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Paul Steiner was born January 1, 1913 in Vienna, Austria, the second son of textile merchant Geza Steiner (1872–1923) and his wife Ilona (née Singer, 1885–1943). Steiner developed an early interest in art, literature, music, and philosophy, particularly the works of Richard Wagner, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Austrian philosopher Egon Friedell, with whom he became acquainted in the mid-1930s. After his father's untimely death, the family suffered financial losses and Steiner, who had originally hoped for a career as a writer, journalist, or philosopher, instead attended a vocational school. He then served as the private secretary for Ernst Benedikt, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Neue Freie Presse, from July 1934 until August 1935, while at the same time publishing articles in that periodical. From 1935-1938, Steiner served as editor-in-chief of Moderne Welt (Modern World), the main magazine published by a small publishing house founded by Steiner's childhood friend, Wolfgang Foges. He also returned to school to study law, after receiving his advanced studies entrance qualification in 1936. Steiner had started to take his final law exams in early 1938, before his studies were interrupted by the Anschluss in March 1938, after which the Moderne Welt publishing house staff was Aryanized and Steiner was told to leave Austria.

Steiner brought his mother to Brussels, where his brother, Franz, already lived, in late 1938, before traveling to London, where he remained for a short time with Wolfgang Foges, who had established the Adprint publishing company in 1937. Steiner then emigrated to Akron, Ohio in February 1939, where he stayed with family members and worked as a roofer and sold vaccuum cleaners. In July 1941, Steiner moved to New York City to establish an American branch of Adprint, called Chanticleer Press. He rented a room with the family of Marianne Esberg (born October 15, 1919, in Braunschweig, Germany). Paul and Marianne were married on February 14, 1942 and their son Tommy was born in May 1943. Steiner received hi sAmerican citizenship in 1945.

When Adprint wanted to sell Chanticleer Press in 1952, Steiner was able to buy the company, with the help of Marianne's brother, Andreas, who was an accountant, and take the business of book publishing international. Soon after, Chanticleer Press started publishing lavish illustrated books, encyclopedias, and "National Audubon Society's Field Guide" and "Pocket Guide" series in the 1970s, and was an innovator in using photographs in what came to be known as the coffee table book. Steiner led Chanticleer Press until he became too ill to do so in the late 1980s. Paul Steiner died March 7, 1993 in New York City.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/11/nyregion/paul-steiner-who-popularized-coffee-table-books-dies-at-83.html

https://www.transatlanticperspectives.org/entry.php?rec=162