With the death over the weekend of John Wooden, McGraw-Hill Professional is pushing up the release date for the final book it is publishing with the legendary UCLA coach. According to MHP president Philip Ruppel, the publisher had been working with Wooden and his co-author Steve Jamison on The Wisdom of Wooden: A Century of Family, Faith, and Friends, and Wooden approved the final layout of the book about one month ago. Originally set for fall, MHP will release Wisdom in early July with a first printing of 50,000 copies.
Ruppel described the title as “a pictorial retrospective of [Wooden’s] life” that includes never before seen pictures culled from the UCLA archives that include annotations from Wooden featuring his descriptions and aphorisms. MHP has been Wooden’s publisher since 1997 when it released Wooden. The seven previously-released books have sold more than one million titles in total, with Wooden the top seller.
