Edited, introduced and annotated by Pascal Fouché.
One of 87 copies from the deluxe issue on white Hollande van Gelder laid paper, this copy hors commerce (no. 13).
This correspondence brings together four hundred and seven letters exchanged between Marcel Proust and Gaston Gallimard concerning the genesis and publication of À la recherche du temps perdu under the N.R.F. imprint. Affectionate, strategic and at times tense, these exchanges reveal the inner workings of one of the great French publishing adventures: negotiations, delays, corrections, typographical scruples, distribution concerns, and even the writer’s material anxieties. Through these letters emerges, in relief, the portrait of an author fully conscious of his genius, and that of a passionate publisher determined to defend a work whose decisive significance he sensed — a commitment that would bring the Gallimard house its first Prix Goncourt.
The edition also includes letters addressed to close N.R.F. collaborators — Berthe Lemarié, Gustave Tronche, Jean Paulhan — as well as those sent by the editorial staff to Proust, offering a complete picture of early twentieth-century publishing practices.
In 2025, one hundred and seven additional recovered letters enriched this corpus, which remains the foundation for any study of the Proust–Gallimard relationship. A fascinating read.