Is there an autobiography of a common person's life that sold a great amount of copies?

Question

I am interested if an autobiography of "common" person who never achieved any level of fame or notoriety has ever been published and sold a great amount of copies (i.e one million or more, or at least 100,000 copies. i.e "My name is John Doe, and I was born on April13, 1948, etc, etc.Telling the story of his/her life.

Answer 1

I agree with what has been said before, many people have become famous for telling their stories.
An example might be Jung Chan's Wild Swans, her story seems extraordinary to us, but in China, everyone was living through similar experiences so she was just a normal person over there. The book is now banned in China.

Answer 2

That's difficult to answer because of the big selling ones, the people become famous for telling their story. The Delaney Sisters, for example, two elderly black women whose story of growing up made not only for a best seller but became a movie and a play. The book is entitled Having Our Say-- check it out at www.amazon.com.

A Girl Named Zippy is another one, and she didn't even have to live to be 100.

Really, it's not the excitement of the life--it's how well it's told. An ordinary life, told with an eye to humor or pathos or the human condition, can be more compelling reading than an adventurous life poorly told.

Answer 3

in Australia the classic example is A B Facey's " A Fortunate Life"
the author was unknown until publishing his memoirs at the urgings of family shortly before his death
It went on to sell over 600,000 copies (extremely high for Australia) and was made into a TV mini-series and has been included on many school reading lists