Obama’s rising star pulls his book from obscurity

But after his rousing keynote address at the convention last month, the country is smitten with Obama-mania, and the Crown Publishing Group is racing to ship copies of the book around the country.

The first reprinting of nearly 50,000 books has been shipped and Crown is trying to determine how many more it may need for a second printing, which will contain a copy of his convention speech. ‘‘We’ve seen him become more visible, with booksellers’,’’ said Rachel Klayman, an editor at Crown.

The story of the book has some unexpected twists. It began when literary agent Jane Dystel read a newspaper account in 1990 of how Obama had become the first Black to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review. Sensing a story, Dystel contacted Obama. But it was in 1995 when the book was published. ‘‘The thing that struck me was his writing, which was gorgeous,’’ Dystel said. The sales, though, didn’t reflect Dystel’s enthusiasm.

It might have remained that way if Obama had not caught Klayman’s attention, who had a dim memory that a book by or about Obama had been written. She discovered that her own company was had published Obama’s book. But there was no copy of it to be found.

What Klayman found unusual is that it was actually a good read. ‘‘I haven’t read too many books by politicians that are as eloquent as his,’’ Klayman said. — (LAT-WP)