Edmund Wilson didn’t exactly invent the idea of creating the Library of America (see yesterday’s post), he borrowed and adapted it, which is how most great ideas start off.
Wilson was inspired by the Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, a series of classic French books. This collection of readable paperbacks, now numbering more than 500, includes mostly French books but also some world literature and philosophy. Eleven new titles are released each year.
If you’re a collector, especially a book collector, I suggest you stop reading immediately. The series is extremely enticing for those of us who enjoy gathering sets of anything, beautiful books or precious decorative objects. I was first hooked by the color coded system: 20th century is tobacco (their color word, not mine), 19th century - emerald green, middle ages - purple, antiquity - green, etc. I can just imagine the leather-bound rainbow sitting on my living room shelf, after I read them, of course.
The series was born in 1923 when Jacques Schiffrin, a Russian Jew, moved to Paris and began a publishing company called ‘Editions de la Pleiade’. His idea was to republish French classics in affordable leather volumes that people would enjoy reading. At the time it was an exciting new idea and Schiffrin produced volumes by Baudelaire, Voltaire, and Stendhal. When Schiffrin ran into money troubles in the 1930 he was bailed out by the larger publishing company Gallimard and Schiffrin was able to stay on as publisher.
Interestingly, the history of La Pleiade, on the Gaillimard website, notes that Schiffrin remained as publisher until the beginning of World War II when Jean Paulhan ‘took over’. They neglect to mention that Schiffrin was forced to resign because of the 1940 Nazi occupation of Paris.
While the city was occupied, The French Government was established in Vichy, an unoccupied territory of France and one of their first laws was that “foreign nationals of the Jewish race” would be held in a “special concentration camp”. Schiffrin and his family made the wise decision to escape and went first to Casablanca and then onto New York. His son, Andre was only five years old at the time. Andre, now a famous publisher in his own right, later wrote a book about the experience called, A Political Education, Coming of Age in Paris and New York.
La Pleiade continues on today as a Gallimard Publishing project. They have published 531 books from 195 authors. The texts are based on original manuscripts and are printed on delicate Bible paper and bound in leather volumes with gold lettering. They are Jacques Schiffrin’s lasting legacy and gift to the world.
If you’re a collector, especially a book collector, I suggest you stop reading immediately. The series is extremely enticing for those of us who enjoy gathering sets of anything, beautiful books or precious decorative objects. I was first hooked by the color coded system: 20th century is tobacco (their color word, not mine), 19th century - emerald green, middle ages - purple, antiquity - green, etc. I can just imagine the leather-bound rainbow sitting on my living room shelf, after I read them, of course.
The series was born in 1923 when Jacques Schiffrin, a Russian Jew, moved to Paris and began a publishing company called ‘Editions de la Pleiade’. His idea was to republish French classics in affordable leather volumes that people would enjoy reading. At the time it was an exciting new idea and Schiffrin produced volumes by Baudelaire, Voltaire, and Stendhal. When Schiffrin ran into money troubles in the 1930 he was bailed out by the larger publishing company Gallimard and Schiffrin was able to stay on as publisher.
Interestingly, the history of La Pleiade, on the Gaillimard website, notes that Schiffrin remained as publisher until the beginning of World War II when Jean Paulhan ‘took over’. They neglect to mention that Schiffrin was forced to resign because of the 1940 Nazi occupation of Paris.
While the city was occupied, The French Government was established in Vichy, an unoccupied territory of France and one of their first laws was that “foreign nationals of the Jewish race” would be held in a “special concentration camp”. Schiffrin and his family made the wise decision to escape and went first to Casablanca and then onto New York. His son, Andre was only five years old at the time. Andre, now a famous publisher in his own right, later wrote a book about the experience called, A Political Education, Coming of Age in Paris and New York.
La Pleiade continues on today as a Gallimard Publishing project. They have published 531 books from 195 authors. The texts are based on original manuscripts and are printed on delicate Bible paper and bound in leather volumes with gold lettering. They are Jacques Schiffrin’s lasting legacy and gift to the world.
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