The 1950s etiquette book that inspired a Texas teen to chronicle her modern-day adventures using the old-timey advice to make friends is selling like crazy.
Readers on Wednesday rushed to book dealers across the country to score copies of “Betty Cornell’s Teen-age Popularity Guide,” which features hilariously outdated tips on how to wear girdles, shave your legs in the summer and pop pimples.
The book, which is no longer in print and only available in vintage form, flew off the shelves at antique book shops from New Jersey to Alabama on Wednesday, according to shop owners and online bookstore data.
“Someone bought the book earlier today — this after we’d had it in stock for many years, and now yet a third party wants it! What gives here?” said Andy Doherty, an owner of New Jersey-based Ridge Road Sight & Sound, which sells vintage paperbacks.
Five people contacted him in one day about buying the book, for which he charges $4.50.
“It has been in stock and up for sale for four or five years. [It’s] a cute-looking little paperback [with a] nice graphic,” he said.
The book was listed as costing from $15 to $118 on used-book Web sites — including Abebooks.com, Aalibris.com and Biblio.com, all of which listed it as sold out or unavailable.
The lit rush comes after eighth-grader Maya Van Wagenen snagged a $300,000 book deal by writing about her own experience using the book’s etiquette advice as a student in Brownsville, Texas.
The book advises teenage girls to wear gloves, white pearls and skirts. It also notes they should combat “figure problems’’ by eating grapefruit and wheat toast “with [a] small amount of butter’’ for breakfast.
Van Wagenen couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday — but her mom, Monica Van Wagenen, said she wasn’t surprised the classic book has be come such a hit.
“It says a lot about what teens are thinking about — and maybe adults, too,” Van Wagenen said.
“Everyone knows what it’s like to be the new person and to feel awkward — whether its at school, socially or at a new job,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Simon & Schuster, which owns the rights to Cornell’s book, said no sales numbers were available because the book is out of print.
It was originally published by Pocket Books, which Simon & Schuster later acquired.
Maya Van Wagenen’s book is called, “Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek,” and is published by the Penguin Group.