Christopher Colin MacLehose CBE, Hon.

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(born 12 July 1940)Nicholas Wroe
"Christopher MacLehose: A life in publishing"
, '' The Guardian'', 28 December 2012. is a British publisher notable as publisher of

Harvill Press Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...

(from 1984 to 2004), where his successes included bringing out the stories of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford for the first time in Britain. Having published works translated from more than 34 languages, MacLehose has been referred to as "the champion of translated fiction" and as "British publishing's doyen of literature in translation". He is generally credited with introducing to an English-speaking readership the best-selling Swedish author

Stieg Larsson Karl Stig-Erland "Stieg" Larsson (, ; 15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish writer, journalist, and activist. He is best known for writing the ''Millennium'' trilogy of crime novels, which were published posthumously, starting in 2 ...

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". From 2008 to 2020 he was the publisher of MacLehose Press, an imprint of

Quercus Books Quercus is a formerly independent publishing house, based in London, that was acquired by Hodder & Stoughton in 2014. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Smith and Wayne Davies. Quercus is known for its lists in crime (publishing such authors as Ell ...

, and in 2021 founded the Mountain Leopard Press, an imprint of the Welbeck Publishing Group.

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), and read history at Worcester College, Oxford University.

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,Anthony Gardner
"Christopher MacLehose: The champion of translated fiction who struck it rich with Stieg Larsson"
, 2010. as well as George MacDonald Fraser of '' Flashman'' fame, who had been the features editor of the ''Glasgow Herald'' when MacLehose was there. MacLehose subsequently became editorial director of

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

, and then editor-in-chief of William Collins. 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 translation and included such titles as

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...

's ''

Dr Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago and deals with love and loss during ...

'', Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's '' The Leopard'',

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...

's '' The Master and Margarita'', Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's '' One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'', and

Peter Høeg Peter Høeg (born 17 May 1957) is a Danish writer of fiction. He is best known for his novel ''Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'' (1992). Early life Høeg was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before becoming a writer, he worked variously as a sailor, ...

's ''

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow ''Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow'' (published in America as ''Smilla's Sense of Snow'') (Danish: ''Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne'') is a 1992 novel by Danish author Peter Høeg tracing the investigation into the suspicious death of a Greenl ...

''. In 1995 MacLehose led a management buy-out of Harvill and for the following seven years characterised the company as "a bridge across cultures", counting among his authors Richard Ford, Raymond Carver,

W. G. Sebald Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...

, José Saramago, Georges Perec, Claudio Magris and

P. O. Enquist Per Olov Enquist, also known as P. O. Enquist, (23 September 1934 – 25 April 2020) was a Swedish author. He had worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist. Biography Enquist was born and raised in , a village in present-day Skellef ...

. In 1992 the company was bought by Random House and two years later MacLehose left. He then set up the MacLehose Press, whose motto is "Read the World", as "an independently minded imprint" of

(itself founded in 2004). The first titles were published in January 2008, and among these was the best-selling psychological thriller '' The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' by Swedish author

. Other international authors published by MacLehose Press include Bernardo Atxaga, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Philippe Claudel, Otto de Kat, Maylis de Kerangal, Virginie Despentes, Joël Dicker,

Sophie Divry Sophie Divry, (born 1979 in Montpellier) is a French writer. Between 2004 and 2010, she was a journalist at the monthly '. Since 2016, she has been a participant on the radio program on France Culture. Works *2010: ''La Cote 400'', Montréal- ...

, Per Olov Enquist,

Roy Jacobsen Roy Jacobsen (born 26 December 1954) is a Norwegian novelist and short-story writer. Born in Oslo, he made his publishing début in 1982 with the short-story collection ''Fangeliv'' (Prison Life), which won Tarjei Vesaas' debutantpris. He is winn ...

, Jaan Kross, Andrey Kurkov, David Lagercrantz, Pierre Lemaitre,

Élmer Mendoza Élmer Mendoza (born 6 December 1949) is a Mexican author. He is one of the key figures in the genre known as narcoliterature. A dramatist and short story writer, he is known above all for his novels, several of which feature the detective Edgar ...

, Patrick Modiano, Marie NDiaye,

Daniel Pennac Daniel Pennac (real name Daniel Pennacchioni, born 1 December 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco) is a French writer. He received the Prix Renaudot in 2007 for his essay '' Chagrin d'école''. Daniel Pennacchioni is the fourth and last son of a Cors ...

Lydie Salvayre Lydie Salvayre (born ''Lydie Arjona'' in 1948) is a French writer. Born in the south of France to Republican refugees from the Spanish Civil War, she went on to study medicine in Toulouse and continues to work as a practicing psychiatrist. She ...

, Żanna Słoniowska, and Valerio Varesi. On 30 October 2020, MacLehose Press announced that MacLehose had chosen to leave the imprint. Associate publisher Katharina Bielenberg took over as publisher. 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, the launch title being

Evelio Rosero Evelio Rosero Diago was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on 20 March 1958. He is a Colombian writer and journalist, who won in 2006 the ''Tusquets Prize''. Evelio Rosero studied primary school in Colombia's southern city of Pasto, and high school in ...

's ''Stranger to the Moon'', translated by Victor Meadowcroft and Anne McLean. 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", MacLehose has said: "When I first came into publishing, there was André Deutsch, Fredric Warburg, Ernest Hecht,

Manya Harari Manya Harari (née Manya Benenson) (8 April 1905 – 24 September 1969)P. J. V. Rolo"Harari , Manya (1905–1969)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2011. was a British translator of ...

George Weidenfeld George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, (13 September 1919 – 20 January 2016) was a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was also a lifelong Zionist and renowned as a master networker. He was on good terms with popes, ...

– 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."

Awards and honours

In 2006 MacLehose received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award for International Publishing. 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 The New Year Honours 2011 were announced on 31 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,New Zealand"New Year Honours 2011"(14 January 2011) 2 ''New Zealand Gazette'' 55. The Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands: Grenada,Grenada: ...

. In 2016, MacLehose was awarded the

Benson Medal The Benson Medal is a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK."The Benson Medal"

by the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(RSL). He was elected an honorary Fellow of the RSL in 2021."Christopher MacLehose"
RSL Fellows, The Royal Society of Literature.

References

External links

MacLehose Press
official website.
"Christopher MacLehose on Editorial Identity Part 1"
an
"Christopher MacLehose on Editorial Identity Part 2"
LiteratureNorthwest, 15 January 2013. YouTube video. * Tom Tivnan
"Quality control helps fiction from afar punch above its weight, says MacLehose"
''The Bookseller'', 27 June 2018.

4 September 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:MacLehose, Christopher Living people 1940 births Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford British book publishers (people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Shrewsbury School Publishers (people) from Edinburgh