Life Before Letters

A child of the Second World War, Peter Weidhaas could only find home by running away from the authoritarian culture into which he had been born. His early years on the road as a hitchhiker in Europe, the first loves of his life and his youthful exploits in Europe and South America, on to his initial encounters with the world of publishing from book dealing to bookbinding to book design and exhibitions set him down the twisting path to his future as Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair and one of the most important cultural figures in Europe. "Life Before Letters" is the story of how a man confronted his past by writing his future.


In his 25 year term as Director of The Frankfurt Book Fair (1975-2000), Peter Weidhaas introduced potent themes and championed unsung nations at the Book Fair. Since then, the annually alternating Guest of Honor appearances of diverse countries around the world have become an important tradition at The Frankfurt Book Fair. In the 1990s, Weidhaas founded the German Book Information Centers (BIZs) in Moscow, and Novosibirsk, Russia, as well as in Warsaw. Poland and Bucharest, Romania. A short while later, these were followed by the German Book Office in New York and a new BIZ in Beijing, China.