Every author dreams of writing a bestseller, but few authors actually reach that goal. Even fewer hit bestseller status decades after they publish a book, but that’s exactly what has happened to Elissa Guralnick and Paul Levitt.
Guralnick and Levitt coauthored children’s books when they were younger, but they never saw a dime of profit from them. In fact, Guralnick tells Denver 7 News that every time they published a new book, her husband would ask, “How much is this one going to cost us?”
Now, thanks to author Eli McCann sharing a nostalgic memory of his eighth-grade teacher reading a book that helped him learn the word “ingratiate,” one of Guralnick and Levitt’s books has become an Amazon bestseller overnight.
McCann couldn’t remember the name of the book, but he shared how his teacher, Mrs. Yates, would use it to help her students learn new vocabulary words. The only details he recalled were that the book had gorgeous illustrations and used stories to teach big words.
For instance, he remembered a story about an elephant who was nervous about her friends coming over. To impress them, she made a dress out of gray curtains. The story focused on the phrase “in gray she ate” to teach the word “ingratiate.” McCann said he’d been looking for the book for 30 years and asked if anyone could help him out.
People in the comments recognized the book as The Weighty Word Book, a 1985 book written by Paul M. Levitt, Douglas A. Burger, and Elissa S. Guralnick, and illustrated by Janet Stevens. In fact, relatives of the authors commented with delight over the book’s recognition.
McCann’s video found its way to McCann’s teacher, Mrs. Yates, who is now in her mid-80s. She sent him a video reply that included The Weighty Word Book, which she still has. She opened to the page with the “ingratiate” story, with a rhinoceros (not an elephant), at a table with her friend, eating in gray.
Another story in the book teaches the word “scintillate” by using a firefly who likes to go out galavanting at all hours of the night. In other words, she will “sin ’til late.” Ba dum pum.
People in the comments went wild over seeing the book and started clamoring to find it.
“The response was hilarious, and miraculous,” Guralnick told Denver 7, “because the book overnight became a best seller on Amazon. I’m telling you, overnight.” She said the publisher, obviously thrilled, has sent it off to be reprinted due to the demand.
The book’s third coauthor, Douglas Burger, died two years ago. But Paul Levitt is still alive, and he and Guralnick still see each other every week. Levitt, too, is blown away by the sudden success of their decades-old creation.
“The number of sales today made me believe in magic,” Levitt told Denver 7.
However, it’s not the Eli McCann shoutout or the wild sales numbers on their book that have tickled the coauthors the most. It’s the excitement and joy their kids and relatives have gotten from all of this.
Here’s to dreams coming true, even if it takes 40 years to see it happen.
