Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil'' (threshold) is the whole excitement of parting and arriving. It is also the brand new threshold that we refashion at the door of the Church to allow entry to many whose foot gropes around it" (Jean Plaquevent, letter dated 28 December 1934).

Description

Éditions du Seuil was the publisher of the '' Don Camillo'' series, and of Chairman

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

's '' Little Red Book''. The large sales that these generated have allowed the house to publish more specialized titles, particularly in the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the o ...

. Seuil is widely respected in the publishing world, maintaining good relations with its authors. Seuil has published works by Jacques Lacan,

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popul ...

and

Philippe Sollers Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le ...

(in his first period), and later by Edgar Morin,

Maurice Genevoix Maurice Genevoix (; 29 November 1890 – 8 September 1980) was a French author. Life Born on 29 November 1890 at Decize, Nièvre as Maurice-Charles-Louis-Genevoix, Genevoix spent his childhood in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire. After attending the loca ...

and

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence ...

. Notably, they published

Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have ...

's doctoral thesis, '' Black Skin, White Masks,'' in 1952, and the first edition of

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

's '' The Gulag Archipelago'' (in Russian as Архипелаг ГУЛАГ) in 1973. Similarly, Seuil's good relations with book retailers have allowed it to establish significant distribution activity, ensuring the circulation of the works of such publishers as Odile Jacob, Éditions de Minuit, José Corti, and ''Rivages''. Éditions du Seuil has also performed significant activities in

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. The house has promoted and published many great French children's authors; in 2005 Éditions du Seuil was the first to offer to the public animated films included in their albums that were produced by the artists themselves, such as ''À Quai'' by Sara and ''Promenade d'un distrait'', by Béatrice Alemagna.

History

In 1937, Éditions du Seuil was bought by

Paul Flamand Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

and Jean Bardet. In 1979 these two left the direction to

Michel Chodkiewicz Michel Chodkiewicz (13 May 1929 – 31 March 2020) was a French author and a scholar of Sufism, especially Akbarian teaching. Biography Chodkiewicz was from the Chodkiewicz family, a noble family of the Polish aristocracy who settled in Fra ...

. The leadership was subsequently ensured by Claude Cherki from 1989. Cherki was involved in the purchase of Seuil by La Martinière on 12 January 2004. Six months later he was obliged to resign as a result of his interest in this operation. Cherki was replaced by Pascal Flamand ''(Président-directeur général)'' and Olivier Cohen (publishing director). The latter created a subsidiary called ''L'Olivier''. Following the purchase by ''La Martinière'', the ''Volumen'' distribution company was created. Numerous logistical problems arose, and several editors left the publishing house. In November 2005, Éditions du Seuil announced the arrival of

Laure Adler Laure Adler (née Laure Clauzet; born 11 March 1950, in Caen) is a French journalist, writer, publisher and radio/TV producer. Works Biographies * 1986: ''L'Amour à l'arsenic : histoire de Marie Lafarge'', Denoël. * 1998: '' Marguerite D ...

to oversee its literature department. Olivier took back control of his publishing house ''L'Olivier''. ''Points'', a pocket subsidiary of Seuil, became a publisher in its own right. The house continued its policy of growth, amalgamating the publishers ''Danger Public'' and ''Petit à petit''. Significant tension developed and in 2006 the editor Hervé Hamon (who had a loyal record of 20 publications with Seuil in the capacity of an author) left, declaring that the author was no longer at the centre of the operation. In August 2006, the group announced a new director general, the journalist and writer Denis Jeambar, who had formerly been deputy director of editing for ''Point'', and president of the ''L'Express-L'Expansion'' group, and editing director of ''

L'Express ''L'Express'' () is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''Réussir''. History ...

''. Towards the end of 2006, Laure Adler was dismissed.

Collections

* The "bookstore of the 21st century" collection was created by

Maurice Olender Maurice Olender (21 April 1946 – 27 October 2022) was a French historian, professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. His teaching focused in particular on the genesis of the idea of race in the nineteenth ce ...

in 1989. After having created the "texts of the 20th century" collection of 19 titles at

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachett ...

in 1985, Olender devised the "bookstore of the 20th century", which subsequently turned into the "21st century". It comprised 143 titles as of 2009. The authors who were first published by Hachette followed Olender to Seuil. The magazine ''Page des libraires'' presented the collection and its director as follows:

Book series

* Champ Freudien * Combats * Fiction et Cie * Histoire immédiate * Microcosme: Ecrivains de toujours * Microcosme: Petit PlanètePetit Planète (Microcosme (Seuil) book series list
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 7 March 2020. * Microcosme: Maîtres Spirituels * Microcosme: Le Rayon de la Science * Microcosme: Solfèges * Microcosme: Le Temps qui court * Peuple et culture * Point Virgule * Points

Notes and references

Bibliography

* "Tant qu'il y aura des tomes", '' Les dossiers du Canard enchaîné'', No. 93, October 2004.

External links

*
Official site of Éditions du Seuil
*
Éditions du Seuil
in ''La République des Lettres'' journal *
Exhibition on ''Éditions du Seuil''
on the French Public Information Library website *
Catalogue of the bookshop of the 21st century
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seuil 1935 establishments in France Publishing companies of France Companies based in Paris French companies established in 1935