After historian Jan Romein wrote about the diary in his newspaper column, Dutch publishing house Contact expressed interest in publishing it. "Het Achterhuis" ("The Secret Annex") was published in 1947. French and German editions of Anne Frank's diary were published in 1950, according to Anne Frank House. Per The New York Times, when Otto Frank submitted the book for English translation and publication, it was a very different story. Despite the positive Dutch reviews of "Het Achterhuis," its English-language edition was rejected by 16 American publishers before Doubleday published it in 1952. As quoted by The New York Times, an editor at Alfred A. Knopf Inc. turned down the manuscript in 1950, writing it was "very dull" and "a dreary record of typical family bickering, petty annoyances and adolescent emotions."
The diary was eventually published as "The Diary of a Young Girl" in both the United Kingdom and the United States in 1952. According to Mental Floss, the book has been translated into 67 languages and sold over 30 million copies. As reported by Anne Frank House, it was adapted into a Pulitzer-winning Broadway play, "The Diary of Anne Frank," in 1955, and a movie in 1959.
Miep Gies reportedly later admitted that if she had read the diary upon finding it, she would have destroyed it, as it contained incriminating evidence against everyone who had illegally helped to hide the Frank family. Gies didn't read the diary until Otto Frank encouraged her to do so once it was in its second printing.
