Frommer's

Frommer's
Parent company John Wiley & Sons
Founded 1957
Founder Arthur Frommer
Country of origin United States
Distribution Worldwide
Official website www.frommers.com

Frommer's is a travel guidebook series and one of the bestselling travel guides in America. The series began in 1957 with the publication of Arthur Frommer's book, Europe on $5 a Day. Frommer's has expanded to include over 350 guidebooks across 14 series, as well as other media including the award winning Frommers.com website which covers over 3,500 destinations. In 2007, Frommer's celebrated its 50th anniversary of guidebook publishing.[1] Since May 2007, Arthur Frommer has been actively blogging about travel[2] on the Frommers.com website.

Contents

History

In 1957, Arthur Frommer, a young corporal in the U.S. Army, wrote a travel guide for American GIs in Europe, and then produced a civilian version called Europe on $5 a Day.[3] The book ranked popular landmarks and sights in order of importance and included suggestions on how to travel around Europe on a budget. It was the first travel guide to show Americans that they could afford to travel in Europe. Arthur Frommer returned to the United States and began practicing law. During that time, he continued to write and also began to self-publish guidebooks to additional destinations, including New York, Mexico, Hawaii, Japan and the Caribbean. In 1977, Frommer’s trademark was sold to Simon & Schuster, Inc. Pearson bought the reference division of Simon & Schuster in 1998 and sold it to IDG Books in 1999. John Wiley & Sons acquired IDG Books (renamed Hungry Minds) in 2001. Arthur’s daughter, Pauline Frommer, is now writing her own series of travel guidebooks and continuing the Frommer’s travel legacy.[1]

Guidebook series

More than 75 million books have been sold since Frommer’s inception in 1957. Over 350 titles are available in the following series:

  • Frommer’s Day by Day
    • Amsterdam
    • Athens
    • Bali
    • Barcelona
    • Beijing
    • Berlin
    • Boston
    • Brussels & Bruges
    • Cancun & the Yucatan
    • Chicago
    • Copenhagen
    • Dublin
    • Edinburgh & the Best of Scotland
    • Florence & Tuscany
    • Hong Kong
    • Honolulu & Oahu
    • Krakow
    • Las Vegas
    • London
    • Los Angeles
    • Maui
    • Melbourne
    • Montreal
    • Napa & Sonoma
    • New York City
    • Paris
    • Prague
    • Provence & the Riviera
    • Rome
    • San Diego
    • San Francisco
    • Seattle
    • Seville
    • Shanghai
    • Sydney
    • Venice
    • Washington D.C.

Film references

Frommer's guidebooks are represented in the 2004 comedy Eurotrip when one of the main characters, Jamie, uses it to guide a group of teenagers around Europe.

In the opening scene of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Cameron Diaz enters a Mongolian beer shack holding a Frommer's guidebook.

A copy can also be seen near the beginning of the 2008 film Jumper with Hayden Christensen.

References

  1. ^ a b Harpaz, Beth J. (2007-05-13). "Arthur Frommer guidebooks 50 years old". Oakland Tribune. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070513/ai_n19113916/. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 
  2. ^ "Arthur Frommer Online". http://frommers.com/blog/. Retrieved 8 August 2009. 
  3. ^ "On the Spot: Arthur Frommer’s tips on finding cheap airfares". Los Angeles Times/Travel. http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/on-the-spot-arthur-f-4369/. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 

External links