The “Pleiades” refers to several groups of poets, chess players, mountaineers, Chinese scholars. The Pleiades are also mythological heroines transformed into stars. All this grouped by September La Pléiade Gallimard is a collection of books, and this is also a case in publishing history.
With its reputation for excellence, editorial and literary, it affirms the value of what it publishes, and even manufactures of value; with ten or twelve volumes a year, it is producing literature, as well as the creators themselves – and reduced under his file the differences that opposed them. The authors included in his circle, it is constantly expanding to new individuals by academics to convene for editing, it defines heritage; while at the same time, the editorial work of discovery of new authors in preparing future extension. This is the result of the triple-creator editor-university alliance: according Queneau, it draws authority the list of “authors of the desert island”
“. The provincial notary “
This collection, called” library “” admiration library “ (Malraux), and not coincidentally, started out as rich pocket book, which has the means to save money: it brought together in a single volume several books for less expensive than retail. The idea goes back to Jacques Schiffrin (1931), which made her purchase by Gallimard two years later, to continue to lead it. Although José Corti had claimed in his “Memories disordered,” that as soon as 1928, he had conceived the project unfinished for lack of money:
We saw paper manufacturers, we encountered one or two printers, a bookbinder. Was there talk, the idea, as they say, was it in the air, I never cleared up, or even sought to clarify this point. The fact is that less than two years later, Schiffrin launched his own collection he baptized. The Pleiades
Since this grouping principle ( “All in Racine pocket “, said an advertising 1932) was postponed by Gallimard in Quarto collection for the benefit of Pléiade volumes enriched by a greater critical apparatus. Similarly, once reserved to the French domain, add the White collection has expanded to the world literature, philosophy, the founding texts, religions, anthologies … View the volume of “Gnostic writings” … His drive is a two-faced Janus: academic anxious to find a text credible, and the “provincial notary,” also said “honest man” …
In the library “Moving” (Lyon), we say both that “if it is the provincial notary who buys the Pleiades, so he rejuvenated, and / or has changed jobs” , and “The collection has grown, and open to contemporary writers. It now affects an age that goes twenty-five to forty-five years. The lover of literature rather than the bourgeois. “
This probably explains that sales of the correspondence of Flaubert (5 volumes) are gone descending without his literary interest falter at all … Even the honest man is tired – and turns over to the new funds: we wanted to have the thirteen volumes of the Correspondence of Voltaire, one wants more. That’s the honest one, for money, we agreed to the incongruous presence of Jacques Prévert, Boris Vian, and soon Jean Ormesson – who dared not hope that “French Nobel “, as he says: ” I think it made me more pleasure than the Academy “ . Eric Chevillard provided that it is judged later: “His ridiculous novels were turned into masterful works.” We never lose sight that the best sales are those of Saint-Exupéry (340 000) , Proust (his Volume I: 250 000), or Camus (218,000), and not Chénier (not reprinted) or Monluc (id.)
Public or private vice?
Some are surprised that this “academy” this “sanctuary” this “imaginary museum” mainly French authors, not expired at the state, the Academy, but private. They hold that the Pleiades is a “public service” . Is, for Hugues Pradier, its current director?
Off. This is a collection that does not follow any duty, unlike a public service, but responds to our desire. We do not feel the need to fill gaps. It is a heavy, long and expensive work, we have to wish to undertake, and which is to last as a Pleiad lives forty years on average.
Aristotle has just been published, which was planned for forty-five … Homer was present from the beginning of the collection, but not Virgil, and we talked about gap. Virgil will come out in March, because we finally found translators and annotators that will make us a Virgil to our liking.
This design, that of a publishing professional with its strategy, compromise, his failures and success, with his extreme discretion justifies all the biases, hesitations The about-face, zig-zag, and cuts short any “claim” (Hugo incomplete, Malherbe not reprinted as ten authors). “Sometimes says Pradier, we declare the Hardcover edition because we intend to do it again; we left Casanova missed for years, and redid when this was possible. “
The real thinker of the Pleiades has always been a Gallimard and there was even talk in 1996 Antoine Gallimard directs alone. The house has a clear vision of the Library of the Pleiades (enriched albums, diaries and a “Letter” to subscribers), yet each author, each volume are case: here complete works, then extracts (“Works” or “Romans”, which means choices, sometimes drastic, as in the case of Simenon or Ramuz, or “theater” or “Poetry”), a correspondence here, there a anthology; Here is engaged university alone, there a team; for such an author, little or no critical apparatus to another, a considerable amount of notes and variants.
Few living authors, but exceptions (Gide, Jaccottet, Green), the most notable was Saint-John Perse, who composed his own volume, his measure and will, disguising the truth as he saw fit. And things can change: Henri Godard (Celine editions, Malraux, Queneau, Cocteau) says:
Volume 1 Celine already existed and contained the first two novels. Learning that I was preparing a thesis on him, Pierre Buge learned about me with my supervisor and told me Volume 2, the last three novels, which was well received; So he gave me another appointment for, I thought, confide intermediate novels. It does not matter because they “had not found their audience.”
But he offered to redo the Volume 1, in scientific publishing. What I did. And it was only seven or eight years after that I was asked intermediate novels meantime, Celine won seats in the literary opinion. And as I had found a mass of unpublished documents, I could split the Volume 3. so that there are four volumes, but that do not follow chronological order.
While the public service requires, Pradier has. We discuss, we negotiate. Including the size of the critical apparatus. At first, a preface enough. Then, variations in notes, under the leadership of Pierre Buge the penultimate director, he has swollen like the frog in the fable. A volume became three, three became five (see Nerval, Proust) and non-academic buyers, who do most of the public were overwhelmed … Protests, praise, more or less bitter exchanges between specialists, between readers and editor. (Claude-Michel Cluny who writes in “Le Figaro” on the fifteen hundred pages of a volume, there was “hundred and fifty interesting” !)
Sizes, templates and protocols
What’s successor Buge, Jacques Cotin, responded by restrictive measures, reinforced by Hugues Pradier. But these measures are of a very flexible application: Jules Verne published practically no critical apparatus (one feels the high esteem in which he held); conversely, Lautréamont and Villon, whose works were a too thin volume were enriched with an almost artificially, the first of a set of texts concerning the reception of the work, the second by “reading Villon “signed by various authors; Antoine Compagnon but when he realized the edition of “Sodom and Gomorrah” Proust had to give two-thirds of sketches and variants he had discovered, on which he had worked: “This was very frustrating, “, he said today bitterly. But his power is still made up of 173 pages of sketches, in small type, 76 manual pages (itself very annotated), and 366 pages of notes and variants: either 615 pages
“Between my three volumes Sade [1990-1998], and Diderot [2004-2010], says Michel Delon, j ‘ felt that the strain grew heavier. “ Bertrand Marchal, head of two volumes of Mallarmé, known to have received exceptional privileges, obtaining that publishes up to four versions of the same poem. “It has more to Mallarmé to me! It enjoys a special status … “ Mallarmé is a good example of hesitation:
Commercial Gallimard wanted to limit the size of critical devices and make Pleiades the regime … Antoine Gallimard agreed to redo a second Pleiades Mallarmé, a single volume, as the first of 1951, which was already 1700 pages. But given the documents found in the meantime, it was unfeasible
Solidaire, Yves Bonnefoy has tucked a beautiful long letter to Antoine Gallimard, on the theme. This is Mallarme, And still … the principle of the two volumes was acquired. Hugues Pradier says:
The size of a critical commentary on the text is not fixed: it would be too stringent, and we do not endorse Aristotle as Marcel Ayme. But we spend an agreement with the editor, who is committed to working in a range of signs discussed in each volume. It is clear that it is the high end of the range that we use most often
Henri Godard (Celine edition) is a good student.
As a reader, I expect certain things of the Pleiades. And I give it as a publisher. To reduce the critical apparatus, I have not done speaking notes on slang, for example. But I got us to do a final glossary is shorter.
I never give all variants, even when it is possible. And I say to my staff not to publish them if they are justified. I apply the rule, and advocates it is applied, according to which the publisher has not to ramble. I stand to information. We do not have to explain to comment.
Yes, but on Mallarmé, it was specifically asked to join Marchal interpretation of each poem … Those Prévert did not justify. Case in point, we said, following the uniqueness of the works.
It has been, as Jacques Cotin, a very thick Protocol, “a real book, text to Borges’ , says Michel Delon, ever awarded to scholars for the writing of their volume. How to submit a text, a variant, a bibliographic indication, “overload” to distinguish from the “linear addition” , “marginal” or “infra-paginale” , distribute italics, select the footnotes:
There asterisks for the author notes, calls literals, a, b, c, d, for the variants, digital calls, 1, 2, 3, for the notes of the publisher. Formerly, footnotes walked away to zero each page of text; Today they are numbered by chapter, or section, allowing in the critical apparatus, saving the lines “on page 26″, “page 27,” etc. Just put in the current title at the top of the page: the page of notes as page as
The protocol saying. “is carefully avoided fitting words such as ‘he’, ‘the’, ‘the’, to avoid any ambiguity. “” The protocol Jacques Cottin no longer current, says Pradier. But we establish a in the case of a team, and a title, not for collection. It was very complex for editing charred remains of ‘Peri Phuseos’ Epicure relatively simple for pre-texts of ‘Words’ Sartre, where he was to report a redaction or addition. “
Manufacturers
Who made the Pleiades in the pavilion in the garden, at 5 rue Gaston- Gallimard? “The team, says Pradier, consists of nine people, five publishers, each of which, each in this case, is responsible for two volumes a year or so; editorial director, it is I; a person responsible for style put under (technical aspects), an assistant, an assistant editor at halftime. “
And these famous specialists “They are 95% of university. The others have a special relationship with an author, have the skills to be, and want this work. “
One day, the scientific editor receives a letter. Here is one of Peter Buge:
Sir, We are looking to spend [x] volumes from our library of the Pleiades with the main works [x]. Would you be kind enough great let me know if this project could be of interest to you, and if it would be so, if it would be possible to come in the not too distant future you talk to me? I say thank you in advance and please accept, etc.
Do corseted! Is it old France! Michel Delon: “It was Imperial. He embodied the Pleiades, and the Pleiades was the supreme body of literature. “ Gaullist, in short. “But he said: Sir, if I had my way we never would publish Sade. He added in substance in what is done, you are rather the least worst “
You have to choose the works, possibly by allocating volumes. . “I wanted to meet the timeline,” said Delon. “Yes, answers Marchal, but sometimes divide the works that sell better, despite the timeline. “ Or by genres?
What was possible in the case of Baudelaire poems in one volume, critical works in another, n ‘ was not possible for Mallarme there would have been 400 pages on one side and 3500 on the other – and not salable by content. So I adopted another cut: works ‘creative’ in the broad sense of a side (1600 pages), and journalism, criticism, pedagogy, the other (1300 pages)
And every writer is a special case, especially when issues “complete works”. Alongside entire books published, there drafts, repetition, thousand texts without status. What to do? When it comes to rating more or less scattered down on paper, two solutions are available: the “diplomatic transcription,” which reproduces the page as it is – legibility or a “transcription linearized”, that is to say, as much as possible discount text; Mallarmé was entitled to both, for all unfinished works. Celine also was entitled to the edition of “Fable for Another Time” in three states. But in the case of Flaubert, for example, that left multiple states of the same text, a similar issue would have been monstrous: the Corpus flaubertianum the only new “A simple heart” published by Giovanni Bonaccorso, is a large volume of 600 pages … Some readers are frustrated, as this amateur Flaubert:
In Mail, you must put all the Answers recipients! It will be two more volumes? Big deal! If we buy five, we may well buy seven
In some cases, even within the same volume, different policies can coexist. Stringent information celui- These literary interpretation that one.
You can work alone, as part of a team as director of this team, or tied with another. Michel Delon has held four positions:
Working alone is the best formula, but takes time; or more we advance in the career, the greater the sites. So we take Contributors: either they have time, but little is known, or they have a name, but less time … In tandem, we worked together, exchanging information, and we unified the end .
Leading a team is the most difficult, because they are co-workers, everyone has his habits, and that everything must be read, unify everything, control everything, and enforce the calendar. But we had computers, so open access to all files, index, glossary. This is convenient, but it is not a panacea either.
Some proceed volume per volume, others throw all the work at once, and engage in as of publication. But all date back to the manuscripts, or failing to original editions. This reserved two days a week to his research at the BN (F). That one store for a few hours to teaching, since there spent most of his time …
“Six months to a tiny detail”
All, beyond the proven jubilation the day of the order of Pleiades, have a memory of brutal researcher joy miraculously find a manuscript to a collector, an old eighteenth book shamelessly copied by the author (plagiarism is the oldest profession in the world). “All that time spent on a note that no one will ever read!” exclaims Marchal. “And yet it must be done. And in fifty years, it will start all over again, for sure … Three Rimbaud, I think … “ We know that Jean-Yves Tadié (Pleiades Proust) said: ” For six months I spend looking for a tiny detail, Gérard Genette wrote a whole essay. “
They look, they write, they think. Michel Delon: “We must put our merit. Our predecessors worked at a time when there was no Internet, and photocopies either. They made available articles as Pauvert did with Sade – and it was he who had all trials. And work Lély, Heine on Sade was amazing! Secondly, thanks to them, we have established the correct text. “ (And Marchal keep as much recognition to that of Henri Mondor, the first great Mallarmé.) ” This is thanks to the strength of hits of the Pleiades, including its reviewers, who are first force “ Mischievous, he adds. ” The young man who followed me for the first volume of Sade was Hugues Pradier . “ Which has made its way.
Again, each edition is a particular case. But the constant, as Marchal said, “is the establishment of the text.” We need a reliable source: manuscript fair copy, proofs, corrected or not, models, first publishing descriptions in auction catalogs … To refer to it, it must locate in French or foreign libraries, or from collectors, heirs … and make a choice when the versions diverge (or publish variants) .
When it comes undated letters, we must still try to situate them: references to certain historical and social events, books read, tours or trips … Or paper, watermark, ink, typeface of a business card. And they get there, “so we could not even do it sometimes to himself,” adds smiling Marchal. “To date the letters Mallarmé Mery Laurent I noted the time he had done every day for fifteen years, to be able to overlap with what he says. “ That may explain that we can spend six or eight years on a volume (Georges Lubin did he not spent fifty years in establishing the correspondence of Sand? Twenty-six volumes, with Garnier … A work-life …).
“It’s a labor of Sisyphus, said a university. The documents are dispersed, and he always appears new. You have to be a detective, have a huge network, know the autograph dealers, heirs, follow the public sales. Sometimes buyers are anonymous, hide because of the tax, or will not deliver the content of what they have, for fetishism “ lock them in boxes that are tombs. Dictionary of Trévoux also appoints the “bibliotaphes” .
The experts sometimes available to transmit their letter. But for all this, procurement, travel, it takes money and time: the sale of the collection of Colonel SickLess famous amateur autograph, lasted several years, busy … On top twenty catalogs It is the difficulty of deciphering to illegible notes, sent in haste. An editor had deciphered: The following read “father Cemetery.”. “. Fumerions pipe”
And all this for four , five, ten years. In this case, the university is an author. He has a contract negotiated by Pradier: “The percentage of copyright varies according to the age, the work to be performed, as is a translation of a text establishing of after a well-known or not … Once attached manuscript, the rights envelope is distributed among the stakeholders “: the author or his heirs, the scientist, the owners of unpublished or letters, or previous editors their heirs. As a professor at the Sorbonne affects 2.5%, but this may be more or less. Still case. “The retribution, says Henri Godard, could be much better if it is related to the time spent. But it is not zero, it is even correct, and it gained notoriety adds. “ ” When you advance beyond touched, said another, that’s it, we enter eternity. “
Jacques Drillon
1 New Zealand sheep leather bindings = 12
The Pleiades are assembled and connected by Babouot in Lagny-sur-Marne: large workshops, full of long machines as days without bread, and thirty people, for a production of 28,000 copies per year (plus calendars and albums: 35000 copies so).
The Bible paper 36 gr is specially manufactured by Bolloré Thin Papers, which also provides 32 grams of pharmaceutical leaflets. There are two circuits in Babouot: the all-comers, and the Pleiades.
The binding is 32 000 m2 of leather per year, 45,000 New Zealand sheep, each of which provides the material to 12 binders 0.4mm thick (more than ten copies Personal Antoine Gallimard, hand-bound in goatskin); gilding is made of American gold, deposited by hot pressure on the covers, which arrives by rolls of 244 m; folding, sewing books, collage yellow bookmarks All these operations are performed with meticulous care by the team of Michel Jeandel, explains:
Gallimard we pass all control six months. We can smooth the work on this period. And it is we who keep stocks of printed books – we have that forty, ready to be connected to the application
The binding is 50% of the cost of manufacturing. the Pleiades. The only leather. € 2
J.Dr
Read “The Pleiades the library”, conference proceedings of Aix-en-Provence, dir. Joëlle Gleize and Philippe Roussin, EAC, 2009.
Full version of the survey published in the “Obs” of December 25, 2014.
