Les Éditions de Minuit (, ''Midnight Press'') is a French

publishing house Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. It was founded in 1941, during the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and is still publishing books today.

History

Les Éditions de Minuit was founded by writer and illustrator Jean Bruller and writer Pierre de Lescure (1891–1963) in 1941 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, during the German occupation of northern France (by November 1942, German forces occupied all of France). At the time, the media and all forms of publishing were controlled and censored by the Nazi occupiers. ''Les Éditions de Minuit'' was started to circumvent the censorship. It was an underground publisher until the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944. '' Le Silence de la mer'' ''(The Silence of the Sea)'' (1942) by co-founder Bruller (who wrote under the pseudonym Vercors) was the first book published. Distribution, as with other Resistance texts, was based on being passed from person to person. ''Le Silence de la mer'' was followed in 1943 by '' Chroniques interdites'' (banned newspaper columns, various authors), '' L'Honneur des poètes'' ''(The Honour of poets)'' poetry collected by Paul Éluard, '' Le cahier noir'' ''(The Black Notebook)'' by

François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (; ; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...

, and ''Le musée Grévin'' ''(The Grévin Museum)'' by Louis Aragon. A small group of printers joined Bruller and de Lescure, and together they risked imprisonment and death to publish works by some of France's greatest authors (who wrote under pseudonyms). The authors included Paul Éluard, Louis Aragon, Jacques Maritain,

, Jean Paulhan, André Chamson, André Gide, and the first unabridged French translation of

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

's '' The Moon Is Down'' (''Nuits noires''). After the war, when ''Les Éditions de Minuit'' was able to operate openly, it continued to publish books but struggled in the early postwar years to become financially stable. The publishing house was directed by Jérôme Lindon from 1947 until his death in 2001. His daughter, Irène Lindon, succeeded him. In the 1950s, the company began to be more successful. Lindon was the first to publish several novels by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, who wrote in French as well as English, and was resident in France at the time. Other authors published include Monique Wittig,

Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the ''Nouveau Roman'' () trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simo ...

, Claude Simon,

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...

and Robert Pinget, who constituted the backbone of the

Nouveau roman The Nouveau Roman (, "new novel") is a type of French novel in the 1950s and 60s that diverged from traditional literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the term in an article in the popular French newspaper ''Le Monde'' on May 22, 1957 to describ ...

literary movement. It also published Henri Alleg's '' La Question'' (1958) on the use of torture by the French Army during the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

(1954–62). The book was censored. From the late 1970s to the mid-80s, Lindon and the Éditions de Minuit promoted several young French authors such as Jean Echenoz, soon joined by Jean-Philippe Toussaint (from Belgium), Jean Rouaud, Marie NDiaye, Patrick Deville,

Éric Chevillard Éric Chevillard (born 18 June 1964) is a French novelist. He has won awards for several novels including ''La nébuleuse du crabe'' in 1993, which won the Fénéon Prize, Fénéon Prize for Literature. Chevillard was born in La Roche-sur-Yon, Ven ...

, and lately by Laurent Mauvignier and Julia Deck. These have been classified under the tag of "Style Minuit", characterized by a certain writing renewal (partially influenced by the Nouveau Roman), based on minimalist formalism mixed with an elaborated style. From its foundation to 2015, the Éditions de Minuit have, through their authors, won two

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

(

and Claude Simon), three

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

('' The Lover'' by

, '' I'm Off'' by Jean Echenoz and '' Fields of Glory'' by Jean Rouaud), seven

Prix Médicis The Prix Médicis () is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by and .

, one Prix Renaudot and three

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

21st century

The style of the front covers of Les Éditions de Minuit books is nearly as spare as the wartime edition of ''Le Silence de la mer''. The only decoration is a blue border and the symbol of Les Éditions de Minuit: a star and the letter "m".

Book series

* Arguments * Critique * Documents * Philosophie * Propositions * Le Sens commun

References

External links

Official website of Les Éditions de Minuit
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Editions de Minuit Book publishing companies of France French resistance publications French brands Publishing companies established in 1941 French companies established in 1941 Underground press in World War II Prix Femina winners