Kurt Wolff

Who was Kurt Wolff?

Kurt Wolff was a German publisher, editor, writer and journalist.

Wolff was born in Bonn, Rhenish Prussia; his mother came from a Jewish-German family. Together with Ernst Rowohlt he began to work in publishing in Leipzig in 1908. He was the first to promote and publish the authors Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel. Wolff's close contact to other writers in Prague and the support for unknown, but talented writers, helped him develop Kafka's friends, Max Brod and Felix Weltsch who were more well known in Berlin and Germany. In 1929, Wolff published the photography book Face of our Time by August Sander. In 1941 Wolff and his wife Helen left Germany and with the assistance of Varian Fry immigrated to New York City. Later in Munich, Florence, and the United States, Wolff tried to develop different publishing houses. In the U.S., he and wife Helen founded Pantheon Books in 1942, which became famous. He died in Marbach.

The Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize is named in honor of him and his wife.