This is the 32nd American edition of The Guinness Book of Records. Regular readers will note some changes in the order of contents, and as always the book has been completely reillustrated. The text has been thoroughly revised and thousands of changes made.
The book was first produced in 1955 to assist in resolving arguments that might take place on matters of fact. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver (1891-1967), the then managing director of Guinness, was out shooting on the North Slob, in County Wexford in the southeast of Ireland. Some golden plover were missed by the shooting party, and later Sir Hugh discovered that reference books in the library of his host at Castlebridge House could not confirm whether the bird was Europe's fastest game bird. Then, in August 1954, argument arose again, this time as to whether grouse were even faster than golden plover. Sir Hugh thought that there must be many other such questions debated nightly, but there was no book with which to settle the arguments about records.
On 12 Sep 1954, Sir Hugh challenged Norris and Ross McWhirter, who ran a fact and figure agency in London, England, to compile a book of records. An office was set up in Fleet Street, London, and work began on the initial 198-page edition. The first copy was bound by the printers on 27 Aug 1955. Well before Christmas, The Guinness Book of Records was No. 1 on the British best-seller lists, and every subsequent edition has been similarly represented.
The Guinness Book of Records began its worldwide expansion in 1956, when the first United States edition was published in New York City, followed by editions in French (1962) and German (1963). In 1967 there were first editions in Japanese, Spanish, Danish and Norwegian, and in the 1970s editions were published in Portuguese, Czechoslovakian, Hebrew, Serbo-Croat, Dutch, Icelandic and Slovene. In the 1980s there were translations into Greek, Indonesian, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Malay, Arabic, Tamil, Thai, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hungarian. More recently, in the 1990s, editions have been published in Bulgarian, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian and Russian.
This 1993 edition marks the thirty-second published in the United States overall and the third by Facts on File, Inc. Our hope remains that, as with the first edition, this new edition will assist in resolving questions of fact.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Guinness editors would like to thank the many people contacted by our research staff who have provided us with the information needed to produce an accurate account of the world and its records.
Regrettably, space prevents us from mentioning everyone. However, we would like to give special thanks to the editor and staff of the Facts on File World News Digest, whose resources, talents and consideration have greatly added to the success of this edition.
