Born in Hungary, Andre Deutsch migrated to England in 1939, and was inspired to become a publisher by a period of internment on the Isle of Mann with Hungarian publisher Ferenc Aldor. He established the firm Allan Wingate in 1945, but resigned as director in 1950, and in 1951 set up the publishing company Andre Deutsch Limited. Deutsch, who had an instinct for books that would have commercial success, recruited a number of North American authors whose books became bestsellers. These included novelists Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and John Updike; he also published the work of V. S. Naipaul and a range of general non-fiction. In 1984 Deutsch sold just over half of his company to Tom Rosenthal; within three years Rosenthal purchased the remainder of the company and Deutsch took no further role in the business.
