French publisher Alain Gründ dies, aged 83

French publisher Alain Gründ has died, aged 83. 

Gründ, who passed away on 14th July, ran Editions Gründ until he sold it to Editis in 2007 and was president of SNE (the French Publishers Association) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), where he consolidated the group’s structure by giving it statutes and professionalising the presence of publishers in Brussels.

Gründ later became president of the International Publishers’ Association from 1996 onwards and then of the International Bureau of French Publishing.

The director of the FEP, Anne Bergman-Tahon, said she remembered “a man devoted to the cause of books, particularly to fixed book price and copyright". She said: "Alain Gründ laid the foundations of the FEP which, more than 30 years later, remains the voice of European publishers in Brussels and Strasbourg. On behalf of the colleagues of the FEP, our board and in a personal capacity, I salute a personality who has marked our sector and contributed to its recognition. We offer our deepest condolences to his wife and family."

Richard Charkin of Mensch Publishing also paid tribute, recalling Gründ’s role as an active member of the advisory board of the Frankfurt Book Fair. “He was quite silent for most of the meetings but would then pop up with what can only be described a ‘le mot juste’,” he said. 

“We shall all miss his verve, his sly sense of humour and his presence at book fairs and wherever international publishing was being discussed.”