Christopher MacLehose explained

Christopher MacLehose
Honorific Suffix:CBE, Hon. FRSL
Birth Name:Christopher Colin MacLehose
Birth Date:12 July 1940
Birth Place:Edinburgh, Scotland
Education:Shrewsbury School

Worcester College, Oxford University
Occupation:Publisher
Known For:Founder of MacLehose Press;
Mountain Leopard Press;
Open Borders Press
Awards:Benson Medal (2016)

Christopher Colin MacLehose CBE,[1] Hon. FRSL (born 12 July 1940)[2] [3] is a British publisher notable as publisher of Harvill Press (from 1984 to 2004),[4] [5] [6] where his successes included bringing out the stories of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford for the first time in Britain.[7] Having published works translated from more than 34 languages,[8] MacLehose has been referred to as "the champion of translated fiction" and as "British publishing's doyen of literature in translation".[9] He is generally credited with introducing to an English-speaking readership the best-selling Swedish author Stieg Larsson[10] [11] [12] [13] and other prize-winning authors, among them Sergio De La Pava, who has described MacLehose as "an outsize figure literally and figuratively – that's an individual who has devoted his life to literature".[14]

From 2008 to 2020, he was the publisher of MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Books, and in 2021 founded Mountain Leopard Press,[15] an imprint of the Welbeck Publishing Group.[16] The Mountain Lion list was sold to Hachette in December 2022. In 2024, it was announced that MacLehose was to launch Open Borders Press, as the first imprint of Orenda Books.[17]

Early life

Christopher MacLehose was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 12 July 1940 to Alexander MacLehose and Elizabeth Hope MacLehose (née Bushell). His family was involved with the book trade as printers, booksellers and publishers, and he has described them as "seven generations, all of them second sons". He was educated at Shrewsbury School (1953–58),[18] and read history at Worcester College, Oxford University.[19]

Career

MacLehose took a job at the Glasgow Herald, where he hoped to stay for six months to gain the experience that would enable him to work for the recently founded Independent Television News; however, his ambitions changed direction after a few weeks: "I realised ... I wanted to work with language and words," MacLehose said in a 2012 interview. So he worked in the editorial office of the family printing factory by day, while freelancing by night for The Herald writing reviews and obituaries. Eventually, he was offered employment as literary editor of The Scotsman, following which he moved in 1967 to London and went into book publishing, initially as an editor at the Cresset Press (part of the Barrie Group), with P. G. Wodehouse among his authors,[20] as well as George MacDonald Fraser of Flashman fame, who had been the features editor of the Glasgow Herald when MacLehose was there.[21] MacLehose subsequently became editorial director of Chatto & Windus, and then editor-in-chief of William Collins.[22] [23]

In 1984, MacLehose took charge of the Harvill imprint, of which he was publisher for the next 20 years, with a well respected list that specialised in translated works and included such titles as Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Peter Høeg's Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. In 1995, MacLehose led a management buy-out of Harvill and for the following seven years characterised the company as "a bridge across cultures",[24] counting among his authors Richard Ford, Raymond Carver, W. G. Sebald, José Saramago, Georges Perec, Claudio Magris and P. O. Enquist.[25] In 2002, the company was bought by Random House[26] [27] and two years later MacLehose left.[28]

He then set up the MacLehose Press, whose motto is "Read the World",[29] as "an independently minded imprint" of Quercus Books (itself founded in 2004).[30] [31] The first titles were published in January 2008,[32] and among these was the best-selling psychological thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Swedish author Stieg Larsson.[33] Other international authors published by MacLehose Press include Bernardo Atxaga,[34] Dulce Maria Cardoso,[35] Philippe Claudel,[36] Otto de Kat, Maylis de Kerangal, Virginie Despentes, Joël Dicker,[37] [38] Sophie Divry, Per Olov Enquist, Roy Jacobsen, Jaan Kross, Andrey Kurkov, David Lagercrantz, Pierre Lemaitre, Élmer Mendoza, Patrick Modiano, Marie NDiaye, Daniel Pennac, Lydie Salvayre, Żanna Słoniowska, and Valerio Varesi.[39] [40] On 30 October 2020, MacLehose Press announced that MacLehose had chosen to leave the imprint. Associate publisher Katharina Bielenberg took over as publisher.[41] [42]

In March 2021, it was announced that MacLehose would be leading a new imprint at the Welbeck Publishing Group called Mountain Leopard Press, with a focus on literary work and translated literature,[43] the launch title being Evelio Rosero's Stranger to the Moon, translated by Victor Meadowcroft and Anne McLean.[44] In December 2022 the Mountain Leopard list was sold by Welback to Hachette.[45]

In January 2024, it was announced that MacLehose would be launching Open Borders Press, the first imprint of Orenda Books, with Andrey Kurkov's Our Daily War as the imprint's first title.

With "a reputation as a master at finding foreign fiction by writers such as Henning Mankell and Haruki Murakami and turning them into English language hits",[46] MacLehose has said: "When I first came into publishing, there was André Deutsch, Fredric Warburg, Ernest Hecht, Manya Harari, George Weidenfeld – a generation of multilingual people who came to England bringing the assumption that books that had to be translated were no different.... You simply published the best you could find and if you had to translate them, you just got on with it."[47]

Awards and honours

In 2006, MacLehose received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award for International Publishing.[48] [49]

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the publishing industry in the 2011 New Year Honours.[50] [51]

In 2016, MacLehose was awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).[52] He was elected an honorary Fellow of the RSL in 2021.[53] [54]

MacLehose received Estonia's Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, IV Class, in 2023.[55] [56]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/honours-list-order-of-the-british-empire-cbe-2172571.html "Honours List: Order of the British Empire, CBE"
  2. Web site: Maclehose, Christopher Colin, (born 12 July 1940), Publisher, MacLehose Press, since 2006. 2021-07-12. WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2012. en. 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U255644. 978-0-19-954088-4.
  3. Nicholas Wroe, "Christopher MacLehose: A life in publishing", The Guardian, 28 December 2012.
  4. http://www.buchmesse.de/en/businessclub/schedule/02909/index.html "Darja Marinšek presents Christopher MacLehose, MacLehose Press"
  5. http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/en/Contributors/338763/Christopher-MacLehose Christopher MacLehose profile
  6. Christopher MacLehose, "A Publisher’s Vision", EnterText 4.3 Supplement, Brunel University London. .
  7. [Sebastian Faulks]
  8. http://www.creativeeuropeuk.eu/funded-projects/maclehose-press-publishing-programme "MacLehose Press Publishing Programme"
  9. The Literator, "Cover Stories: Christopher MacLehose", The Independent, 28 September 2006.
  10. Joshua Melvin, "French crime fiction set to eclipse Scandi-noir", AFP–The Local, 20 February 2014.
  11. Helen Rowe, "After ScandiNoir, French are new crime fiction stars", DAWN, 24 February 2014.
  12. [Gaby Wood]
  13. Henry Williams, "Old is the new young, which is great news for idlers like me", The Spectator, 3 August 2016.
  14. Susanna Rustin, "Sergio De La Pava: 'My book's not perfect, but it's what I set out to do. I wanted it to have a propulsive, angry core'", The Guardian, 27 June 2014.
  15. Christopher MacLehose to lead new imprint at Welbeck. Heloise Wood. The Bookseller. 23 March 2021. 28 March 2021.
  16. Web site: World-Leading Publisher Welbeck Publishing Group. 2021-03-28. www.welbeckpublishing.com.
  17. Web site: Christopher MacLehose to launch Open Borders Press at Orenda Books. 5 February 2024. Cole Sullivan. Orenda Books. 22 May 2024.
  18. The Salopian, Issue 148, Summer 2011, p. 41.
  19. http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-255644/version/2 "MacLehose, Christopher Colin"
  20. Anthony Gardner, "Christopher MacLehose: The champion of translated fiction who struck it rich with Stieg Larsson", 2010.
  21. Christopher MacLehose, "The derring-do that created Flashman", The Spectator, 24 May 2014.
  22. Hrvoje Bozicevic, "The life and death of Harvill Press: Save the Leopard!", Literature & Translation, UNESCO, 17 November 2004.
  23. Lucinda Byatt, "At two ends of the publishing continuum: Harvill Secker's celebrates its (cumulative) centenary and Vagabond Voices", A World of Words, 1 October 2009. .
  24. Andrew Franklin, "From Small Beginnings", The Independent, 11 May 1996.
  25. Baret Magariani, "Patrician hauteur. Interview – Christopher MacLehose", New Statesman, 26 February 1999.
  26. http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/harvill-press-joins-the-random-house-group-155064545.html "Harvill press joins The Random House Group"
  27. Hilary Macaskill, "Adapting to acquisition", The Bookseller, 13 August 2003.
  28. Michael Thwaite, "MacLehose joins with Quercus", Ready Steady Book, 21 September 2006.
  29. [Sam Leith]
  30. Web site: ABOUT MACLEHOSE PRESS. MacLehose Press. 26 March 2017. 26 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170326225947/http://www.maclehosepress.com/about/. live.
  31. https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/Information/About%20Us.page "About us"
  32. Joshua Farrington, "MacLehose Press celebrates fifth anniversary", The Bookseller, 21 December 2012. .
  33. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25494189 "What publishers can do when a best-selling author dies"
  34. https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21726056-bernardo-atxaga-tries-make-sense-reno-nevada-basque-writer-contemplates-america "A Basque writer contemplates America"
  35. http://www.eurolitnetwork.com/rivetingreviews-rosie-goldsmith-reviews-the-return-by-dulce-maria-cardoso-2/ "#RivetingReviews: Rosie Goldsmith reviews THE RETURN by Dulce Maria Cardoso"
  36. [Boyd Tonkin]
  37. Liz Bury, "Dan Brown-trumping French bestseller due in English next year", The Guardian, 6 December 2013. .
  38. Katherine Cowdrey, "'Harry Quebert' companion novel to MacLehose", The Bookseller, 19 July 2016. .
  39. Ian Thomson, "Modern Italy’s heart of darkness", The Spectator, 26 March 2016.
  40. https://www.maclehosepress.com/books/?offset=1493905020444&reversePaginate=true "Books"
  41. Web site: Katherine Cowdrey. 30 October 2020. Christopher MacLehose steps back from MacLehose Press after 13 years The Bookseller. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201031081930/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/christopher-maclehose-steps-back-maclehose-press-1223790. 31 October 2020. 2020-10-30. www.thebookseller.com.
  42. Web site: Erin Somers. 2020-10-30. People, Etc.. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201101044859/https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2020/10/people-etc-1262/. 1 November 2020. 2020-10-30. Publishers Lunch. en-US.
  43. Web site: London's Welbeck Launches a New Imprint with Christopher MacLehose. Porter Anderson. Publishing Perspectives. 23 March 2021.
  44. John Self, "Reinvention and rediscoveries", The Critic, June 2022.
  45. Web site: News & Notes A great publisher revives. PN Review 276. 50. 4. March–April 2024. 22 May 2024.
  46. Nick Clark, "The publishing house that Stieg Larsson built", The Independent, 5 August 2010. .
  47. Andrew Jack, "Translators: Publishing’s unsung heroes at work", Financial Times, 6 October 2015. .
  48. http://www.trilogygroup.com/lifetime-achievement-award/ "Lifetime Achievement Award"
  49. http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/ARCHIVE/LBF-2016/Whats-On/events/lifetime-achievement-award/ Lifetime Achievement Award
  50. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59647/supplement/1 "New Year Honours—United Kingdom"
  51. Graeme Neill, "Weidenfeld and MacLehose lauded in New Year's Honours list", The Bookseller, 4 January 2011. .
  52. http://rsliterature.org/award/the-benson-medal/ "The Benson Medal"
  53. Web site: RSL announces 44 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows. The Royal Society of Literature. 6 July 2021. 6 July 2021. 9 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184112/https://rsliterature.org/2021/07/rsl-announces-44-new-fellows-and-honorary-fellows/. dead.
  54. https://rsliterature.org/fellow/christopher-maclehose/ "Christopher MacLehose"
  55. Web site: 6 Feb 2023 . Presidendilt saavad teenetemärgi ka kümned kultuuritegelased . 25 Feb 2023 . ERR Uudised.
  56. Web site: MacLehose honoured. BookBrunch. 20 April 2023.