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Pelé is presented with the International Football
Book Sword of Honour by Ernest Hecht in 1966
Willard White
Helene Delavault
Normi Noel
Ernest Hecht |
Celebrating the voices which sang the
changes
Ernest Hecht is the champion
of independent publishers, a life-long Arsenal fan and Pelé’s
literary agent, writes Tom Foot
WILLARD White’s tribute to civil rights activist Paul Robeson
heads an extraordinary celebration of “independent voices”
at the Bloomsbury Theatre throughout this week.
The Jamaican-born opera singer joins Liam Clancy, the youngest
member of the Clancy Brothers, Patricio Guzmán’s
award-winning documentary about Chilean Prime Minister Salvador
Allende, cult cabaret artistes Barb Jungr and the star of Peter
Brook’s Carmen, Helene Delavault, and a widely acclaimed
theatrical premiere about combat nurses in Vietnam by Normi
Noel.
The week-long festival marks the 55th anniversary of the independent
publishers, Souvenir Press, founded by the colourful Ernest
Hecht – life-long Arsenal fanatic, champion of independent
publishers and one-time literary agent to Pelé.
Hecht, who fled the Nazis from his homeland then Czechoslovakia
in 1939, is the publisher of five Nobel laureates, including
the great Norwegian pessimist Knut Hamsun and the Chilean poet
Pablo Neruda, but he also specialises in mass-market fiction,
in sports books and has a nice sideline in the arcane and whimsy.
He has assembled an eclectic mix of contemporary artists, paying
tribute to singers like Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson, the Belgian
songwriter Jacques Brel, singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen and
the Australian Eric Bogle, to name but a few.
“Not many people know this about Robeson,” says Hecht
who published the first rock n’ roll biography of the Beatles
before they were big, “but he was a great American football
player.
“People remember him for Old Man River but he was a top
college player as well as a great actor. He made seven English
films when he lived here and played Othello. He had his passport
taken away because he was a communist and spoke 20 languages.
It’s an extraordinary story.”
“But the less well-known guys are really interesting. I
saw Helene Delevault at the Almeida and Sadlers Wells. She had
astonishing reviews – it was real beg or steal for tickets
stuff. It’s her first time back in London for 20 years.”
Willard’s tribute to Robeson is just one of the independent
voices celebrating a bygone era when musicians and artists genuinely
felt they could change the world.
I asked Ernest Hecht, himself a pioneer of free thought as director
of Souvenir Press for 55 years, why it was important to celebrate
the independent voice.
He says: “It is hard to get books published that look at
the minority or publish anything that goes against accepted
wisdom. But by going against that we have had books investigating
mad cow’s disease, getting cancer from pylons and the rock
n’ roll biographies, years before the subjects became big
news. We did early biographies of the Beatles and the Stones
before anyone thought to do it.
“As an independent publisher, you are in charge of your
direction – there are problems but at least no one can
interfere. Even film and music makers are second-guessed by
conglomerates these days – there is so much censorship.”
Hecht might not have been here to tell his story. Fleeing Czechoslovakia
in 1939, he recalls his greatest act of resistance with a wry
smile.
He says: “On the train to England as a young man, I remember
throwing up on one of the Gestapo. My mother must have been
terrified but the man said it was ok because he had children
of his own.”
Eventually settling in Kensington, Mr Hecht set up his successful
publishing company and was able to indulge in his life-long
passion: Arsenal and Brazilian football.
A season ticket holder at Highbury he claims to be the only
Englishman to have seen Brazil lift all three World Cups.
Czech-born Hecht became an unlikely ambassador for Brazilian
football and acted as European literary agent to the legendary
Pelé after the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
He says: “It wasn’t easy getting Pelé good
publicity. Younger readers won’t believe it. But at that
time, Pelé had just been thrown out of the 1962 tournament
and English football fans didn’t want to know about anything
outside of England. That would all change after the 1970 World
Cup of course. Everybody wanted to know about him then.”
Hecht’s passion for football is satisfied by a season ticket
at Arsenal. He goes to every home game, sitting in the directors’
box and is a good friend of Arsenal’s money man David Dein.
But what with his ethical approach to publishing, how does he
feel about Arsenal’s steady shift from football club to
corporate marketing machine?
He says: “I think they have handled it badly. They got
greedy and probably have not treated the fans as they might
have done.”
Hecht has been known to make up tall stories to avoid clashes
with arts events so he can see the real artists at Highbury,
but it is testament to the significance of the evening he has
created that he is willing to miss his beloved Gunners historic
semi final clash with Villarreal to see Liam Clancy, which falls
on the same night.
“I’ve told the theatre to announce the score –
if it’s appropriate,” he says. |
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