcover)
592 (Paperback) Similar Film books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Miss America is the second book by American radio and media personality Howard Stern. Released on November 7, 1995 by ReganBooks, it became the fastest-selling title in the publisher's history. This was a repeat to his first best-selling book, Private Parts (1993) and publisher Simon & Schuster.
Contents
The book's front features Stern dressed in drag, with the first edition back featuring a picture of Stern with O.J. Simpson at the wedding of Donald Trump in 1993. Three different versions of a paperback edition were released on October 16, 1996, that featured Stern dressed as a drag with blonde, brunette and red hair. A selection of color photographs are also included that did not appear in the first edition.
Reception
Stern biographer Luigi Lucaire reported that Miss America sold six printings within 12 hours of its release. The Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City opened at 6:30am in the morning of the book's release, with over 250 people in line. By the end of the first day, Miss America sold 33,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores across the United States, a first day record for the country's largest book seller. The book broke the previous record for the fastest selling book in one day, previously being Sex by Madonna in 1992. A week after its release, Miss America hit the top spot on the New York Times Best Seller list, knocking off My American Journey by Colin Powell. In total, the book was listed on the list for more than four months, a period of 16 weeks in total.
Sales
The book sold more than nine copies for every one copy of the next best-selling book on the list. By the end of 1995, Miss America had sold 1,398,880 hardcover copies, making it the third best-seller of the year, according to a March 1996 edition of Publishers Weekly.
In 1996 alone, the book sold more than 1.6 million copies. When: Miss America became the number one selling paperback of 1998 at Amazon.com.
Prodigy, Michael Jackson and OCD
When asked on the book's title in a 1995 interview on Today, Stern replied with:
In the book's opening acknowledgements Stern thanks the Miss America Pageant for naming him "Miss America 1996" as well as Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford (hosts of Live with Regis and Kathie Lee from 1988-2000), his father Ben, God and those who spent "endless hours in improving his physical beauty." The first chapter is about Stern's experiences with cybersex on the on-line chat service Prodigy under various names such as "Holy Ghost" and "Captain Japan." In the second chapter, Stern details a private meeting with Michael Jackson in New York City. Stern in the third chapter reveals his past suffering with Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).