Steal This Book - Cultural Response

Cultural Response

Once it got into print, Steal this Book had widespread readership and became a bestseller, however Steal this Book was subversive enough such that it was rejected by at least thirty publishers before it was able to get into print. The book was rejected by different publishing houses for a myriad of reasons. In the end Hoffman was forced to make a publishing company of his own, Pirate Editions, in order to sell the book, with Grove Press as the distributor. An editor at Random House publishing commented that he would not even let his own child read it, showing how subversive parents saw it in relation to their children. It’s also important to note that the book initially received no reviews and was not advertised in any of the major newspapers. News sources didn’t want to or were afraid to advertise the book. The book received further suppression when regional distributors and bookstores were unwilling to carry the book.

The writing of a book on how to commit illegal acts opened people up to new possibilities regarding their use of the first amendment, and showed how radical one’s writing could be. The book gained popularity primarily with the youth of the seventies. It spoke to an inner craving for liberty held both by those with an actual desire for anarchy, and rebellion, and those who simply enjoyed the ideas expressed within it. Students were especially attracted to the book. The book provided new ideas for many students during a time in their lives in which they were the most curious and adventurous.

On the success of the book, Hoffman was quoted as saying, "It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List." Hoffman would not respond to accusations that he had plagiarized the book, as claimed in an article by Izak Haber in Rolling Stone magazine (No. 92, 10 September 1971), entitled "How Abbie Hoffman Won My Heart and Stole Steal This Book"; Haber is acknowledged in the book as having done a great deal of the research.