Karsten Dietrich, the longtime head of programming of the France Loisirs book club, died last week in Paris. He was 72.
Born in Germany in 1944, Dietrich was a lifelong reader, and was chosen by the German Bertelsmann book club—now defunct—to move to France and run its French book club when he was 29 years old and not yet fluent in French. He went on to run France Loisirs for 36 years, from 1973 until his retirement in 2009.
Dietrich played a significant role in growing France Loisirs into the world's largest book club, which still has approximately 4 million members involved today. He also helped to bring foreign authors to a French readership, including writers like Pat Conroy, Paulo Coelho, Harlan Coben, and Tatiana de Rosnay.
Anita Offel-Grohmann, the former program managing director of the Bertelsmann book club, called Dietrich, according to German bookselling magazine BuchMarkt, "a passionate bon vivant with a great knowledge of literature."
Dietrich was buried in Paris on October 26.
CORRECTION: This article initially stated that Dietrich did not speak French; he did not speak the language upon his initial move, but became fluent during his many years in the country.
