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Penguin Press editor Stuart Proffitt has responded to the death of his author the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, calling working on the former politician’s books "exceptionally demanding but also exceptionally rewarding".
Kissinger’s death at the age of 100 was announced on Thursday 30th November.
Kissinger served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Though acknowledged as a giant among statesmen, his record was highly controversial, not least in relation to US actions in Cambodia and Chile.
Proffitt said: “Henry Kissinger was one of the most consequential American figures in the second half of the 20th century, whose influence continued into the 21st. But we remember him here as a writer and historian, the author of 18 books from A World Restored, his brilliant analysis of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, to Leadership: Six Studies In World Strategy published last year when he was 99.
"His books combine a deep understanding of history (before his public career he was a professor of history at Harvard) with penetrating analysis of the dynamics of power, and, very often, lessons from his own experience of diplomacy at the highest levels. Working with him on his last three – On China, World Order and Leadership–was exceptionally demanding, but also exceptionally rewarding, a unique experience.
"Our editorial discussions, in recent years mostly on long Zoom calls, generally began with his tour d’horizon of world affairs at that moment and then we settled down to the text. Even at that age he was totally engaged, but also confiding and funny, and it was not difficult to see why in public life he had been such a peerless diplomat. At the end he was still looking to the past and contemplating another book of history and diplomacy, but also thinking about the future in the world of AI. Quite extraordinary.”
Kissinger’s books have sold nearly 75,000 copies for a value of £1.1m via the UK TCM during the BookScan era. 2014’s World Order has been the biggest seller, shifting 34,000 copies for £406,000.