Editing Go Ask Alice (section)

===Public reception===
Upon its 1971 publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' quickly became a publishing sensation<ref name=stegall>{{cite news|last=Stegall |first=Tim |date=2015-01-02 |title=Book Review: Review: Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |newspaper=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |location=[[Austin, Texas]] |access-date=2016-12-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404202739/http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |archive-date=2016-04-04 }}</ref> and an international bestseller, being translated into 16 languages.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> Its success has been attributed to the timing of its publication at the height of the [[psychedelic era]], when the negative effects of drug use were becoming a public concern.<ref name=adams>{{cite magazine |last=Adams |first=Lauren |date=September 1998 |title=A Second Look: Go Ask Alice |magazine=[[The Horn Book Magazine]] |pages=587–592|location=Boston |publisher=The Horn Book Inc. |via=ProQuest  }}</ref> Alleen Pace Nilsen has called it "the book that came closest to being a [[young adult fiction|YA]] phenomenon" of its time, although saying it was "never as famous as [the later] ''[[Harry Potter]]'', ''[[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]]'', and ''[[The Hunger Games|Hunger Games]]'' series".<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> In addition to being very popular with its intended [[young adult fiction|young adult]] audience, ''Go Ask Alice'' also attracted a significant number of adult readers.<ref name=stegall /><ref name="Esq"/>

Libraries had difficulty obtaining and keeping enough copies of the book on the shelves to meet demand.<ref name=whatreviewerswrote>{{cite news |date=1978-01-22 |title=What Reviewers Wrote |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html |newspaper=The New York Times — Long Island Weekly |page=6 L.I |access-date=2016-12-26 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528005218/https://www.webcitation.org/6n2zlexg4?url=http://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html%3F_r=0 |archive-date=2024-05-28 |url-status=live |via=Proquest |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=meyers>{{cite news |last=Meyers |first=Christene C. |date=1974-05-05 |title=Controversial Book Popular in Billings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/60480052/ |newspaper=[[Billings Gazette]] |location=[[Billings, Montana]] |page=18 |access-date=2016-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> The 1973 television film based on the book heightened reader interest,<ref name=meyers /> and librarians reported having to order additional copies of the book each time the film was broadcast.

By 1975, more than three million copies of the book had reportedly been sold,<ref name=boettner /> and by 1979 the paperback edition had been reprinted 43 times. The book remained continuously in print over the ensuing decades, with reported sales of over four million copies by 1998,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and over five million copies by 2009.<ref name=yagoda /> The actual number of readers probably surpassed the sales figures, as library copies and even personal copies were likely circulated to more than one reader.<ref name=beidler>{{cite book |last=Beidler |first=Philip D. |date=1994 |title=Scriptures for a Generation: What We Were Reading in the '60s |url=https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid |url-access=registration |location=[[Athens, Georgia]] |publisher=The University of Georgia Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid/page/36 36]-38 |isbn=9780820317878 |author-link=Philip Beidler }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has been cited as establishing both the commercial potential of young adult fiction in general, and the genre of young adult anti-drug novels,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and has been called "one of the most famous anti-drug books ever published."<ref name=hendley />