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THE
FIRST TITLE
Henri Raczymow.
Maurice Sachs (october 1988) |
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IN
BRIEF
The 1920s were the heyday of literary or fictionalised
biography, a popularisation of history. New imprints
were created, a number of authors became very successful
(Maurois, Pourtalès)... Gaston Gallimard
got organised and launched "Vie des hommes
illustres" in 1926, devoted to the people Baudelaire
called the "beacons" of humanity. Later,
in 1931, he created "Les Contemporains vus
de près", an imprint of a genre closer
to the document or the testimony. |
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The
Gallimard catalogue includes some 400 biographies,
original works published throughout the century
in various imprints ("Galerie pittoresque",
"Leurs figures", "Bibliothèque
des idées", "Bibliothèques
des sciences humaines"...) or picked up from
other publishers in "Folio" ("Assouline,
Vitoux...) |
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The
special issue of Débat (March-April
1989, Number 54) devoted to the return of biography
in literarture and social sciences is recommended
reading. In fact, the issue was published only a
few months after the launch of "NRF Biographies". |
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A
SHORT HISTORY
"NRF Biographies" was
started four years after publication of the
last title of the wide ranging imprint "Leurs
figures" (1941 - 1984), which was devoted
to famous men from all kinds of backgrounds.
The focus of the new imprint was clearly defined
by its first publication: a monograph on Maurice
Sachs, a literary figure closely linked to
the history of Gallimard through his own work
and as an editor. The first priority is to
provide qualiity literary biographies based
on solid research. The record of nearly 15
years of publishing has confirmed this: two
thirds of the works are devoted to writers
close to the NRF, from Proust to Camus, Faulkner
to Nabokov, Yourcenar to Duras.
Georges Liébert, who is also in charge
of "Tel", has been running "NRF
Biographies" since 1999. A fine musicologist,
he has published biographies of Georges Bizet
by Rémi Stricker - who had already
written several monographs of composers for
"Bibliothéque des idées"
- and of Jacques Offenbach by Jean-CLaude
Yon. Georges Liébert has broadened
the scope of the imprint to include figures
outside the literary world, notably contemporary
history with biographies of Charles de Gaulle
and Jean-Paul II.
Who are the biographers? They
are mostly journalists and literary critics,
some of whom have a background in history:
Laure Adler from France Culture, Claude Arnaud
from Point, Antoine de Baecque and
Serge Toubiana from Cahiers du Cinéma
and Libération, Gerald Clarke
from Time and Esquire, Bernard
Lecomte from La Croix and Figaro
Magazine, Eric Roussel from L'Express,
Josyane Savigneau from Le Monde...
Some biographers now work exclusively on large
biographical and historical projects, such
as Yves Courrière and Olivier Todd,
who have both left their mark on the history
of journalism. Next come academics, teaching
in departments of literature or cultural studies:
Jacques Body, Alain Cresciucci, Jean-Pierre
Martin, Jean-Yves Tadié, Jean-Claude
Yon... and Anglo-Saxons Brian Boyd, Richard
Ellman and Edmund White... In fact, almost
one third of the biographies are translated
from English. Some are devoted to American
writers (Capote, Faulkner, Wilde), while others
focus on a number of important French figures
(Breton, Foucault, Genet). This is not surprising
as Anglo-Saxon cultures, being more individualistic,
have long been keen on biographies as French
amateurs of the genre well know.
These voluminous biographies are sometimes
linked to an important cultural event, such
as the Proust exhibition at the Bibliothèque
nationale de France in 1996 or the Cocteau
exhibition at Beaubourg in 2003. They are
the fruit of extensive, patient and daring
research that satisfies renewed public interest
in the journey of famous people of our time.
It is also reviving a publishing tradition.
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"NRF
BIOGRAPHIES" REPRINTED IN THE "FOLIO"
IMPRINT
Marguerite Duras by Laure Adler ; François
Truffaut by Antoine de Baecque and Serge
Toubiana ; Jacques Prévert by
Yves Courrière ; Marguerite Yourcenar
by Josyane Savigneau ; Marcel Proust
by Jean-Yves Tadié ; Albert Camus
and André Malraux by Olivier
Todd ; Jean-Paul II by Bernard Lecomte… |
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