Carol Brown Janeway

Died: August 3, 2015.

The translator and publisher Carol Brown Janeway, who has died in New York aged 71, was a much trusted and respected figure in Manhattan publishing, holding senior executive posts with the renowned house of Knopf Doubleday for 45 years. She had specialist knowledge in the complex legal formalities in buying the rights of books and also wrote well-received historical novels.

But it was her remarkable facility with languages that made her a unique figure in publishing. Ms Janeway was fluent in seven languages and principally recognised for her incisive translations of modern German literature, notably Lothar-Günther Buchheim's Das Boot, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Thomas Bernhard's My Prizes.

Jonathan Segal, a colleague at Knopf, said, "Carol could recognise quality in a heartbeat, as many editors can, but she could do it in French and German as well as English. She was a master negotiator when it came to selling our books to other publishers."

Carol Janet Brown was born in Edinburgh the daughter of a well-known accountant RGA Brown. She attended St George's School in the capital where she displayed a keen aptitude for modern languages. Indeed when accepting an award in New York recently she praised her school and education. "It was" she said, "responsible for my success as a translator."

Ms Janeway then studied modern and medieval languages at Girton College, Cambridge graduating with a first. She worked for a London literary agent before moving to New York in 1970 to join Knopf Doubleday.

In New York it was her intellect that marked Ms Janeway out. Authors responded to her honest, wise (and often witty) first analysis of their works. Her comments and suggestions were always constructive and balanced and over the years she built up an enormous trust with the authors she represented.

Ms Janeway translated books from Hungarian, Austrian, French, Yiddish and Dutch and brought to them all a clear understanding of the original. She demonstrated a vivid grasp of how best to capture the flavour and atmosphere of the original text. She also had an instinct for using the right word – whether normal or slang – that suited the context. She introduced English authors to American readers and strongly supported the Scottish author George MacDonald Fraser (best known for The Flashman novels) who attended Glasgow Academy and was on the staff of The Glasgow Herald in the Sixties.

Schlink's The Reader (Der Vorleser) was, arguably, her most acclaimed translation - requiring an exacting tact. The novel is an intriguing parable set in post-war Germany and tells of how contemporary Germans had to come to terms with the Holocaust. Ms Janeway's translation was widely acclaimed and it became the first German book to top the New York Times book list. Stephen Daldry directed the 2008 film with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes.

Somehow Ms Janeway found the time and the energy to write fiction of exceptional quality. She was an outstanding wordsmith and spun a yarn with a beguiling ease. Her novels involved the audience and the characters were at once lively and human.

But it is her immense contribution to international literature for which many in the publishing world will remember her. She introduced English-language readers to a host of contemporary authors that may never have been read outside their native land. Ms Janeway did not avoid controversial works and translated from the German the Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai's novel Embers which enquires into past friendships.

Ms Janeway's first marriage was dissolved and her second husband, Erwin Gilkes, predeceased her.

ALASDAIR STEVEN