The history of the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung is probably the most astounding publishing tale ever. The estimated number of official volumes printed between 1966 and 1969 ranges just over a billion, second only to the Holy Bible in terms of circulation numbers and this figure even excludes local prints, foreign language editions, internal army volumes, and innumerable mimeographed or handwritten collections. Up to Lin Biao’s death in September 1971, the Little Red Book was translated into thirty-six languages, including Braille script, and published around 110 million times abroad. Besides the official versions of the Quotations, up to 440 local editions have been noted. During the decade of the Cultural Revolution, all in all some 10.8 billion Mao texts or posters were printed by the state, making Mao the best-selling author ever, especially if the 783 million Mao items published between 1949 and 1965 are included. The stunning success of the works of Mao Zedong and most importantly the Little Red Book played a crucial role in the unfolding of the Cultural Revolution and the rise of its specific rhetoric. This chapter provides a short history of the compilation and distribution of the Little Red Book against the background of political events up to the Politburo meeting in May 1966.