Kurt Wolff (3 March 1887 – 21 October 1963) was a German publisher, editor, writer, and
journalist.
Wolff was born in
Bonn,
Rhenish Prussia; his mother came from a
Jewish-German family. He married Elisabeth Karoline Clara
Merck
Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including:
* the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668
** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...
(1890–1970), of the
Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
pharmaceuticals firm, in 1909. Together with
Ernst Rowohlt
Ernst R. Rowohlt (23 June 1887 in Bremen – 1 December 1960 in Hamburg) was a German publisher who founded the Rowohlt publishing house in 1908 and headed it and its successors until his death.
In 1912 he married actress Emmy Reye, but the marr ...
, Wolff began to work in publishing in
Leipzig in 1908. He was the first to promote and publish
Franz Kafka and
Franz Werfel but declined to publish the works of
Axel Munthe
Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe (31 October 1857 – 11 February 1949) was a Swedish-born medical doctor and psychiatrist, best known as the author of ''The Story of San Michele'', an autobiographical account of his life and work. He spoke several la ...
. Wolff's close contact to other writers in
Prague and the support for unknown, but talented writers, helped him develop Kafka's friends,
Max Brod and
Felix Weltsch, who were more well known in
Berlin and
Germany.
In 1929, Wolff published the photography book ''Face of Our Time'' by
August Sander
August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His first book ''Face of our Time'' (German: ''Antlitz der Zeit'') was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important Ger ...
.
In 1941 Wolff and his second wife,
Helen Mosel, left Germany and emigrated to Paris, London, Montagnola, St. Tropez, Nice, and finally with the assistance of
Varian Fry, to
New York City. Later in
Munich,
Florence, and the
United States, Wolff developed several publishing houses. In the U.S., he and Helen founded
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint with editorial independence. It is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.Random House, Inc. Datamonitor Company Profiles Authority: Retrieved 6/20/2007, from EBSCO Host Business Source ...
in 1942, which became well known. They later ran the Helen and Kurt Wolff Books imprint at
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Wolff settled in Switzerland in the 1950s. He died after a driving accident and is buried with Helen in
Marbach, Germany.
The
Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is named in honor of him and his wife.
His son,
Christian Wolff, is a renowned avant-garde musician. His grandson Alexander (son of Nicholas) wrote a family history, published in 2021 as ''Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home''.
Literary archives
The
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at
Yale University holds the Kurt Wolff Archive, 1907–38. The collection contains about 4,100 letters and manuscripts from the files of the Kurt Wolff Verlag from the years 1910–30. A portion of the Kurt Wolff Archive is currently available online.
Kurt Wolff Archive, 1907-1938.
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Retrieved on 2009-07-08.
References
External links
* Kurt Wolff Archive. Yale Collection of German Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
* Helen and Kurt Wolff Papers. Yale Collection of German Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Kurt
1887 births
1963 deaths
German book publishers (people)
German male journalists
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom
Businesspeople from Bonn
People from the Rhine Province
German male writers
American book publishers (people)
20th-century German journalists