German publisher Dr. Karl H. Blessing, a star of the global book trade who helped build the international careers of many American and British authors—including Michael Crichton, Tom Wolfe and Jhumpa Lahiri—died at age 63 in Munich on March 12, of cancer and kidney failure.
Voted German Publisher of the Year in 2004, Blessing published six bestsellers last year at his eponymous imprint within Bertelsmann, more than the rest of the company's German imprints combined. In 2005, he produced three more bestsellers while confined to a hospital bed and undergoing a succession of surgeries. Before joining Bertelsmann in 1996, he spent the major part of his career with Holtzbrinck, heading the German houses Droemer Knaur and Kindler, where he began his 20-year professional relationship with U.S. scout Maria Campbell.
At the London Book Fair, many attendees spoke with more feeling about Blessing than any of the manuscripts on offer. He was particularly remembered for the passion and loyalty with which he supported his writers. In fiction—Blessing's first love—his stable ranged from commercial stars like Kathy Reichs and Scott Turow to literary sensations like Mark Haddon and Arundhati Roy. He was equally adroit at publishing controversial nonfiction bestsellers about major social issues. "He was an erudite chap with an enormous instinct for the marketplace—two traits that are rarely found in the same person," said Overlook publisher and former Penguin CEO Peter Mayer.
A man of immaculate manners, Blessing also had a generous capacity for friendship and "a talent for seducing people," in the words of Anne Louise Fisher, his English scout of 20 years. When authors visited, he would go out of his way to accommodate their interests. "It was like being entertained by a great host, rather than submitting yourself to a horrendous publicity tour," said agent Lynn Nesbit.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Blessing drew together the publishing elite of many countries at his legendary lunch in the Maritim Hotel, where he'd give two speeches, one in English and one in German, before a handpicked audience of several hundred publishers, authors and German journalists. "It was almost a shock to hear him speak German, he was so much a part of the English-language culture," said British agent Clare Alexander.
Born on March 24, 1941, Blessing came of age when young Germans were embracing American writers like Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos. But his interest in literature alienated him from his father, the president of the German Bundesbank (similar to the Federal Reserve), making him the black sheep in a family of bankers. But according to his close friend and occasional publishing rival Lothar Menne, Blessing's early defiance was the basis of the conviction that defined his approach to publishing.
For Alexander, Blessing's passing was "especially sad, because last Frankfurt was the first without Roger Straus and this London Book Fair is the first without Karl. They were really cultured people. It was so much more than a business to them, it was their life."
