Reception and adaptation

Slow path to fame

Anne's diary, entitled Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex), was published in a small number of only 3,036 copies in the Netherlands on June 25, 1947. Although Dutch media reviewed the diary positively after its publication and the French and German editions were also received positively in 1950, the work was not a bestseller yet.

In the USA, the diary found only a small audience immediately after its publication in 1952. An enthusiastic review by the American writer Meyer Levinin of the “New York Times book review”, in which Anne is praised as a highly gifted writer, leads to a rapid increase in sales on the U.S. market. The diary is constantly reprinted and read by millions of Americans.

Today, Anne Frank's diary is one of the most translated books...