96-year-old grandpa goes viral on social media, has No. 1 selling poetry book after granddaughter’s tweet

Man now has No. 1 poetry book on Amazon

Tweet asking for reviews for a grandpa's book of poems goes viral on Twitter in April 2021. (Twitter)

A 96-year-old is enjoying his time in the spotlight as the author of the No. 1 selling poetry book on Amazon.

Thanks to a tweet from his granddaughter, who goes by Jess on Twitter, Gordon McCulloch turned a collection of his poetry into a best seller.

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McCulloch’s granddaughter posted a photo of him alongside his book “101 Poems” on April 19 saying “my 96-year-old grandpa has just had his own book published with all his poems from his life. It’s available on Amazon if anyone is interested :) a review would make him so happy.”

Twitter users took notice and the tweet was liked more than 295,000 times and garnered more than 48,000 retweets.

By April 20 the book was the No. 1 poetry book on Amazon and as of Wednesday had more than 1,400 5-star ratings.

One Amazon review called it “honestly one of the most beautiful works of poetry I have ever read.”

Due to the overwhelming response, Jess posted an update on April 22 saying her grandpa wanted to thank everyone for “their unbelievable positivity towards his book.”

Jess explained that the project started as a way to put all her grandpa’s poems in one place and that they only expected to sell 100 books.

“I am thankful that I’ve been able to put a smile on his face because that’s all I wanted,” Jess wrote in a statement on Twitter. “I hope the love from this gives people comfort and hope that unbelievable things do happen, no dream is too big or too late.”