It was very sad news indeed for me to learn that my old friend and author Dominique Lapierre, of Freedom at Midnight (1975) fame in the Subcontinent, is no more. He passed away peacefully in France on December 4 at the age of 91.

I vividly recall my professional encounter with Mr Dominique Lapierre and his wife Aliette Spitzer in the year 1974-75 when they visited India to find a dynamic publisher to take up the work of ‘Freedom at Midnight' for publication in India and the sub-continent. 

While researching to finalize a truly enterprising publisher for his unusual work on the history of India’s partition, he chanced upon the young and bold publisher Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, run by a team of bright and new editors and marketing professionals headed by the charismatic Narendra Kumar and its founder and Managing Director of UBS Publishers,  C M Chawla. The team was making waves in the Indian publishing scene during the mid-70s and they were unstoppable in many ways. 

In Dominique’s own words, “The moment I entered the office of Vikas, I was overwhelmed with the sound and heated discussions of many editors and authors working in many rooms before I entered the cabin of Mr Narendra Kumar. I knew that my book has to be published and promoted here only.” He was very happy to feel the energetic atmosphere at Vikas’ office and see its super talented team, he told me many times. 

Creating publishing history

Thus, the deal of publishing his book was sealed with Vikas, which was soon going to create publishing history. As soon as his book was published in India (it was part of a worldwide release in many editions and in many languages), Dominique Lapierre landed in Delhi with a programme to tour and promote the book across India. 

Luckily, I was associated with him for this job.  Several meetings and discussions followed with Dominique Lapierre and his secretary on how to proceed with promoting the book to make it popular and a super seller. As a young man of 25, I followed his marketing technique while visiting bookshops, book distributors and others. He was a godsend to me, and as a quick learner I picked up all his ideas and body language in promoting trade books. 

While visiting each bookshop, Dominique made sure to meet the right salesman and would proceed to hug him with a big smile and ask his secretary to take a photograph of them, which would motivate the salesman to sell his book more. A copy of the coloured photograph would be taken out there and then for the salesman and duly autographed by the author. When we told him that they should meet the owner of the bookshop, Dominique would say that he needs to motivate the salesman and not the owner. 

"The owner will be busy counting his daily collections. The salesman will be busy selling his books to the customer", was his response. It was a great lesson in marketing that a young man like me got to know. 

'Five suitcases' of research material 

Another incident I recall was when the book was being launched at the India International Centre in New Delhi one evening. The auditorium could barely take 350 guests. By the time we reached IIC, there were hundreds of cars parked all over the place. We thought these visitors were there for some marriage function. As we tried to enter the auditorium, we found over a thousand people waiting outside the hall and there was no way of getting inside. So we were taken by security through the rear entrance of the auditorium to start the launch ceremony.  

In his remarks, to convey the sense of the amount of research he had put into the book, in travelling, collating material from different sources and archives, Dominique simply put it like this -- that he has more than "five suitcases" of research material collected for the book. The listeners were stunned at this fact. He was a great orator. He was sincere and honest in his statements, always appeared very simple, and occasionally brought surprises to the audience. 

Within two days of that function, the book became an instant superseller all over the world, including in India. 

The present edition of Freedom at Midnight is in its 36th edition since 1975. 

 He was the author of numerous other literary successes, including 'The City of Joy', 'Is Paris Burning',  'Oh! Jerusalem' and “The Fifth Horseman,” some with co-author Larry Collins. 

A big salute to the great author, and a wonderful human being.  

(The writer is a veteran publisher and entrepreneur. Views are personal. He can reached at kpr.nair@konarkpublishers.com)