Bibliofile
How Amitav Ghosh's new agent <i >almost</i> killed one of the oldest—and most touching—author-publisher partnerships in India...and more on friendships, alcohol and publishing.
Another old friendship in the publishing world, this time over 40 years old, is that between Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta and Rupa's R.K. Mehra. Rupa's proprietor was acquainted with Sonny's father, a former UK high commissioner, but they were re-introduced to each other in London by one of Sonny's many discoveries: Salman Rushdie. This was in 1983, four years before Sonny moved to Knopf. Now we know why the first 5,000 copies of what was deemed to be the publishing windfall of the year, Bill Clinton's My Life, went to Rupa.
With David Davidar gone to head Penguin Canada, one tradition has almost vanished: the bohemian lunch, where the publisher wooed an author with generous glasses of wine. Just how important alcohol is for sealing those literary contracts was demonstrated when Sonny joined Knopf 17 years ago: one of the first things he did was to reinstal the office cocktail cabinet.