James Hilton (novelist) picked "Lost Horizon" as its first title in 1939. For that reason, the novel is frequently called the book that began the "paperback revolution." Hilton is said to have been inspired to write "Lost Horizon", and to invent "Shangri-La" by reading the "National Geographic Magazine" articles of Joseph Rock, an Austrian-American botanist and ethnologist exploring the southwestern Chinese provinces and Tibetan borderlands. Still living in Britain at the time, Hilton was perhaps influenced by the Tibetan travel articles of early travellers in Tibet whose writings were found in the British Library. Christian Zeeman, the Danish father of the mathematician Christopher
Lost Horizon (1973 film) has not improved since. It was selected for inclusion in the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time", co-written by critic Michael Medved, and is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. The film was also a box office bomb, losing an estimated $51 million. This musical version is much closer to the 1937 film than to the original James Hilton novel. It tells the story of a group of travellers whose aeroplane is hijacked while fleeing a bloody revolution. The