In 1971, founder Philip Wood left a senior sales post at Penguin Books to launch the company on the strength of just one title—Anybody’s Bike Book—which became the book that inspired the company’s name and went on to sell more than a million copies. Legend has it that Phil stored the stock of the original edition in his apartment bathtub in downtown Berkeley.
From the bathtub to the bestseller list, Ten Speed has built its reputation on enduring career and business books like Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? (the best-selling job-hunting book in the world), acclaimed cookbooks that range from the upscale (Charlie Trotter’s) to the perennially popular (The Moosewood Cookbook) and the downright quirky (White Trash Cooking). Along the way, the company has also made its mark with a unique list of unclassifiable books, like How to Shit in the Woods, Why Cats Paint, Cannabible, and Furry Logic.