Peter Mayer, one of the British publishing giants of the late 20th century, stepped in last night with all his old flair to save independent publisher Gerald Duckworth.

After three transatlantic trips in 10 days, the former head of Penguin Books, now a US publisher, announced that he had bought the assets and goodwill of the 105-year-old company - one of the few independents left in Britain - and would inject new capital to help it thrive.

Duckworth, publisher of luminaries from Virginia Woolf, and DH Lawrence to Antony Powell and Beryl Bainbridge, was put into administration last month after a sales collapse and chronic cash flow crisis.

In negotiations with its administrators, Tenon Recovery, Mayer beat one other main bidder after nine original applicants were narrowed down.

He said he would aim to con tinue the firm's "inspirational echoes" of great authors and the traditions of its admired Greek and Roman classics list.

"I think the past need not be the dead past", he added. "If we get it right, with new books, the past can be a beacon for the future." Invoking his reputation with a touch of pride, Mayer, 66, said: "I think I have some background preserving what is valuable in Britain."

Mayer, a US citizen but born in Hampstead and educated at Oxford, earned his reputation as the golden boy credited with stabilising, developing and possibly saving Penguin during a rocky period following the death of its founder, Sir Allen Lane, in 1970.

Chief executive from 1978 to 1996, he is regarded as having introduced structural changes which gave it a more flexible style.

Mayer bought Duckworth in association with the company he and his father founded in 1971, Overlook Press, of New York.