Guinness Book of Records
Categories: 1955 books | World records | Reference works | Guinness World Record
The Guinness Book of Records (or in recent editions Guinness World Records, and in previous US editions Guinness Book of World Records) is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognized collection of world records, both human achievements and the extrema of the natural world.
The first edition was published in 1955, commissioned by the Guinness brewery after a debate between Guinness managing director Hugh Beaver and hunting partners over the fastest species of gamebird could not be settled with existing reference books. It was researched by Ross and Norris McWhirter, twins and noted British athletes and journalists, who at the time ran a fact-finding agency in London. When the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision each year, published in October to coincide with Christmas sales. The McWhirters continued to publish it and related books for many years. Norris had an encyclopedic memory—on the TV series Record Breakers, based upon the book, he would take questions posed by children in the audience on various world records and would usually be able to give the correct answer, the feature being called "Norris on the Spot".
Recent editions have focused on record feats by human competitors. Competitions range from obvious ones such as weightlifting to the more entertaining ones such as longest egg-throwing distance or the number of hot dogs that can be consumed in 10 minutes—although eating contest style entries are no longer accepted, possibly for fear of litigation. Besides records about competitions, it contains such facts as the height of the tallest human (Robert Pershing Wadlow), the heaviest tumour, the most poisonous plant, the world's shortest river (the Roe River), the longest-running drama (Guiding Light), the world's most successful salesman (Joe Girard, who sold 13,001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership in Detroit from 1963-78), etc.
Each edition contains a subset of the larger set of records in the Guinness database, and the choice reflects the year of publication. In recent years, many records devoted to current pop culture trends have been added.
The Guinness Book of Records is the world's most sold copyrighted book, thus earning it an entry within its own pages. A number of spin-off books and television series have also been produced.The book is now owned by HIT Entertainment.
Most of the records are accurate, but a few are now believed to be questionable. For example, Guinness accepts the claim of Shigechiyo Izumi as the longest-lived man ever; many others, however, believe this claim to be false. In another case, Guinness accepts the claim of the Apple iMac as having the shortest computer instruction manual.
Ethical issues
Several world records that were once included in the Guinness Book now are not, for ethical reasons. By publishing world records in a category, the Guinness Book may encourage others to try to beat that record, even at the expense of their own health and safety. For example, following publication of a "heaviest cat" record, many cat owners overfed their pets beyond the bounds of what was healthy. Therefore, entries such as these were removed. Likewise, other records related to dangerous stunts are often not published, for example those closely related to freediving. Other records, such as sword swallowing, have been closed to further entry due to the fact that the current holders have performed beyond what is considered safe human tolerances.
Among the discontinued records are those for consumption of liquor (and more recently all alcoholic drinks) and for weight endured while being compressed between beds of nails.
References
- Watson, Bruce. (August 2005). "World's Unlikeliest Bestseller". Smithonsonian, p. 76-81.
External links
- Guinness World Records, the official site of the bookde:Guinness-Buch der Rekorde
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