Éditions Denoël

Éditions Denoël
Parent companyÉditions Gallimard
Founded1930
FounderRobert Denoël and Bernard Steele
Country of originFrance
Headquarters locationParis
Publication typesBooks
Official websitewww.denoel.fr

Éditions Denoël is a French publishing house founded in 1930. Acquired by Éditions Gallimard in 1951, it publishes collections spanning fiction, non-fiction and comic books. It published some of the most important French authors of the interwar period, including Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Louis Aragon and Antonin Artaud.

History

In 1930 the Belgian Robert Denoël and the American Bernard Steele (1902–1979), founded Éditions Denoël-Steele, later shortened to Éditions Denoël.[1]:228 It had its first success in 1932 with Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit. Other early success include Louis Aragon's Les Cloches de Bâle (1934), Antonin Artaud's Héliogabale ou l'anarchiste couronné (1934) and Céline's Mort à crédit (1936).[citation needed]

Denoël can be considered unusual with respect to its diverse choice of publications. Until May 1940, for example, it published an Anti-German political magazine as well as the anti-Semitic pamphlets of Céline and Lucien Rebatet. Bernard Steele left the company because of Céline's pamphlet Mea culpa (1936).[citation needed] Robert Denoël was "openly supportive of Nazi Germany" and the company was known for its collaborationism during the German occupation of Paris.[2] The company received capital from the Germans and published pro-Nazi books, including "anti-Semitic manuals [ . . . ], a collection of Hitler's speeches, and the two most famous anti-Semitic literary works of the time: a new edition of Céline's Bagatelles pour un massacre (1937) and Lucien Rebatet's Les Déscombres".[3]:161 During those same years, however, they also advertised "well-known authors of the left" and published the works of the Jewish author Elsa Triolet.[3]:161

Denoël was murdered on 2 December 1945 while changing a wheel on his car.[4][5]:xi The circumstances surrounding his death were mysterious, and it was "possible that he was assassinated for political reasons";[4] the police officially listed it as a "random crime of violence".[5]:xi Following his death, Denoël's mistress, Jeanne Loviton, became the legal owner of the company.[6]:37 In 1951 she sold a 90 percent stake of the company to Gaston Gallimard, "Denoël's arch enemy and publishing rival".[5]:301

Nowadays, Éditions Denoël publishes around one hundred titles per year. Among the most famous authors published by Éditions Denoël are Sébastien Japrisot, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock and Jeanne Benameur. In 2004, Denoël published Suite française, which became a publishing sensation. The novel won the Prix Renaudot in 2004, the first time the prize was awarded posthumously. From 2006, then editor Olivier Rubinstein also published the literary review Le Meilleur des mondes.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Shafer, David A., 1958– (15 April 2016). Antonin Artaud. London, UK. ISBN 978-1-78023-601-8. OCLC 954427932.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Baert, Patrick (2015-08-20). The Existentialist Moment: The Rise of Sartre as a Public Intellectual. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7456-8543-4.
  3. ^ a b Lottman, Herbert (1998-11-15). The Left Bank: Writers, Artists, and Politics from the Popular Front to the Cold War. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-49368-8.
  4. ^ a b Barber, Stephen (2013-08-14). Artaud: Blows and Bombs: The Biography Of Antonin Artaud. SCB Distributors. ISBN 978-1-909923-34-8.
  5. ^ a b c Staman, A. Louise (2002-11-11). With the Stroke of a Pen: A Story of Ambition, Green, Infidelity, and the Murder of French Publisher Robert Denoel. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-27213-5.
  6. ^ Hewitt, Nicholas (2003-11-25). "Celine: The Success of the Monstre Sacre in Postwar France". SubStance. 32 (3): 29–42. doi:10.1353/sub.2003.0057. ISSN 1527-2095. S2CID 154303256.