Advertisement

Bob Woodward’s ‘Fear’ is the fastest-selling book in Simon & Schuster’s history

Bob Woodward, left, speaking at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., in 2012; President Trump, right, at the White House on Aug. 29.
(Mandel Ngan, Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)
Share via

Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” has sold more than 1.1 million copies in its first week of release, making it the fastest-selling book in the history of its publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The publisher has ordered a 10th printing of the book, which as of Wednesday morning was the No. 1 bestselling book at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon.

Woodward’s is the latest in a string of books about the Trump White House, and looks to be on track to be the most successful. Entertainment Weekly notes that journalist Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury,” which dominated the bestseller charts when it was published in January, sold 500,000 in its first two weeks of release. Former FBI Director James Comey’s memoir “A Higher Loyalty,” which also made extensive headlines, sold 300,000 copies in its first week.

Advertisement

“Fear,” which relies heavily on anonymous sources, contains several explosive allegations about the Trump White House. Woodward is a veteran Beltway journalist whose claim to fame was, with co-writer Carl Bernstein and the help of an anonymous source called Deep Throat, exposing the Watergate scandal in the pages of the Washington Post.

In “Fear,” Woodward claims that aides to President Trump would remove papers from his desk so that he wouldn’t sign them. The book also suggests that Trump called Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner,” which Trump has denied.

Woodward quotes one source that said that Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an “idiot,” saying, “He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

Advertisement

On Twitter, Trump has railed against the book, calling it a “scam” and Woodward a “liar.”

Advertisement