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Who Has Signed Their Name the Most Times?

2026-09-25 · explainer · Hank · 9:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: History & curiosities) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: self promotion, timely hook

Hank, unable to discuss Hollywood, Ending without spoilers, reports John's new Guinness World Records title for most signed tip-in sheets (875,557) and argues John has probably signed more books than any author, but hand-signing clerks of Confederate and Brazilian banknotes signed their names far more often.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank cannot talk about John's book without spoilers; Cold Comfort Farm; his copy's colorway and a community-tab poll

  • ★★ Hank is frustrated that he can't talk about John's book after John's video about not wanting readers to know much going in, though that makes sense to him. — 00:00:00 · John Green, Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Hank says one of the best media experiences of his life was walking into the film Cold Comfort Farm knowing nothing about it. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says balancing enough information to make people want to spend time on a work against ruining it is tricky, and he doesn't know how to do it. (unsure) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank shows his copy, blue and cream with green inside; his favorite surprise about Hollywood, Ending is that the book's insides come in different colorways. — 00:00:29 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Hank asks viewers to check their copy's colorway and tell him; there is a poll on the community tab. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — John's Guinness World Records title and four questions: most signatures ever, by a living person, most signed books, most tip-in sheets

  • ★★★ Hank says that this week (week of 21 September 2026) John officially received a Guinness World Records title, something Hank had missed and didn't know was going to happen. — 00:00:58 · John Green
  • ★★ For many years the brothers have privately and publicly wondered whether John has signed his name more than anyone in history; Hank had decided he had. — 00:00:58 · John Green
  • ★★★ Having done the research, Hank says John has not signed his name more than anyone else; that honor probably goes to a Brazilian man born around 1900. — 00:01:27 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank thinks John may have signed his name more than any living person, though that cannot be known for sure. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank says more books are probably signed by John than by any other author, at least for now, though he is not fully sure. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · John Green
  • ★★★ John has definitely signed the most tip-in sheets bound into books, 875,557 so far, which recently earned him the Guinness World Records title. — 00:01:56 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank says over 100,000 copies of Hollywood, Ending are signed. — 00:01:56 · Hollywood, Ending

00:02:26 — Non-spoilery review sentences about Hollywood, Ending

  • ★★ Hank reads non-spoilery sentences people have written about Hollywood, Ending, calling it spellbinding, tender and funny, thornier and subtler than John's earlier work. — 00:02:26 · Hollywood, Ending

00:02:55 — Book out and tour on; Isaac Asimov's two quotations on autographs, 21 years apart

  • ★★ Hollywood, Ending is out wherever books are sold and John is on tour, with tickets possibly still available; Hank's bookstore had only one colorway. (hedged) — 00:02:55 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Years ago Hank picked up a book of Isaac Asimov quotations and leafed through it; he reads John two quotes from it. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Isaac Asimov (quoted): In 1969 Asimov wrote that his policy was to give autographs graciously when asked and to force them on people when not asked. (playful) — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Isaac Asimov (quoted): About 21 years later Asimov wrote that he was heartily tired of signing, hated the look of his signature and resented signing checks. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Hank says it's okay to feel differently about things over a lifetime, and not all authors have responded to interest in signed books the way John has. — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — John's phone reaction to the record; Hank hoped John held the record for most signatures ever

  • ★★ John Green (quoted): On the phone this morning John told Hank he is a little proud of the record: he didn't expect a big deal, then it happened on stage and he was delighted. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ Hank wanted John honored for the most signatures by anyone ever, sure he must be the most documented signer, but he was wrong: there is proof others signed more. — 00:03:53 · John Green

00:04:22 — Who signed more: celebrity autograph operations, Arnold Palmer, hand-signed Confederate and Brazilian banknotes

  • ★★ From the 1960s to the 1990s autograph interest was intense, and many celebrities ran signing operations that mailed a signature back to anyone who wrote. — 00:04:22
  • ★ Hank says selfies destroyed the intense interest in autographs. — 00:04:22
  • ★★ Arnold Palmer's publicist claimed he signed over 2 million autographs, but Hank says there is no good proof, just a per-day rate times years. — 00:04:52
  • ★★ Hank explains that currency was once signed by hand, the signature seen as evidence the money was real, a practice mostly dropped before mass printing. — 00:05:21
  • ★★★ A full paper trail shows one man signed more than a million Confederate banknotes during the Civil War, likely far more. — 00:05:21
  • ★★★ Brazil had clerks sign banknotes by hand until the 1950s; clerks signed 2,000 bills a day in a good government job some kept for decades. — 00:05:50
  • ★★★ Hank says there is a very high chance an unknown Brazilian clerk signed his name the most of anyone in history; their names are known, but not which one. (hedged) — 00:06:19
  • ★★ Some long-serving Brazilian clerks could have signed their names over 10 million times; more conservatively four or five million over a career. (hedged) — 00:06:49

00:07:18 — Author signings: Gertrude Stein in the 1930s, mass signing today, Sanderson and Schwab; conclusion

  • ★★ Authors have signed books for a very long time; the celebrity book-signing experience is at least a hundred years old. — 00:07:18
  • ★ A 1930s New Yorker piece on a Gertrude Stein signing described fans writing their names on slips, since people facing an author get timid. — 00:07:18
  • ★★ The New Yorker article bragged about Stein signing 250 books, far fewer than authors sign now. — 00:07:47
  • ★★★ Hank is confident all the authors who have signed the most books ever are alive today, since mass signing is relatively new, and John is among them. — 00:07:47 · John Green
  • ★★ Many think Brandon Sanderson may be ahead of John; he has certainly signed hundreds of thousands of books. — 00:08:16
  • ★★ Hank thinks John beats Sanderson handily and should worry more about V. E. Schwab. — 00:08:16
  • ★★ Hank says Schwab signed more than 350,000 tip-in sheets for their last novel. — 00:08:16
  • ★ Hank says the Guinness title is a very weird thing to have on John's Wikipedia page, while old bureaucrats beat him by a mile on total signatures. (playful) — 00:08:45 · Wikipedia

00:09:15 — Book available wherever books are sold; sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description corrects the figure: Schwab's signed first printing was 300,000 copies, not 350,000. — video description
  • ★★ The description says John W. Jones signed 1,155,168 Confederate notes, probably significantly more. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★ The description says Brandon Sanderson estimates he signs 50,000 to 100,000 times a year. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Hank stumbles over Arnold Palmer's name and blames the drink named after him — 00:04:52

    “Arnold Palmer is so hard to say. They should not have named a drink after him.”

  • Hank kept researching because he refused to let John lose the record to a Confederate — 00:05:50

    “i didn't want you to get beaten by a confederate banker so i kept looking”

  • Hank mangles Brandon Sanderson's name while comparing him to Schwab — 00:08:16

    “than Brando Sandoz”

  • Hank forbids John from trying to catch the bureaucrats but urges him to outpace Sanderson — 00:08:45

    “But do try to stay ahead of Sanderson, because that guy has written too many books.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: autograph · Guinness World Records · Hollywood, Ending

Also: People: Arnold Palmer · Brandon Sanderson (“Brando Sandoz”) · Gertrude Stein · Isaac Asimov · V. E. Schwab

Works: Cold Comfort Farm

Organizations: The New Yorker · Wikipedia

Concepts: selfie · spoiler

Places: Brazil · Confederate States of America

Events: American Civil War

Products: YouTube Community tab

Only in the description or credits: John W. Jones

Replies to

  • continues · I Want You to Know Nothing About This — “you just spent an entire video talking about how you don't want people going into the book knowing very much about the book”

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