Why read The Maverick?

Book cover of The Maverick: George Weidenfeld and the Golden Age of Publishing

Book description

Born into a Jewish family in Vienna in 1919, George Weidenfeld fled to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime. There he began a career in publishing that would make him one of the most influential figures in the industry. Over the course of his long and illustrious career…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Maverick as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mike Hulme

Author

George Weidenfeld was a giant of the publishing world in the second half of the twentieth century.

Harding tells Weidenfeld’s story, from birth in Vienna in 1919 to death in London in 2016, through the lens of 19 of the books that Weidenfeld brought (or didn’t bring) into being throughout his career. As a device for a biography, this is sheer genius.

By telling the story of Berlin’s The Hedgehog and the Fox, Watson’s The Double Helix and the book that never was – Mick Jagger’s autobiography – and many others, Thomas Harding reveals the controversies, scandals, elite parties,…

From Mike's 3 favorite reads in 2023.