The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing

Thomas Harding in conversation with David Herman about The Maverick, his new biography of iconic and sometimes controversial Austrian-born publisher George Weidenfeld.
After arriving in London just before the Second World War as a penniless and friendless Austrian-Jewish refugee, George Weidenfeld went on to transform not only the world of publishing but the culture of ideas. The books that he published include momentous titles such as Lolita, Double Helix, The Group and The Hedgehog and the Fox, with authors he championed ranging from Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, Golda Meir and Edna O’Brien to Henry Miller, Harold Wilson, Saul Bellow and Henry Kissinger.
In this first, newly-published biography, acclaimed author Thomas Harding provides a full, unvarnished and at times difficult history of this complex and fascinating character. Drawing on author correspondence, internal memos, and other documents buried deep in the secret publishing files of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Harding crafts a portrait of the publisher’s life that is inextricable from the efforts and intricacies of putting a book into the world.