Peter Keckeis
Peter Keckeis (born December 21, 1920 in Basel , † March 25, 2007 in Küsnacht ) was a Swiss publisher .
life and work
Peter Keckeis was the son of the Basel-born bookseller, writer and publishing director Gustav Keckeis (1884–1967) and Regina, née Barth.
After the Second World War , Keckeis was part of the Catholic left-wing intellectual circles of the “Alpbach Friends” around the Austrian publisher Fritz Molden .
Together with his colleagues and fellow campaigners such as Otto F. Walter , Friedrich Witz , Martin Hürlimann , Max Haupt, Bruno Mariacher and Carl Ludwig Lang, Keckeis managed to regain attention and recognition for Swiss publishers beyond the borders of the country.
Within a short period of time, Keckeis expanded the Benziger publishing house from a Catholic-oriented universal publisher to a prominent company for contemporary Swiss literature and systematically established contacts with new authors, but also with booksellers, literary agents, translators and editors.
Keckeis was the first publisher to publish the early crime novels by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the books by Clemens Mettler , Kuno Raeber and Walter Matthias Diggelmann . Keckeis paved the way for many Scandinavian authors such as Per Olof Sundman , Eyvind Johnson and Dea Trier Mørch to become German-speaking readers.
From 1975 Keckeis was a publisher and business member of Huber & Co. AG in Frauenfeld . He was also able to hire interesting authors for this publisher. So published u. a. Alfred A. Häsler , Jeanne Hersch , Arthur Honegger , Gertrud Wilker and Laure Wyss have their books there from now on. After leaving Huber & Co. AG in 1984, Keckeis u. a. works for the book publisher of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung .
In collaboration with Ernst Scheidegger , Keckeis also brought much acclaimed art books a. a. via Willy Guggenheim , Wilfried Moser , Hans Erni and Félix Vallotton .
Keckeis worked for years on the "history of the European children's book". It should be his real life's work.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles Linsmayer : Gustav Keckeis. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ^ Hansrudolf Frey: Obituary for Peter Keckeis. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch . Retrieved April 29, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Keckeis, Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss publisher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 25, 2007 |
| Place of death | Küsnacht |