Pascal Fouché, who edited the collection of letters between Marcel Proust and Gaston Gallimard, has just…

Pascal Fouché, who edited the collection of letters between Marcel Proust and Gaston Gallimard, has just published and annotated another splendid volume with @editionsgrasset: the correspondence between Marcel Proust 🤵🏻‍♂️ and Bernard Grasset 🕵🏻‍♂️.

Bernard Grasset founded the publishing house that bears his name in 1908, a pivotal year for Proust in his writing project. It was, in fact, at the start of 1908 that, in the little notebooks 📓 given to him by Mrs Straus, Proust made numerous notes that foreshadowed certain episodes as well as the structure and theme of the forthcoming novel ⛪️.

The young publisher saw his efforts rewarded in 1911 when an author, now forgotten, won the @academiegoncourt prize for a novel that is now forgotten 🫢. It is worth pointing out what Pascal Fouché does not dare to say: the Prix Goncourt would not become a truly significant prize… until the day Marcel Proust won it, in 1919, published by Gallimard. #proustolâtrie

Nevertheless, after his novel “Le Temps perdu” had been rejected by three publishers, including the N.R.F., in late 1912 and early 1913, Proust decided in February to submit it to Grasset and to pay for its publication. As with “Pleasures and Days” in 1896, published by Calmann-Lévy, this was a self-published work. Once the contract was signed, Proust made a large number of corrections and additions, which forced him to divide “Le Temps perdu” into two volumes 📗📗.

The first volume of “In Search of Lost Time” was published by @editionsgrasset on 14 November 1913 (112 years ago), at Marcel Proust’s own expense. 💸

This correspondence between Proust and the first publisher of “Swann” has finally been brought together in this beautiful volume 📘, published last month. There are 246 letters, some of which are signed by Grasset’s staff and people close to Proust, and which also reveal correspondence with the printer – much of it previously unpublished. ✨

📍 One could say that Proust’s true ‘publishing adventure’ begins here, in these 475 or so pages of correspondence. ✍🏻📬📚

#MarcelProust #BernardGrasset #proustagram #ÀlaRechercheduTempsperdu #Correspondance #CorrProust #RTP #Proust #Gallimard