Background

Kurt Wolff was born on March 3, 1887, in Bonn, Germany. He was a son of Leonhard Wolff, a professor of music, and of Maria (Marx) Wolff.

Education

From 1905 till 1906, Kurt attended Gymnasium Philippinum in Marburg, Germany. In 1906, he passed his school-leaving examination at the educational establishment and subsequently studied at the universities of Bonn, Munich, Marburg and Leipzig.

Career

In his early years, Kurt served in Darmstadt in a field artillery regiment. At this stage of his life, he was interested in music and he had already started to collect books, while studying at Gymnasium Philippinum in Marburg.

It was in 1908, that Wolff entered his first publishing venture, becoming a partner at the Ernst Rowohlt Publishing House. During that time, he also edited a number of works, including the Writings and Letters of Johann Heinrich Merck and the Diaries of Adele Schopenhauer, both published in 1909. In 1912, Kurt invested 90,000 marks in the publishing firm.

In February 1913, Wolff established the Kurt Wolff Verlag in Leipzig, and a month later, he acquired a periodical, "Die Weißen Blätter". In October of that year, he also bought the Hyperion Publishing House. Also, during that eventful year, Kurt issued Franz Kafka's first published work, a book of short stories, as well as books by Max Brod, Franz Werfel and Georg Trakl.

During World War I, Wolff served as a second lieutenant in the German Army, but was discharged in September 1916 to resume his publishing activities. During this year, his firm published, among others, books by Karl Kraus and Arnold Zweig. In 1917, the firm began to specialize in books on modern art. In October 1919, it was moved to Munich, and, in 1923, Wolff set up a publishing house in Florence.

During the 1920's, Wolff's establishments published books by Carl Zuckmayer, Adolfo Venturi, Frans Masereel, and many others. By the latter half of the decade, 200 titles were being published annually by Wolff's firms. They seem not to have issued any books during 1929, though, and by mid-1930's, the firms had been liquidated.

Except for a trip to Berlin in the winter of 1932, Wolff lived in Italy and France during the 1930's. He was in Paris, when World War II broke out, and was twice detained by the French in a compound for German citizens. He was released from the second confinement on July 28, 1940. On February 9, 1941, Kurt left Paris and arrived in New York City on March 30 of the same year. Wolff had friends in the United States, and through their assistance, especially that of Curt von Faber du Faur, he established a publishing firm there in 1942. Besides Wolff and von Faber du Faur's stepson, Kyrill Schabert, who became president and sales manager of the company, the investors included friends, especially Lessing J. Rosenwald, former board chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Because the United States was at war with Germany, Wolff did not give his name to the enterprise, but called it Pantheon Books. The business initially operated out of the Wolffs' apartment. The first published work was Charles Péguy's "Basic Verities" (1943). It was a year in preparation and proved to be a success.

Wolff acted as vice-president and editor of Pantheon Books, and his policy was to publish "books of fine quality, which, although not designed for a mass audience, would nevertheless appeal to a large number of people". He was interested in "timely" works "of lasting value".

By the spring of 1944, Pantheon had published fifteen books of poetry, art history, fiction, education and philosophy. Wolff was particularly interested in art books, and among his first publications were two, containing the works of Masereel.

During the middle and late 1950's, several of Pantheon books became bestsellers. These included Anne Morrow Lindbergh's "Gift from the Sea", Joy Adamson's "Born Free", Mary Renault's "The King Must Die" and Boris Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago".

The year 1958 was a difficult one for Wolff. He developed heart trouble and became involved in a dispute with his associates at Pantheon. In 1960, he and his second wife, Helen Mosel, who was also an officer of the company, resigned. The following year, they arranged, with Harcourt, Brace and World, to publish Helen and Kurt Wolff Books. "Sunset and Twilight", based on the diaries of Bernard Berenson, was one of the works, published under this arrangement.

Books, edited by Wolff, include "Briefe und Verse aus Goethes Zeit" (1910), "Dramatische Jugendwerke" (1912) and "Tausend Jahre Deutscher Dichtung" (1949), among others.

Achievements

• Kurt Wolff was mostly known as the publisher and editor, who was the first to promote and publish the authors Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel, among others. He was a partner of Ernst Rowohlt Publishing House, as well as founder of Kurt Wolff Verlag publishing firm and Pantheon Books.
  
  The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is named in honor of him and his wife.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Tausend Jahre Deutscher Dichtung

    (Edited by Kurt Wolff and Curt von Faber du Faur.)

    1949
  • Dramatische Jugendwerke

    (Edited by Kurt Wolff.)

    1912

Personality

Peter du Sautoy characterized Wolff as "the embodiment of all that is best in European culture, a man of wide interests and many enthusiasms, of great taste and discrimination and knowledge".

Connections

On September 2, 1909, Kurt married Elizabeth Merck. Their marriage produced two children. In 1930, the couple's relationships ended in divorce.

On March 27, 1933, Wolff married Helen (Mosel) Wolff, a publisher. They gave birth to one son, Christian Wolff, a renowned avant-garde musician and composer.

Father:

Leonhard Wolff

Mother:

Maria (Marx) Wolff

child:

Christian Wolff

ex-wife:

Elizabeth Merck

Wife:

Helen (Mosel) Wolff

colleague:

Ernst Rowohlt

References

• Kurt Wolff, 1887-1963
  1965