2018 Frankfurt Book Fair

Last week I was bedazzled by the masses of people and hundreds of thousands of books at the Frankfurt Book Fair, reputed as the biggest book fair in the world. Six huge buildings located at the Messe exhibition grounds were packed with booths of publishers from all over the world. On the first day of the Book Fair it took me at least half an hour to locate Adelaide Books, the publisher of my memoir, The Speed of Dark. I found Stevan Nikolic, head of Adelaide Books, conversing with another publisher about obtaining and releasing foreign rights for my and other books he has published.

Although Adelaide Books was already publishing my memoir in Spanish (release date, December 12) and Portuguese (release date, January 10), as well as, of course, in English (updated hardcover version and ebook release date, December 2), I was excited about the possibility of my memoir gaining a greater foothold outside of the United States. I hoped that one or two additional countries might publish my memoir, which would make the trip a resounding success. After all, my memoir is about my development as a first-generation American scientist with French and Russian parents famous in the arts who narrowly escaped Europe the week France and England entered the world war. That seems international to me!

Adelaide Books displayed my memoir in grand style! The Speed of Dark lined the top two rows of shelves of the booth and an impressive poster promoting my book towered over me. This larger than life-size poster consisted of the cover image of the memoir, my name and the title given in ten languages. What a wonderful entry into the world stage of publishing for a research scientist turned author!

Another equally tall poster about Adelaide Books stood beside the one promoting my book. The middle of the poster stated:

We Don’t Publish

Classics

We Make

Classics

Oh yes, a concise statement of my own inclinations. Don’t jump aboard bandwagons (the craze at the moment) to follow the masses; rather, breathe life into dormant bandwagons, bring to attention hidden treasures of all sorts – esoteric possibilities, obscure ideas and neglected corners. Don’t fear failure; experiment until it works. This was my goal as a scientist when I studied the little-known eye lens of scallops and jellyfish, which few even knew had eyes, as models for gene expression and evolution.

Stevan Nikolic, editor of Adelaide Books

“Joram, hi,” said Stevan, when I arrived at his booth. “We’re off to a good start. A publisher in Turkey wants to publish your memoir.”

That was fast!

As the Book Fair progressed, Stevan consulted with many more foreign publishers. Four days later at the end of the Fair, some half dozen additional countries expressed strong interest in publishing my memoir, exceeding my expectations.

Many fascinating books caught my eye as I toured the booths of traditional and independent publishers. Although the large traditional publishers presented a potpourri of wonderful books (if only I had time to read more of them), most were by or about well-known celebrities. By contrast, I was impressed with the diversity of books at the independent publishers, which suggested a freedom and curiosity reminiscent of my life as a research scientist probing new areas. For example, Adelaide Books published poetry, essays, short stories, and novels, each interesting, written by authors expressing and testing themselves, some young, others aging. The boundaries were porous; the focus was quality. I sensed a love for writing rather than a quest for money and fame. I was happy to have my memoir included.

On the last day of the Book Fair, I signed copies of my memoir for interested readers. Shortly after all the books were given away and I was on my way out, one of the women who had my memoir came running up to me.

“Oh, I’m glad I caught you before you left,” she said. “I want to thank you so much for the memoir.”

Book signing kept me busy!

Flattered, I replied, “It’s I who thanks you for your interest.”

“I paged through the book quickly and saw you’re a molecular biologist. So am I!” she said.

As I remember, she did research on immunology, but the exact subject doesn’t matter. I suddenly realized the importance of writing who I am. I knew this, of course, and have always done so, but to see its rewards in a stranger in a foreign country in the midst of so many books by distinguished authors drove home the importance of being authentic and valuing heart as much as head.

The Book Fair itself was a spectacular event. Food and drink stands littered the grounds, and individuals masqueraded as characters from books and movies created a carnival-like environment. My wife Lona and I went site-seeing when we had a chance. We saw magnificent old master paintings at the Städel Museum, hopped on and off free trains to get around town, and took taxis, which responded rapidly to calls from the My Taxi app. An impressive site in the old district was a book stall for anyone to take and/or give a book to read – an open library of sorts with no charge for convenience. We also had our mishaps. There was the unfortunate occasion when the taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong address and we walked in circles for about an hour searching for the Jewish Museum that we discovered eventually was closed for renovation. You can’t win them all!

Traffic-free areas of downtown Frankfurt were packed with shops of all types from different countries, some with eye-catching, imaginative ads, making Frankfurt resemble an international world fair. We went to the atmospheric and crowded Wacker Kaffee that was recommended by Lona’s friend Anja, drank coffee and munched on delicious pastries. We took a short tourist boat cruise along the Main river. The modern skyscrapers, industry and infrastructure reconstructed after the war belied Frankfurt’s extensive history, which has the personal weight for me of being the Judengasse home of my great-great-great grandfather, Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 -1812), the founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

Lona and books in Frankfurt

In the last evening, we were privileged to see an extraordinary performance of Puccini’s Tosca, which started precisely at 6 p.m. on the dot in the modern opera house at Willy Brandt Platz in the center of Frankfurt am Main. Interestingly, only two arias were applauded during the performance, rather than the many interruptions after arias as I was used to. However, this did not reflect less appreciation. I felt it as respect for the artists to not interfere with the continuity of the opera. After the opera, I stood with the appreciative audience, who gave a heart-felt ovation of applause, bravos and with numerous call-backs. It was a moving experience.

With immersion for the first time in international publishing with the support of Adelaide Books in Frankfurt, where my Rothschild lineage began, made this experience a lasting memory.

 

It was refreshing to see many young readers at the fair.