American publisher Blanche Wolf Knopf (1894-1966) shaped American literary tastes with her active interest in emerging literary trends and figures. Some of her notable successes included the publication of authors of the Harlem Renaissance, such as the poet Langston Hughes, as well as the promotion of European works by figures such as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

As an active partner in her husband's publishing company, Alfred A. Knopf, Blanche Wolf Knopf introduced the American reading public to the best of new European, Latin American, and African American literature. Her formidable publishing talents included not only a keen business sense and an eye for talent, but also a commitment to providing valuable personal and financial support to promising writers. Some of her most notable editorial relationships were with the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes and French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir. Knopf's greatest publishing coup was bringing...