Petite histoire de la librairie française by Patricia Soreil

 French people read a lot. People less in love with this activity read something like six books per year, that, anyway is an acceptable number, but the protagonists of these pasts months, have been and continue to be french bookstores.

They didn't want the lockdown of libraries, the third one should start soon; they fought with all themselves for keeping alive and active their stores. 

An amazing and let me add, beautiful picture of a long line of people waiting to enter in a bookstore just before the beginning of the second lockdown was posted on the net and made history. French people are in search of culture during the periods of confinement; and it is estimated that many more books have been sold in 2020, if compared to 2019, "thanks" to the lockdowns.

Not only. Some french publishing houses decided to revoke their contracts with Amazon, for helping local bookstores, and, at the same time, permitting to people of going out, entering in a bookstore, buying what they want, having a real contact with someone. Or, buying online but in other channels, like online french bookstores.

But...

Do we know the history of french bookstores?

Follow me. I recently requested a book called  Petite histoire

de la librairie française by Patricia Soreil and thanks to her we will discover this fascinating world. 

Commerce of books in France started when universities were born, both in England than in France, in 1200 and in this sense we saw the first apparitions of bookstores close to the universities, because books, better manuscripts, were necessary to students and teachers. Then, it was possible to see bookstores close also to cathedrals and in the cities.

Confraternietes of book sellers became many: la confrérie de Saint-Jean-Porte-Latine  was created in 1401 and stayed active till at the end of XVIII century. 

The invention of print created a revolution and meant also a completey different change of role of the owner of the bookstore: commerce became a reality thanks to the production of always more titles.

An atelier of books could have something like 14.000 books. Of course not all the stores were so rich or overwhelmed but all of them were characterized by specific topics where you could find what you were searching; religious topics, law, new editions, Bibles, commentaries about the Holy Word, everything you could think at.

But let's see how bookstores implemented their business.

The case of  Michel de Vascosan is emblematic. Pierre Duipuys, would have brought at Toulouse the books of his uncle and the ones of other parisien bookstores. He opened a boutique, sold them at the prices decided receiving a commission of the 15%. Every year he sent the money realized at de Vascosan. 

French people always more enthusiastic of books starting also to import from Italy and in particular from Venice and Florence and then Spain, Portugal, London, Ginevra.

All Europe.

It wasn't so simple to become the owner of a bookstore; in the mid 1600s it was important having spent 4 years of apprenticeship if new of the environment. 

Then a sort of exam at the chamber of commerce where they asked questions like "Quelles sont les belles éditions connues en librairie ancienne et moderne ? Quelles sont les qualités d’un bon libraire?" Which are the most beautiful editions known old and modern? Which are the qualities of a good bookseller?" 

Women these past centuries couldn't become owners of a bookstore, but if their husband, owner of a bookstore died, then, yes it was their turn! also considering that maybe there were children who needed to be fed up. Same was for unmarried girls when their father died.

At the end of the Ancient Regime bookstores in Paris were located in the latin part of the city, but also at the galeries du Palais of Justice. In general customers were members of the university, members of the clerk, or aristocrats; in the while a novelty published in the XVIII century could count 500-1000 copies.

Little cities, marginal places couldn't count in a great abundance of books, novelties and sometimes that bookstores lived miserably their existence.

Close to the 1800, bookstores were in grade of having books about Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon but also of philosophy, history, travel, law, military art, agriculture, botanic, medicine, chirurgy, pharmacy, chimic, architecture, science, poetry, eloquence, geography, astronomy and more. 

Most of these books could also be found in different languages for meeting the desires of every customer. 

An interesting character was the one of the colporteur. These men started their activity in the XVII century but were more known in the XVIII century: they were the ones who, just with a big bag, a knapsack, went in very remote little villages bringing to these people books. These "vagabond merchants" were the only connections that these little and isolated villages and their people, had with culture and books.

Polemics started to be ferocious against these characters; itinerants or sedentaries, they established a big competition, bringing also with some pamphlets with dangerous messages to the population; refolutionary ones. Some things needed to be done. Plus it was important to remark the prestige of a bookstore.

French Revolution abolished censorship and in 1791 was established the freedom of commerce and suppression of corporations. 

Said in this way you could think that there was much more freedom but, of course, it was the opposite.

In that historical moments bookstores thanks also to that unwanted books of the men of the new republic, disn't breath a good air. Books of religion remained in bookstores, and what it was printed were in particular booklets regarding the propaganda of the new regime. If publishing houses or bookstores kept other books and were discovered punishment could be the existence or jail for several months.

With Napoleon there will be a new regulation, pretty complicated, and just with Louis XVIII censorship will be abolished and publishing houses could print everything at their risk and  danger.

The XIX century bookstores meant a new success thanks to a highest standard of scholarization and the industrial revolution. Bookstores are located in big cities but also in little villages. Just Paris in 1816 counts 330 "librairies" 550 in 1846.

A practice pretty known started in every bookstore: readers could read a book, if they couldn't buy it because pennieless in the store. 

Some bookstores-publishing houses had remarkable amount of books. Let's see what happened at Claude Brunot-Labbé, both publisher/bookstore; when he died left behind 340.000  books – 153 000 about education, 66 000 classics, 64 000 literature... for naming some numbers.

Flammarion at the end of the XIX century became the biggest bookstore of Paris: the publishing house has a big bookstore in the Odeon and other four places. Colporteurs continued their activity, with a strong opposition of the bookstores also in the XIX century.

At the end of 1800 was also great commerce with England from established bookstores.

Le cabinets des Lecture was a reality born in some bookstores, an activity for men and women. In general people spent there several hours per day, writing, reading, taking notes. Prices were not excessive. 

These cabinets started to end during the 1850s when it was possible to buy books at a good price.

In the while in 1915 Adrienne Monnier the companion of Sylvia Beach, opens her suggestive La Maison des Amis des Livres. In 1920 there were 580 subscribers. The arrival of the paperback will destroy these realities in the 1950s.

Other battles for bookstores are at the horizon, at the end of 1800, beginning of the XX century: the advent of almanacs, guides of different kind also in kiosks. After a fight, just very cheap material could be continued to be sold in the kiosks.

Another war was fought against popular magazines who could publish weeks after weeks chapters of famous books.

The XIX century closed with the crisis of bookstores because of the arrival of books at cheap price changed again the market. 

Many more books were published at the end of 1800 century, beginning of the XX, and they were published in great abundance.

There is the arrival of a good news: the creation of the Chambre syndicale des libraires

de France and the one of the Syndicat des éditeurs for working better.

Thanks to these new organs new prices are established, for putting order.

There was who suggested the creation of a school for future booksellers.

These courses started only in 1906. 

During the first world war there was a strong reduction of publication because of lack of paper and different other problems of organization. After the war in 1919 anxiety is the dominant sentiment but something remains firm in the field of bookstores: the preparation and formation of a true bookseller is indispensible.

A bookstore in this sense made the difference: the one of Adrienne Monnier. Adrienne didn't start this activity because she made courses, and she wasn't "prepared" for managing a bookstore, but her reality attracted the most important and influentials writers of that period: Guillame Apollinaire, Léon-Paul Fargue, André Gide, Paul Léautaud, Jules Romains. Thanks to her reviews she made great publicity to several authors.

Her companion Sylvia Beach in 1919 opened Shakespeare and Company. It would have attracted Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and all that anglophone universe emigrated in Paris because a place more free. In the USA that ones were the years of the prohibition and who could go somewhere else, did it.

James Joyce, thanks to Sylvia Beach published his Ulysses. 

There was something that changed in positive: bookstores could remain opened all the time they wanted, also on sunday.

They were just apparent calm years that ones, because the advent of the second world war re-put in bad conditions the situations of bookstores.

Places were destroyed, there was much more disorganization because of the conflict. In 1940 was created an organization for helping the bookstores in difficulty.

Another law introducted was this one: all the books sent to bookstores and not sold, and with faculty of returning them, became property of the publishing house.Some bookstores decideed of selling their activities. The cases of d’Alexandre

Loewy and the bookstore Lipschutz were emblematic.

Although the difficulties, 1943 was a very good year for bookstores, because people wanted to read much more. At the same time the market established new way for reaching with new formats, new books, readers.

After the war the re-launch of bookstores was the first thought for bookstores owners. 

There were e new fights that bookstores had to win. 

First of all after the war someone thought that the market was in misery and the job a vocational one.

Problems were books sold in supermarkets and other places as well , a big danger for bookstores.

Not all the bookstores had the same mission: some of them are for cultivated people, other ones wanted to attract a largest number of people.

Bernard Gheerbrant, said once that "the bookstores as they are at the moment are an anachronisme; the bookstore with an American touch, searching for new readers at home is the future." 

For promoting bookstores in 1950 was launched the Sélection des libraires de

France a monthly bulletin with the latest novelties. That year the bulletin counted in 700 subscribers. 

In 1955 was created the prix des Libraires.

Hachette re-launched (the golden age was during the Belle Epoque) Le Livre de Poche. For a little price great readings and space saved at home :-) if you are overwhelmed by books. 

Who were the readers of Livre de Poche or paperbacks said in english? 

Substantially people that couldn't buy a hardback or a biggest format because too expensive. The beauty of the Livre de Poche is the democratization of reading. Students of all ages prefers the Livre de Poche and although not all bookstores think that the re-introduction of this new format could be good, it was revolutionary.

Thanks to a different world, TV is seen as another enemy from the owners of bookstores, there are more possibilities of winning prizes because of competitions organized by big publishing houses for promoting their products.

In 1980 the birth of Livres Hebdo.

Fnac becomes a great reality in the while. 

Born in 1974, they have very large stores.

50 people at first worked there; they had 120.000 titles witrh a stock of 550.000.

With the time Fnac opened always new "supermarket of the books", we could call them; Fnac was seen by bookstores like another profound changement, so every bookstore discovered  a modernization also thanks to the birth of Fnac.

Books became in the 1980 a product bought massively by everyone; books became always more; for french people this one was a daily product, pretty consummed by everyone. 

Yes, there were some differentiations: robust, strong readers, while some others more "modest" readers more "disordinated" in their choices.

It's in 1981 that a new important law marks the destiny of publishing houses and bookstores: from 1982 in fact publishing houses will establish the cost of books;  retails can discount at a price not superior at the 5%, clubs can sell books with subscriptions at an inferior price, but not the first editions. 

As you will read there will be new fights and the normative will be again changed in 1985, and the unique price become the biggest problems of these decades.

Publishing houses didn't want the practice of books too discounted and once they decided to boycott all that realities suspected of fraudolents practices. The publishing houses were: Albin Michel, Calmann-Lévy, La Découverte, Denoël, Flammarion, Gallimard, Gründ, Hachette, Grasset, Fayard, Mazarine, Le Chêne, CIL, Lattès, Stock, Éditions n o 1, Le Livre de poche, Larousse, Mercure de France, Minuit, Nathan, Payot, Le Robert, Robert Laffont, Quid, Seghers, Sélection du Reader’s Digest, Le Seuil 373 .

At the moment there are 2500 - 3 000 traditional bookstores; sure the  biggest ones, or the "supermarkets" of the books made the difference in this sense leaving fragile realities more weak than not during the decades before.

The net is another problem because the book-market became an  online reality  as well.

So bookstores decided to mixing the work; and most of them now sell their books also online. 

The only object that resisted at the revolutionary advent of the net has been the book; the net has been lived by french owners of bookstores little or big as a stimulating medium for reinventing their spaces, physicals or...online ones.

Extremely clear, this book is for everyone in love with books! 

I thank La Fabrique Editions for the copy of the book.

Anna Maria Polidori