André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951.
Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish dentist. He attended school in Budapest and in Vienna, Austria. The Anschluss led to him fleeing Austria, and in 1939, he settled in Britain, where he worked as floor manager at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. When Hungary entered the Second World War on the side of the Germans in 1941, Deutsch was interned for some weeks as an "enemy alien".Attallah, Naim, "No Longer With Us: André Deutsch" (including interview with Deutsch from Singular Encounters), quartetbooks.wordpress.com, 5 July 2010.
After having learned the business of publishing while working for Francis Aldor (Aldor Publications, London), with whom he had been interned on the Isle of Man and who had introduced him to the industry, Deutsch left Aldor's employment after a few months to continue his burgeoning publishing career with the firm of Nicholson & Watson. After the war Deutsch founded his first company, Allan Wingate, but after a few years was forced out by one of his directors, Anthony Gibb. André Deutsch Limited began trading in 1952.Athill, Diana. "André Deutsch: The Great Persuader", p. 33 in Abel and Graham (2009). Article originally published in Logos 14/4, 2003, pp. 174–80; preview at Brill.
His small but influential publishing house was active until the 1990s, and included books by Jack Kerouac, Wole Soyinka, Earl Lovelace, Norman Mailer, George Mikes, V. S. Naipaul, Ogden Nash, Eric Williams, Andrew Robinson, Philip Roth, Art Spiegelman, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Charles Gidley Wheeler, Helene Hanff, Peter Benchley, Leon Uris, Molly Keane, Michael Rosen, Quentin Blake, Mary Melwood, John Cunliffe, and Ludwig Bemelmans."Andre Deutsch CBE", Andre Deutsch.Com. Deutsch employed dedicated editor Diana Athill, who in 1952 was a founding director of the publishing company that was given his name (and who in her memoir Stet described him as "possibly the most difficult man in London"). A number of book series were established including The Language Library,The Language Library (Andre Deutsch) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 16 September 2018."English Words", The Guardian, 13 July 1954, p. 4. Grafton Books (works on librarianship, bibliography and book collecting)A Grafton Book, worldcat.org. Retrieved 24 November 2019. and the Introduces guides.Introduces (Andre Deutsch) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 16 September 2018.Gillon, Diana and Meir, "Mutually inscrutable", The Guardian, 12 November 1965, p. 9 (review of Ian Fleming Introduces Jamaica).
In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Deutsch was appointed a CBE."C.B.E.", Supplement to the Royal Gazette, 17 June 1989, p. B37.
Deutsch died in London on 11 April 2000, aged 82.
In popular culture Author John le Carré based his recurring character Toby Esterhase on Deutsch, both in physical appearance and in replicating Deutsch's unique manner of speech:
Current imprint The name "André Deutsch" became an imprint of Carlton Publishing Group, which purchased the company from Video Collection International Plc in 2000.
See also List of publishers Paul Hamlyn George Weidenfeld
References
Further reading Abel, Richard, and Gordon Graham (eds), Immigrant Publishers: The Impact of Expatriate Publishers in Britain and America in the 20th Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2009. Athill, Diana, "André Deutsch: The Great Persuader", in: Logos, 14:4, 2003, pp. 174–180. Athill, Diana, Stet: A Memoir. London: Granta, 2000. Attallah, Naim, "No Longer With Us: André Deutsch" (including interview with Deutsch from Singular Encounters), quartetbooks.wordpress.com, 5 July 2010. Calder, John, "André Deutsch: Idiosyncratic publisher who enlivened a staid British profession with an outsider's flair, charm and insight", The Guardian, 12 April 2000. Lyall, Sarah, "Andre Deutsch, 82, Publisher Who Invigorated British Scene", The New York Times, 14 April 2000. Norrie, Ian, Mentors and Friends: Short Lives of Leading Publishers and Booksellers I Have Known. London: Elliot and Thompson, 2006.
External links André Deutsch website André Deutsch Collection at Oxford Brookes University André Deutsch Publishing Archive at the McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa