Name: The Exorcist
ISBN: 9780787122560

The Exorcist

The Exorcist is a 1971 horror novel by American writer William Peter Blatty. The book details the demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. Published by Harper & Row, the novel was the basis of a highly successful film adaptation released two years later, whose screenplay was also written and produced by Blatty, and part of The Exorcist franchise. The novel was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University. As a result, the novel takes place in Washington, D.C., near the campus of Georgetown University. In September 2011, the novel was reprinted by Harper Collins to celebrate its fortieth anniversary, with slight revisions made by Blatty as well as interior title artwork by Jeremy Caniglia.

What Hacker News says

hirundoJul 2019

Kudos to the Post for attempting to produce an objective list. The New York Times doesn't:

> In other words, The New York Times best-seller list is not a best-seller list -- which even The New York Times once acknowledged. In the early 1980s, William Peter Blatty, author of the monumental best-seller "The Exorcist," sued The New York Times for only listing his novel on the list one time, even though it sold in the millions. In defending itself before the court, as reported by Book History, the annual journal of The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (Penn State University Press), The Times said, "The list did not purport to be an objective compilation of information but instead was an editorial product."

https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2018/04/17/the-...

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weinzierlNov 2018

> And I have even heard that some books on "new york times best seller list" are just books moving between warehouses to generate invoices.

This probably doesn‘t help. The “The New York Times Best Sellers“ is a curated list. High sales don’t guarantee a placing on the list.

This is not even a secret: When William Blatty sued the New York Times because The Exorcist had only been on the list, he lost the case. The defense was that “the list did not purport to be an objective compilation of information but instead was an editorial product.“ [1]

[1] https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_11409822?guccounter=1

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pseingatlAug 2017

Because the NYT bestseller list is essentially not an accurate report, but "fake news." In 1983 William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, filed a lawsuit against the NYT for failing to include his book Legion on the list, despite provable sales. The Times won the lawsuit by claiming that their list does not in fact reflect bestsellers, but their own editorial opinion as to what constitutes a bestseller. In other words, they massage and ignore real data: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

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