我是在一天晚饭后写完《致加西亚的信》这本小册子的，花了一个小时。那天是华盛顿的诞辰纪念日——1899年2月22日，我们正准备出版3月号的《菲利士人》。
在度过纷纷扰扰的一天后，我心潮澎湃地写下这篇文章——当时我正在努力劝导那些无所事事的市民们振作起来，不要再昏昏欲睡。
这篇文章最直接的灵感是来自喝茶时的一场小辩论，我儿子伯特认为古巴战争中真正的英雄是罗文。他只身一人把信送给了加西亚，完成了任务。
是的，儿子说得很对！把信送给加西亚的人，才是真正的英雄——真正的英雄就是那些做好自己工作的人。这让我脑海中灵光一现，我离开饭桌，一气呵成写下了《致加西亚的信》。我没有丝毫犹豫地将这篇没有标题的文章刊登在了我们的杂志上。结果该版很快售罄，没多久，我们开始不断收到要求加印3月号《菲利士人》的订单，一打，五十份，一百份……当美国新闻公司要求订购一千份的时候，我问身边的助手，是哪篇文章如此轰动，产生这么大的反响，他回答说：“是关于加西亚的那篇。”
第二天，纽约中心铁路局的乔治?丹尼尔斯竟然也发来一封电报：“快速把关于罗文的那篇文章印刷成册，在封底刊登上帝国快递广告；订购十万份，请尽快告知报价及最快的船期。”
我给了他报价，并说我们只能在两年内持续供应这些小册子。因为当时我们的设备很简陋，规模很小，十万本书对我们来说是一项很艰巨的任务。
最后我同意丹尼尔斯先生提出的按照自己的方式重印那篇文章的建议。他把那篇文章结集成册，以小册子的形式前后数版共发行了五十万册。五十万册其中有百分之二三十是丹尼尔斯先生自己销售出去的。除此之外，有两百多家杂志和报纸转载了这篇文章。迄今为止，几乎世界上所有有文字的语言都翻译过这篇文章，它在全世界广泛流传。
就在丹尼尔斯先生销售《致加西亚的信》时，俄罗斯铁道大臣希拉科夫亲王正好也在美国纽约。他受纽约政府之邀来访，丹尼尔斯先生亲自陪同其参观纽约。亲王看到了这本小册子，了解到这本书的发行量很大，便对它产生了浓厚的兴趣。结果，亲王回到俄罗斯后，迅速地让人将这篇文章翻译成了俄文，发给俄罗斯铁路工人人手一册。
紧接着，其他国家也对这篇文章产生了兴趣。它从俄罗斯流向法国、德国、西班牙、印度、土耳其和中国。日俄战争期间，每一位上前线的俄罗斯士兵手中都有一份《致加西亚的信》。
日本人在俄罗斯被俘士兵的遗物里发现了这些小册子，他们认定这一定是一件很有价值的东西，于是，这篇文章又有了日文版。
根据日本天皇的命令，每一位日本政府工作人员、士兵乃至百姓手中都要人手一册《致加西亚的信》。
直到现在，《致加西亚的信》已经印刷了四千多万册。可以这么说，在整个历史进程中，在任何一个作家的有生之年，从来没有任何一本书拥有过如此巨大的发行量——这要归功于发生的一系列偶然事件。
This literary trifle, A Message to Garcia, was written one
evening after supper, in a single hour. It was on the 22nd of
February 1899, Washington''s Birthday, and we were just going to
press with the March Philistine.
The thing leaped hot from my heart, written after a trying day,
when I had been endeavoring to train some rather delinquent
villagers to abjure the comatose state and get radioactive.
The immediate suggestion, though, came from a litt1e argument
over the teacups, when my boy Bert suggested that Rowan was the
real hero of the Cuban War. Rowan had gone alone and done the
thing—carried the message to Garcia.
It came to me like a flash! Yes, the boy is right, the hero is
the man who does his work—who carries the message to Garcia.
I got up from the table, and wrote A Message to Garcia. I thought
so little of it that we ran it in the Magazine without a heading.
The edition went out, and soon orders began to come for extra
copies of the March Philistine，a dozen, fifty, a hundred, and when
the American News Company ordered a thousand, I asked one of my
helpers which article it was that had stirred up the cosmic dust.
“It''s the stuff about Garcia,” he said.
The next day a telegram came from George H. Daniels, of the New
York Central Railroadthus “Give price on one hundred thousand Rowan
article in pamphlet form—Empire State Express advertisement on
back—also how soon can ship.”
I replied giving price, and stated we could supply the pamphlets
in two years. Our facilities were small and a hundred thousand
booklets looked like an awful undertaking.
The result was that I gave Mr. Daniels permission to reprint the
article in his own way. He issued it in booklet form in editions of
half a million. Two or three of these half-million lots were send
out by Mr. Daniels, and in addition the article was reprinted in
over two hundred magazines and newspapers. It has been translated
into all written languages.
At the time Mr. Daniels was distributing A Message to Garcia,
Prince Hilakoff, Director of Russian Railways,was in this country.
He was the guest of the New York Central, and made a tour of the
country undcr the personal direction of Mr. Daniels. The Prince saw
the little book and was interested in it, more because Mr. Daniels
was putting it out in such big numbers, probably, than
otherwise.
In any event when he got home he had the matter translated into
Russian, and a copy of the booklet given to every railroad employee
in Russia.
Other countries then took it up, and from Russia it passed into
Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Hindustan, and China. During the
war between Russia and Japan, every Russian soldier who went to the
front was given a copy of A Message to Garcia.
The Japanese, finding the booklets in possessions of the Russian
prioners，concluded that it must be a good thing，and accordingly
translated it into Japanese．
And on an order of the Mikado，a copy was given to every man in
the employ of the Japanese Government, soldier or civilian．
Over forty minion copies of A Message to Garcia have been
printed. This is said to be a larger circulation than any other
literary venture has ever attained during the lifetime of the
author，in all history—thanks to a series of lucky accidents！
Elbert Hubbard
……
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