Private Parts (book)

Book by American radio host Howard Stern

Private Parts is the first book by American radio personality Howard Stern. It was released on October 7, 1993, by Simon & Schuster and edited by Larry "Ratso" Sloman and Judith Regan. By mid 1992, Stern's radio show The Howard Stern Show had become the number one morning program in New York City and had hosted the Saturday night television show The Howard Stern Show on WWOR TV, since 1990. After development on a feature film for New Line Cinema fell through, Stern secured a deal with Simon & Schuster in early 1993 to write a book. Private Parts was an instant commercial success upon release. It debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for five weeks. After five days, it became the fastest selling title in Simon & Schuster's history. A paperback edition with extra material was released in 1994. The autobiographical chapters of the book were adapted into the 1997 feature film Private Parts, which starred Stern and his radio show staff playing themselves. This release was supported with a second paperback print of the book.

By 1993, Stern had been the host of his morning radio show, The Howard Stern Show, at WXRK in New York City for over six years. In January of that year, the show was syndicated to ten markets and had become the first to be number one in New York City, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia simultaneously. Stern had also landed success in television as the host of The Howard Stern Show on WWOR TV and The Howard Stern "Interview" on E!. However, development for a feature film with New Line Cinema based on his Fartman character was delayed and ultimately fell through in 1993. In February 1993, the press reported that Stern had entered talks with publisher Simon & Schuster to write a book. Stern was approached by the publisher and found the project an attractive one as it would help strengthen his self proclaimed title of "King of All Media". On March 23, 1993, Stern held a live press conference on his radio show to announce the deal and aimed for a release in October of that year. Stern added that he wanted to write a book that dealt with honest opinions because it was something that people "don't deal with honesty any more." When Stern announced the book, he said that his initial suggestion of Mein Kampf: Settling Accounts, a spin on Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, for the book's title, was rejected by the publisher as it would be unpopular with Jewish readers. Another early title of Sort of the World According to Howard was reported in the following month. He predicted that he could complete the book in three months, but he only managed to produce an outline of the book in that time. Stern wrote the book with assistance from editors Larry "Ratso" Sloman and Judith Regan. Regan lived in Stern's guest house for six weeks over the summer of 1993 with her then two year old daughter and nanny to help complete the book on time. Sloman also stayed over at Stern's house on weekends. One of the researchers hired to work on the book transcribed segments of Stern's radio show and interviews with his parents to produce around 10,000 words of text for Regan to go through. She assured that despite her input, "the words are Howard's". Around the time of the book's announcement, Stern attempted to find his writing voice by sketching initial ideas onto paper and teaming with his radio show producer Gary Dell'Abate to retrace his career, emphasising on stories and anecdotes from behind the scenes. the latter was considered due to the hilarity of the potential newspaper headline: "Howard Stern's 'Penis' is a best seller". By August 1993, as a compromise with the rejections, Stern and the publisher reached a compromise with Private Parts, first suggested by Stern's co host, Robin Quivers. Stern wrote a chapter about the ongoing FCC fines against his radio show, "but it was so convoluted it wasn't going to make anyone laugh", so it was scrapped. Other chapters that were not included detailed his rise to number one in Philadelphia and his WWOR TV show. While writing the book, Stern asked Chaunce Hayden, editor of Steppin Out, to supply quotes about him from celebrity interviews published in the magazine. Hayden produced quotes from fifty celebrities and said it was worth the time and effort because he was a big fan of Stern. In the book, Stern mistakenly credited Hayden as "Chaunce Howell". When the book was finished Stern was informed that he was around 45,000 words too long which required some chapters to be rewritten. On the following day, the publisher ordered a second printing of 500,000 copies, the largest single print order in its history which surpassed the previous record of 400,000 copies for The Way Things Ought to Be by Limbaugh. By October 26, 1993, the book was in its eighth printing with over one million copies in circulation. The sales were supported by Stern's book signing tour of various cities across the United States, with the largest crowd attendances ever. The first was held at Barnes and Noble in New York City on October 14, 1993. A book party was held on October 27. The success was in spite of mixed reviews and the refusal by several stores to carry the book over objections to its content. On the day of release Sapak Inc., a California based wholesaler that supplied books to various stores, cancelled its order of the book as it deemed its content too risque for its "family oriented" customers. The Caldor chain of department stores modified the New York Times Best Seller list which was displayed in stores to remove Private Parts from the top position, moving all subsequent books up one. Private Parts spent a total of twenty weeks on the NY Times Best Seller list, hitting the number one spot after a week of its release. This was in spite of a perception of Stern's listeners who were considered to not be given to reading books, or even illiterate. The strong sales were seen as reflection of his populist appeal to a middle class white male demographic who compose a large part of the fan base of his show. The main reason given for his appeal at the time was as backlash from a push towards what was considered political correctness. Upon release, Private Parts became the fastest selling title in Simon & Schuster's history. It was later adapted into a film in 1997 starring Stern and his radio show staff as themselves.

The book received mixed reviews from critics, often drawing comparisons to Lenny Bruce's How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Like Stern's radio show, it received a great deal of opposition due to its content. It is number 86 on the American Library Association's list of the "100 Most Frequently challenged books Between 1990 and 1999." A paperback edition was released in September 1994, where Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, printed a further 2.8 million copies. In late 1995, Stern published a second book called Miss America. Stern's venture into literature drew much of the same criticism as his radio show. Private Parts drew favorable comparisons to Lenny Bruce and his book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, but it was also characterized as nothing more than an extension of his radio show with little more to offer. Stern was praised for his populist message and attracting a group of people who normally do not read either by choice or for lack of ability. Another frequent criticism was that the material was juvenile, with little more to offer than stories of "breasts, behinds, penises, masturbation, defecation, and the expulsion of gas". In some instances the comparison was favorable, citing Stern's as the best book by a comedian since Bruce's. Others felt Stern fell short of the mark, or at least not influencing people as suggested by his ratings in certain radio markets. As the host of a highly rated radio show, the comparison between the book and his radio show was inevitable. The radio show was often the starting point from which the reviewer based their opinion of the book. Sometimes the praise for the book came in spite of the critic's distaste for the show, Critics would sometimes qualify that they could not adequately relay the stories because of their papers' editorial standards. Margo Jefferson of the New York Times enjoyed the way it broke up the book, as this allowed readers to read the passages out of sequence. The reliance on stories of body parts, functions, and human sexuality were also cited as a reason for what constituted the entirety of the book, and were not seen as compelling to some readers. In one instance the review was given by a high school student.