The Album de la Pléiade is a book published every year in May by the " Bibliothèque de la Pléiade", a series of classic French and international texts by French publishing house

éditions Gallimard Éditions Gallimard (; formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961) is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles. Founded by Gasto ...

. It is usually about an author published in the series, although occasionally about a collective from a specific time period (1961 recording and 1989 album) or an important topic of the collection (1970 and 2009 albums). Featured authors are generally chosen upon their entry in the series or a major addition of their works. Each album is richly illustrated and focusses on iconography, with an accompanying bibliographical text by a renowned specialist of the selected author. It is produced in the same format,

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

-bound

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

and gold lettering as volumes of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, but has generally fewer pages and is printed on thicker paper to allow the inclusion of many colour images. The Albums are not for sale. They are offered by the booksellers to customers who purchase three books from the collection. They tend to be distributed very quickly and immediately become collectors' items. Because of this, the most popular books of the collection such as, among others, ''Album Proust'' (1965), ''Album Céline'' (1977) or ''Album Balzac'' (1962) can only be obtained on reselling markets at high prices (often found around $200–$300). The older (1960s-1970s) books are also often high priced due to their rarity, even if the author is less popular. The oldest, ''Dictionnaire des auteurs de la Pléiade'' (''Dictionary of the Authors of the Pléiade''), published in 1960 has always been the most expensive, selling for over $400–$450.

List of the albums

Here is a list of the Album de la Pléiade:Although the 1960 dictionary and the 1961 record and booklet are precursors, the series was formally started only in 1962, the Balzac album being counted as No. 1 by Gallimard.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Album de la Pleiade Series of books