Last night Shirley Lord Rosenthal had a dinner for 24 at her East Side duplex for George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, the British publisher (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), and newspaper columnist. Lord Weidenfeld (George to his friends), was born in Vienna in 1919.
When he was 19, in 1938, Hitler made his Anschluss of Austria into Nazi Germany. Being Jewish, and aware of the dangers that lay ahead (his father had already been arrested) he left Austria five months later in late summer. I asked him last night if he had a hard time getting out. He replied that it was the “getting in” that was hard – finding a country who would take him in. Through a relative he was able to get a visa to enter England. Because he was proficient in five languages and the threat of war was heating up, he got a job with the BBC monitoring other radio reports from all over Europe. Three years later he was a political commentator for the BBC and writing a weekly newspaper column. He was also able to get his parents out of Austria.
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| George Weidenfeld, Shirley Lord Rosenthal, Dr. James Watson, and Elizabeth Watson after dinner last night. Lord Weidenfeld arranged for the publication of Watson's "The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix." |
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How he moved so quickly was the result of chance and talent. Talking to him last night, it was easy to see how it happened. His language proficiency and his “foreign” background were the two apparent and important assets. The third was personality. He has a naturally congenial manner and is receptive to a new acquaintance. He obviously likes people and is a natural student, which over a now long lifetime, has brought the gift of friendship.
After the war he was selected by Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel to work as his political adviser and Chief of Cabinet. He was 29 years old, and working along with Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan. The job brought him to New York with Weizmann in 1948/49, to the United Nations to work on establishing a place at the table for Israel. At about that same time, he co-founded a publishing firm in London with Nigel Nicolson, son of Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson, and author of his parents’ relationship, “Portrait of a Marriage.”
In those first years traveling to New York he was able to meet American publishers and make associations with them. Among his early best-sellers was “Lolita.” New York in the 1950s, he recalled for me, was a world where society and the elite entertained at home. The circle of friends and connections was wider than it is today. Social hostesses put a premium on conversation and “interesting” people, so talent – writers and playwrights, painters, actors – had a strong place at the table. Mrs. Cass Canfield, wife of the president of Harper & Bros. (later Harper & Row and now HarperCollins) was known for her hospitality and her scintillating guests.
Although he wouldn’t have said it, and perhaps never considered it, it is obvious, and I’d heard many times before last night, that George Weidenfeld is a brilliant and charming man who is very easy to talk to. Not surprisingly he’s long been much sought as a guest, and made scores of friends and acquaintances along the way. In 1969 he was knighted and in 1976, he was created a Life peer as Baron Weidenfeld of Chelsea. In 2011 he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).
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| Mark Thompson, the new CEO of the New York Times, with George Weidenfeld, at table after dinner. Jill Abramson, the new Editor-in Chief of the New York Times was also at the dinner. |
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In 1985 he expanded his publishing interests to the United States, acquiring Grove Press in partnership with Ann Getty. It has since been sold and merged and is now part of Grove/Atlantic. In 1995 he published “Remembering My Good Friends: An Autobiography” (HarperCollins).
Although he is no longer running a publishing house, evidently he is still active in finding works to publish. In 2005 he arranged the publication of “Mercury & Identity, by John Paul II. His involvement with Israel remains. He’s been Chairman of Ben Gurion University of Negev, a Governor of Tel Aviv University, Governor of the Weizmannn Institute, Vice Chair of the EU Israel Forum, among several interests.
In our conversation last night, I asked him about his experiences during the Second World War and his coming to America, and working for Israel, and the UN. We also touched on the changes in the social life of New York over those decades. He thinks that the “changes” occurred with the Viet Nam War and then with the growing “interest in spectacular wealth” and its display. A forest of orchids filling a dining room for a dinner party, for example, might have replaced the quest for interesting talent and conversation, he said. Mrs. Cass Canfield, he said, wouldn’t have even thought of entertaining her guests with spectacular displays of wealth. He said there are those today who entertain, but only among themselves.
Our hostess last night, Shirley Rosenthal – who has known Lord Weidenfeld for many years – is an excellent example of what he was referring to in recalling a different standard. Her guest list at dinner is populated with writers, editors, socialites, business people and artists. When the main course and dessert was finished, the tables are still occupied with conversation. You come away having got to know someone you may never have met before, and learning something you never knew or never considered. Last night it was for her guest of honor and it was a gift for all of us. |
