In 1953, Heinrich Harrer published a little book about trudging through the Himalayas and hanging out with the Dalai Lama. It did nicely over the years, selling tens of thousands of copies. Then Brad Pitt decided to star in the movie. Now if you were a publisher, would you be able to resist shamelessly splashing his beaming visage across a cover? Tarcher/Putnam did, choosing instead a tasteful pic of a generic mountaineer. Even so, this edition already has 125,000 copies in print after nine treks to press.


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