Jonathan Ball (credit: Jonathan Ball Publishers)
“Jonathan Ball filled my life with joy.” This is one of the best things I have read about Jonathan, written by a friend and fellow publisher, Kerneels Breytenbach, who opens his piece in the tribute we will be publishing later this year with these words.
It has caused me to think that he filled the world with so much more, and then there was also the incredible joy. A great deal of it was his life so well lived. This is a man who made his mark on the world.
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It is hard to imagine, for me at the very least, a world in which Jonathan is not here. He worked in publishing for 50 years, and his web of friendships, of authors, of publishers, of books published reaches into every conceivable corner of this country.
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It is hard to imagine, for me at the very least, a world in which Jonathan is not here. He worked in publishing for 50 years, and his web of friendships, of authors, of publishers, of books published reaches into every conceivable corner of this country. Jonathan was sometimes despondent about the influence of books and ideas in South Africa, and worried that it all came to naught. This was not a matter of ego; he was surprisingly modest about his achievements.
Towards the end of last year, he stepped out for a rare lunch with a friend. Jonathan phoned me that afternoon to tell me the story. They sat at the bar counter of a restaurant at the top of Kloof Street in Cape Town and took a drink before going to their table. They were sitting there when he overheard, “That’s Jonathan Ball, the famous publisher.” When he told me this, he chortled with laughter. “She must be the only person in South Africa who knows who I am.” And he meant it.
Jonathan started Jonathan Ball Publishers in 1976. The first iteration of the company would eventually end up in a joint venture with Hodder & Stoughton, the then family-owned business, and resulted in Jonathan’s departure. There were many reasons for it ending this way, but one of the underlying ones was simply that Jonathan had been constrained in his publishing. He would not abide a world where you could not publish exactly as you pleased, of course within the confines of decency and, well, the law.
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He would not abide a world where you could not publish exactly as you pleased, of course within the confines of decency and, well, the law.
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Reading the many obituaries of the last fortnight, I have found that the one thing that comes through repeatedly is that he thought for himself. Jonathan was a liberal in the proper sense of the word and held that ideal closest to his identity.
This is why so many were surprised when Jonathan sold the second iteration of Jonathan Ball Publishers – he had restarted the company and bought back his name and catalogue after the failed joint venture – to Naspers. It was not an easy deal to do, and, ahead of doing it, Jonathan discussed it with Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Helen Suzman. There were others. He argued that, once again, South Africa was changing, and that there were many books that needed to be published; this was a commercial relationship that would guarantee it. The deal ultimately gave Jonathan his editorial freedom.
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But really, in the end, Jonathan filled the world with ideas – a midwife and publisher – and whether he recognised it or not, his influence has reached and will continue to reach into every corner of intellectual life in this country.
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For the next 30 years, Jonathan could publish what he liked. The shrewd commercial decisions he made along the way increasingly shored up the company. His reputation rests almost entirely on the books he published – yes, and the many lunches he had, and the joy of those encounters. But really, in the end, Jonathan filled the world with ideas – a midwife and publisher – and whether he recognised it or not, his influence has reached and will continue to reach into every corner of intellectual life in this country.
Jonathan Ball, the publisher, died on 3 April 2021 at his home in Cape Town. He was with his stepchildren, Belinda, Jamie and Jono.
- Eugene Ashton, Jonathan Ball Publishers
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