Before Jean Shepherd became the man behind “A Christmas Story”, he was the man behind one of the biggest literary hoaxes in history. He and his late night talk radio show followers successfully got a book title “I, Libertine” on the New York Times bestsellers list, even though the book didn’t even exist. Eventually, in an opportunity too great to pass up, Shepherd met a publisher who convinced him and friend Theodore Sturgeon to actually write the book the world was clamoring for, and made the New York Times bestsellers list for real, though Shepherd gave all his proceeds to charity.
This was well before the age of the Internet.
You could call Shepherd the father of the Internet Viral Hoax.
Read the whole story here.
That’s a great story