Moghilev-Podolski, Ukraine, then Bessarabia, 1912 — Rio de Janeiro, 2000

 

Publisher

 

Arrived in Rio as a child, got his first job selling umbrellas and later became a well-known bookseller and publisher, first his brother-in-law Nathan Weissman’s partner at Livraria Editora Guanabara, and later as proprietor of Editora Delta. He began publishing medical literature in Portuguese and was the first to launch a collection of works by Sigmund Freud, translated by Brazilian specialists. In the field of fiction he started off with modern French authors, and later launched Coleção Nobel, organized by another exile, Paulo Rónai, bringing together the most important works by Nobel laureates for literature. In association with Larousse, he filled the Brazilian market with the first encyclopaedias, assisted by the philologist, diplomat and friend, Antônio Houaiss, of Lebanese origin.

 

He attributed to his mother Berta the suggestion to publish Stefan Zweig, whom she knew from reading the Jewish-American journal Forward (in Yiddish, Forverts). However he wasn’t the first to publish Zweig in Brazil; the first rights were bought (but not paid for) by the literary agent Zoran Ninitch, and the few works he managed to publish are considered “bootleg”.

 

When, in 1936, Zweig said that he intended to visit Rio on the way to the International Congress of PEN Clubs in Buenos Aires, Koogan managed to get the federal government to make the stopover an official visit. The triumphant 12-day stay opened up the path for successive editions of Zweig’s complete works and he became Brazil’s bestselling foreign author. The luxury bound collection of 20 volumes of the Edição Uniforme das Obras de Stefan Zweig was reprinted continuously for five decades (1938-1978).

 

As well as Zweig’s publisher, Koogan was his friend, advisor, power of attorney and the executor of his will. In 1940, when the author left England in a hurry to write a book about Brazil, he offered him support and contacts. After the book was published, with the Zweigs’ decision to return to Brazil in 1941, he suggested they settle in Petrópolis. His interviews of Zweig are quoted in the writer’s most important biographies. In 1992 he donated his vast archive of letters, documents and photos to the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro.

 

Address listed: 73 Rua Paissandu, Rio. Tel. 25-8519