Eighty-five years at the crossroads of history
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Miloš Pokorný was born on 22 December 1931 in Prague. While at high school he was interested in English literature but due to political circumstances he decided not to apply to university. Instead, he found a job at the foreign trade enterprise Feromet and later transferred to the Research Institute of Heavy Industry. Following a military service with the 5th Auxiliary Technical Battalion he got employed by the Artia publishing house which he then represented for eight years in negotiations with foreign partners. Faced with growing pressure by the secret police, in 1962 he hadn’t returned from a business trip to London and for reasons of safety went under the name of Martin Heller ever since. In Great Britain he soon found a job with the media tycoon Robert Maxwell. Since 1965 he worked at the British Printing Corporation and five years later he established his own publishing house Orbis. For many years he successfully promoted Czech scientists and artists on the international scene, publishing their books in hundreds of thousands of copies. He established a particularly close collaboration with the photographer Werner Forman; his second wife Barbara Hellerová has since 1978 managed Forman’s photo archive. Miloš Pokorný’s last finished publication which reflected his interest in arts as well as a thorough study of Czech history is the epic Prague Castle: Crossroads of History, published in 2014. The same year his younger daughter Margot Hellerová was awarded the Order of the British Empire for serving the art scene and involving the public in the South London Gallery over which she presides. Miloš Pokorný passed away on 15 October 2016 in London.
