A SHORT HISTORY
  Young, independent publisher, Jacques Schiffrin (originally from Azerbaijan) founded “La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade” in 1931. His publishing company, Les Editions de la Pléiade/J. Schiffrin & Cie, established in 1923, created the imprint. Schiffrin’s remarkable and innovative concept was to present the complete works of classical authors in a ‘comfortably’ readable paperback format. Hence the Bible paper, the small size and the soft leather cover. Baudelaire, Racine, Voltaire, Poe, Laclos, Musser, Stendhal were the first authors honoured by the imprint.
  Schiffrin was much admired and when he ran into financial straits, André Gide and Jean Schlumberger, who both administered the Nouvelle Revue Française, advised Gaston Gallimard to offer support. On 31 July 1933, “La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade” became part of Editions Gallimard, with J. Schiffrin remaining as Publisher of the imprint until the beginning of World War II. Jean Paulhan took over during the war.
  During the 1950s and 1960s “La Pléiade” became the respected reference edition it is today. While the design of the volumes has scarcely changed, the editorial approach and criteria for establishing the texts have become more rigorous. The challenge was to balance the immediate pleasure of reading with the satisfaction of the researcher’s legitimate curiosity. Under the helm of the Gallimard family (today Managing Director Antoine Gallimard), the imprint benefits from the expert knowledge and editorial contribution of its various literary directors: Jean Ducourneau (1959-1966), Pierre Buge (1966-1987) Jacques Cotin (1988-1996) and currently Hugues Pradier. They have been influential in promoting twentieth century authors and producing new editions of previously published works as well as opening the imprint to less familiar literature: Chinese and Japanese classical works, as well as Sanskrit and Arabic texts, bilingual anthologies of foreign poetry, sacred, spiritual and philosophical texts…
  At the beginning of the 1950s, Raymond Queneau was entrusted with establishing an “Encyclopédie de la Pléiade”. His methodical plan yielded 49 volumes (1956-1991). Several have already been reprinted in the “Folio Essais” imprint.

LANGUAGES, CENTURIES AND GENRES
  Around twenty different languages are represented in the list of the imprint, in decreasing order : English (22 authors, excluding joint authorships), Russian (14), German, Latin, Greek, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Old French, and with fewer publications, Portuguese, Danish, Arabic, Japanese, and Sanskrit.
  Twentieth century authors form the major part of the catalogue (61 in 2003) while there are 58 authors for the nineteenth century, excluding joint authorships, 24 for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and 17 for Antiquity and the sixteenth century.
  “La Bibliothèque de la Pléiade” mixes genres. Although over half the volumes published are fiction, almost one third are essays (criticism, philosophy, history), 13% are poetry, 10% theatre and about 6% are spiritual texts. Then come correspondence, folk tales and short stories, journals, seminal texts and travel stories. The imprint also offers over 30 anthologies some of which are bilingual editions.