The fall of a publishing legend -
Author and publisher David Davidar’s scandalous exit from Penguin puts a question mark on the publishing giant’s future success.
Livemint.com

 Soon after David Davidar’s second novel The Solitude of Emperors came out in 2007, Penguin India hosted an evening for the author at the Oberoi, Mumbai. The author read from his book in front of an audience that included ad men, authors, actors, aspiring writers, journalists and socialites. The first few reviews of the book had been out; none of the critics was astounded. The questions for Davidar, then CEO of Penguin International in Canada, after the reading veered towards not his own work, but others’. “Are you a better publisher than a writer?” someone asked. He wasn’t surprised. It is, of course, true that Davidar is a better publisher than he is a novelist.

The scandalous end to Davidar’s 25-year stint with Penguin last week, with a court case accusing him of sexual harassment, is tragic. He is one of the publishing world’s sharpest CEOs. He makes authors. As one of the founders of Penguin India and later as its captain, Davidar launched authors who changed perceptions about how India writes. Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Vikram Chandra, Kiran Desai, Shobhaa De, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Suketu Mehta—possibly all the names that altered the canvas of Indian fiction in English were Davidar’s finds.
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Footnote:
The Bookman is greatly saddened by this story. Way back during my Penguin NZ days I called in on Penguin India in New Delhi on my way to visit Penguin Books in the UK. David Davidar had just been appointed to the post as head of the new company and my London-based boss thought it would be helpful if I spent a week with him as we had recently strated publishing in NZ. It was a wonderful experience and I was greatly impressed with the new man.