What is the single most powerful piece of literature on marketing?

I hate calling my own boss lazy, because the guys busts his ass day in and day out to make a sale.

However, when it comes to marketing, as LITTLE AS I KNOW, I know about 1000 times more than my boss. This has always been a problem, and will always continue to be a problem, because I always want to do things the right way, and he always wants to do things the wrong way.

To make matters worse, he is the type of person who can fail at something 10 times in a row, and still not think he's doing anything wrong. Like his last 6 runs in direct mail, not 1 phone call, and he still has the nerve to ask me "who the hell uses a copywriter?" when I tell him thats what he needs.

Today he actually told me to take a damaging admission off the website, which was worded great to build credibility with visitors. Anytime I put up information about our company, he says "thats too much information, you don't want people to know that much about your business, you want people to buy".

He has this attitude of keeping the business mysterious and its going to kill his lead generation imo.

I thought about showing him the whole magnetic marketing set, but I think he will definitely be too lazy to go through all of it.

I think a book about copywriting may benefit him better because copywriting to me is more specific. It shows you exactly what to say and what not to say. It just gives you a better idea of how to market a business in general.

When you people work for really ignorant clients. Clients who happen to pay very generously, but are very ignorant about marketing. How do you educate them?

Would Dan Kennedies salesletter book be better?

I'm looking for one book that covers as much as possible in the shortest amount of time, to the point, and covers the most basic essentials of how to market a business. Not facebook marketing, or search engine marketing, or PPC, just the basics and concepts of marketing in general. There are so many different products, and I only have once chance (unfortunately) to get some valuable information crammed into my bosses head.

I've already considered quitting a thousand times and it hasn't happened so its likely not going to happen. But what is the best way to educate an very ignorant person about marketing? He has learned so much andecdotal bs in the 10 years he's been running his business, and tends to believe a lot of that andecdotal evidence, or things friends have told him, rather than what I know to be true from all the marketing literature that I have read in my life.

I'm also not explaining things to him in a "techy" way. Like for the damaging admission I was clear to be simple and say "thats called a damaging admission in copywriting, people use them everywhere if you've ever read a salesletter before, it helps build credibility for the business".

Then there was another thing I wrote on the site. All it did was it recommended that visitors go check out our competitors. It was worded in a way that we were so confident in our service, we would take 10% off the lowest estimate they can get in writing.

Now this is an offer he designed HIMSELF. But he does not like me telling people who come to the site, to feel free to check out our competitors and get more than 1 estimate. He does not want that on the site. Like I said even though he offers 10% off the lowest estimate a person can get in writing.

Can someone please explain to me in simple terms if I'm wrong here?
I don't think I am but I'm always open to criticism. I just don't believe this criticism is justified. If I can show my boss this thread, it could help enlighten him. Plus if someone could recommend the single best book they have read about marketing a business in general, that would really be appreciated.

Or maybe Claude Hopkins would be good enough? I still think it may leave too much room for interpretation. He does get specific but tends to speak in a more general context throughout the book. I need something specific without fluff or filler, that gets right to the point of things that work for marketing a local business.

Thanks guys! - Red