Alphonse Lemerre
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Alphonse Lemerre (born in Canisy, Normandy, France 1838 -died Paris, France, 1912) was a French editor and publisher of the 19th century, known especially for having been the first to publish many of the Parnassian poets.
[edit] Life
Alphonse Lemerre was the eighth child of his parents. In 1850 at age 12 he was an errand-boy at Saint-Lô. In 1860 he came to Paris and quickly rose to prominence, becoming the "Prince de l'édition" (Prince of the Edition, or Prince of Editors) and made his publisher's mark famous, which had the Latin motto Fac et spera ("Agis et espère" in French, "Do and Hope" in English). He opened a library at 23 passage Choiseul. His library occupied also other odd number addresses (23-33, 47).
In 1865 he began to edit Parnassian poets in Louis-Xavier de Ricard's revue L’Art, which had ten issues between November 2nd, 1865 and January 6th, 1866. The November issue had an article by Paul Verlaine about Baudelaire. In 1866 Lemerre published Le Parnasse contemporain, a collection of new poetry, in 18 weekly installments from March, 30th to June, 30th 1866, the collected installments published in October. Two other volumes of Le Paranasse Contemporain appeared in 1871 and 1876.
He went on to publish numerous collections. Lemerre's publications include many of the chefs-d’œuvre of 19th century French literature and history: Anatole France, Auguste Molinier, Louis Petit de Julleville; la Petite Bibliothèque littéraire, la Bibliothèque des curieux, la Bibliothèque illustrée, la Bibliothèque dramatique, la Petite collection pour la jeunesse, les poèmes nationaux, des livres d’enseignement, and other collections.
He was a mayor of Ville d'Avray, a républicain in politics, anticlerical. He was very attached to his native Normandy. He went there often (to Canisy, to the château de Montmirel and Coutainville) and had several properties there (Dangy, Dais, Méterville).
In 1965 the inheritors of his estate closed the Lemerre publishing house.
[edit] Selection of authors edited by Alphonse Lemerre
Alphonse Lemerre is especially known for having published Parnassian poets. But he also published Classical and Romantic authors and anthologies.
- Théophile Gautier
- Théodore de Banville
- Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle
- François Coppée
- Léon Dierx
- José-Maria de Heredia
- Jean Lahor
- Victor de Laprade
- Catulle Mendès
- Sully Prudhomme
- Paul Verlaine
Collections:
- Le Parnasse contemporain, recueil de vers nouveaux. I- 1866, II- 1869-1871, III- 1876
Anthologies:
- Anthologie des poètes français depuis les origines jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle.
- Anthologie des poètes français, XIXe siècle.
- Sonnets et eaux fortes, 1869, premier livre de peintres paru en France grâce au critique d’art Philippe Burty.
- Le Livre des Sonnets.
- Le Livre des Ballades.
