14 Facts About Maurice Girodias

Maurice Girodias was a French publisher who founded the Olympia Press, specialising in risque books, censored in Britain and America, that were permitted in France in English-language versions only.

Girodias was born Maurice Kahane in Paris, France, the son of Manchester-born Jack Kahane and a French heiress, Marcelle.

Maurice Girodias's father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.

In 1934, at the age of 15, Maurice Girodias drew the disturbing crab picture seen on the original cover of Tropic of Cancer.

Maurice Girodias seemed unable to grasp the literary merit of the work.

However, Maurice Girodias lost this share when he failed to pay Nabokov on time for the French royalties.

Maurice Girodias used to reprint the successful works of some authors under another imprint belonging to him without the knowledge of the respective authors, in order to avoid giving them royalties for new editions.

Maurice Girodias consistently ran into difficulties with the authorities throughout his career.

Maurice Girodias's books were published in the United States under the Olympia Press, Traveller's Companion and Ophelia Press imprints.

Maurice Girodias was probably ruined because of collusion amongst French, American, and British authorities.

In 1974 Maurice Girodias published President Kissinger using the Venus Freeway imprint, a controversial work of science fiction by numerous authors offering a dream of socialism starring Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Maurice Girodias, it is said, was set up by the authorities in a phony drug deal and invited to leave the country.

Maurice Girodias tended not to pay his writers, if he could avoid it, not to document his work, or even live up to his contracts.

Maurice Girodias was involved in litigation concerning Lolita, Candy, The Ginger Man, Stradella and O, among other works.