Don Quixote Slept Here; Publishers and tourism boards are cashing in on literary anniversaries. And what's wrong with that?

Byline: Tara Pepper (With Mike Elkin in Madrid and Ginny Power in Paris)

The runaway success of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote" when it was first published in 1605 was a relief to the author, whose other works had languished. His chronicle of the adventures of a delusional knight--who mistakes windmills for giants and inns for enchanted castles--and his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, became a best seller, with six editions rolling from the press in its first year. But the book never turned a profit for Cervantes, who died destitute a year after publishing its sequel in 1615.

Too bad Cervantes isn't around to collect now. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of "Don Quixote," to which no one owns the rights, 10 publishing houses have printed new editions, flooding stores around the world with fresh copies. One version, compiled by the Royal Spanish Academy and sold by Alfaguara for a modest 9.50 euro, has sold 600,000 copies in Spain and Latin America over the past two months. "We expected to sell about a million copies throughout the year," said Alfaguara spokeswoman Angeles Aguilera. "But we actually ran out around Christmas. It's great to have Cervantes on the best-seller list after 400 years."

For publishers, literary anniversaries are almost as profitable as being chosen for Oprah's Book Club. According to Eurydice Montrobert, communications director of FNAC, one of France's biggest bookstore chains, sales tend to triple in an anniversary year. Last year saw the centenary of "Bloomsday" on June 16, the single day on which the events of James Joyce's "Ulysses" take place. A high-profile marketing campaign by Joyce's publishers pegged to the date helped double sales of the Penguin Classics edition. In France, publisher Poche sells 25,000 of Colette's sensual novels in an average year; during the 50th anniversary of her death last year, Poche moved 60,000. And the 200th anniversary of George Sand's birth last year more than doubled demand for her rustic novels. Poche sold 50,000 copies compared to 18,000 in 2003.

Tourist boards are also figuring out how to cash in on the commemorations. In Spain, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, where many of Don Quixote's adventures took place, has created a public company to organize about 2,000 performances, exhibitions, concerts, films and plays--including "Don Quixote: The Shadow of the Knight," which runs at the Palacio del Infantado of Guadalajara until May. Nantes, the birthplace of French science-fiction pioneer Jules Verne, who died a century ago, is wooing tourists with exhibits, plays, concerts, films and conferences. In September the city will reopen the lavishly restored Jules Verne Museum. And the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire, in northern England, is hoping to attract fans with readings, film screenings and an exhibit of manuscripts, letters, photos and other memorabilia commemorating 150 years since Charlotte Bronte's death.

Critics argue that concocting events and reissuing special editions to lure readers detract from an author's accomplishments. "It portrays a terrible lack of confidence, as if you can only draw attention to someone if they happen to have a birthday rather than because they're worth reading," says Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent. Blasting the barrage of histories that have come out preceding this October's bicentennial of the battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Nelson's death, Tonkin wrote that publishers should concentrate on finding new material rather than on mining the celebrity calendar. "Our whole cultural economy is based around manufactured events," he says. "Publishers should be led ...