Published in May 1968, The Population Bomb attracted little initial notice. No major newspaper reviewed it for five months. The New York Times gave it a one-paragraph notice almost a year after its release. In February 1970, twenty months after publication, Ehrlich was invited onto The Tonight Show, a late-night talk show, then enormously popular. The invitation was a fluke; Johnny Carson, the comedian-host, was leery of serious guests like university professors because he feared they would be pompous, dull, and opaque. Ehrlich proved to be affable, witty, and blunt. Thousands of letters
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