Rue Gaston Gallimard: the historical misunderstanding that almost cost him his name

Europe 1 2:00 p.m., June 26, 2022

INTERVIEW

It is only about thirty meters long.

But she has a big name.

Rue Gaston-Gallimard (in the 7th arrondissement of Paris) pays homage to the founder of the publishers of the same name, who set up his company's headquarters there in 1928. It was in 2011 that the former rue Sébastien Bottin (first square de l'Université then rue de Beaune) changed its name.

But the tribute, a long-time project, almost never materialized.

It took the action of the academician Pierre Assouline to remove a misunderstanding which blocked the file at the town hall of Paris, as he explains Sunday to Isabelle Morizet in the 

.

>> Find Isabelle Morizet's shows every weekend from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here

The idea of ​​renaming the little rue Sébastien Bottin was born in 2006, during the inauguration of the very close Place René Char, from a conversation between the mayor of Paris at the time and Antoine Gallimard, grandson and successor of the founder of Gallimard editions.

A conservation which was then attended by the journalist and writer Pierre Assouline.

"Bertrand Delanoë told the publisher that it would be good if there was a rue Gaston Gallimard, and that there are very few numbers in rue Sébastien-Bottin", he recalls the member of the Academy French on Europe 1.

"The reputation of Gaston Gallimard was usurped"

Antoine Gallimard agrees to this proposal to honor his late grandfather.

But the months and the years pass, without the rue Gaston Gallimard seeing the light of day.

Pierre Assouline then asks the boss of the editions where the file is.

"He tells me that he does not understand, that it is blocking the town hall and asks me if I know someone who could help", explains Pierre Assouline to our microphone.

"And, indeed, I knew someone in the cadastre, so I went to see him."

A friend who gives Pierre Assouline, biographer of Gaston Gallimard an explanation that amazes him.

"It's a bit complicated because, and the mayor did not know it, Gaston Gallimard has a somewhat troubled past. It seems that he was a collaborator", we slip to him.

"You don't know his story, that's not it at all!" Retorted the journalist, writer and academician.

"All the press and all French publishing was under the same regime during the Occupation. Gaston Gallimard like Bernard Grasset, like all the others."

>> LISTEN ALSO - 

From Gaston to Antoine Gallimard: a century of evolution in the publishing profession

Pierre Assouline therefore explains to the town hall of Paris the history of the French edition subjected to the Nazis on the Occupation, and the role of Gaston Gallimard.

"Once I spent an hour or two telling them, they said they understood much better," says the writer.

"The situation was not normal, there was a blockage. And this blockage was that: a reputation that was usurped."

A few months after this conversation, which cleared up a historical misunderstanding, on June 15, 2011, rue Sébastien Bottin was finally officially renamed.

The short rue Gaston Gallimard has only one building: that of the editions of the same name.