Le camarade infidèle

Le camarade infidèle (The faithless friend) by essayist and novelist Jean Schlumberger was published in Paris in 1922 by Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française. This was not his first book for this publisher, as that had already appeared in 1911 under the title L'Inquiète Paternité. From that time onwards, most of his works would be published by NRF or its successor Gallimard, and with good reason: Schlumberger was one of the founders of the eponymous magazine La Nouvelle Revue Française. The other founders were Jacques Copeau (1879-1949), André Ruyters (1876-1952), André Gide (1869-1951), Henri Ghéon (1875-1944), and Michel Drouin (1871-1943). The first issue was printed in 1908, but that turned out to have been a false start. The enterprise didn't really take off until 1909, and the magazine continues to exist until this very day. It soon became the single defining literary magazine of France, with the term 'literary' signifying far more than literature alone: criticism, art, philosophy and politics were also featured prominently. Schlumberger was one of the editors from 1909 until 1914.

Publisher NRF/Gallimard

In 1911 Gide and Schlumberger founded publisher NRF together with Gaston Gallimard (1881-1975), in order to publish books by editors of the magazine. Usually, publishing businesses founded by enthusiastic and eccentric writers don't survive very long, but the NRF had a different fate. The first editions to appear from NRF were Isabelle by Gide, L'Otage by Paul Claudel, and La mère et l'enfant by Charles-Louis Philippe in 1911. Activities were suspended during World War I, but Gallimard was able to take over the unsold copies of A la recherche du temps perdu from Grasset. Thousands of pages of text were to follow, completing Marcel Proust's masterpiece. Both author and publisher were soon awarded the prix Goncourt in 1919. That same year, the publisher's name was changed to Librairie Gallimard, of which Jacques Rivière became the director. Other big names would later appear on the list of the board of directors, like André Malraux, Jacques Schiffrin and Drieu la Rochelle. The publisher's name was ultimately changed to Éditions Gallimard in 1961. It is the most prestigious French publisher, responsible after World War II for the publications of Sartre and Camus, among others, and therefore the dominant force in literary life.

The appearance of books published by NRF and Gallimard is as recognisable as it is celebrated: a white cover with the author's name, title and publisher's name, partially printed in red. All this is centred within two frames: a black exterior outlining and a double-lined interior frame which isprinted in red. The first of Schlumberger's books published by NRF in 1911 featured this design, and it was printed by the man who designed it: Edouard Verbeke (1881-1954) of The St. Catherine Press Ltd. in Bruges. The printing business was later sold to Gallimard, but it maintained a certain independence. Le camarade infidèle was printed in 1922 by the company of Pigelet and Sons in Orléans. The books published by NRF were later printed by many other printers, but nevertheless maintained a uniform design thanks to their striking use of the two frames on the cover. The publisher's device, the italicised letters 'NRF', were drawn by Schlumberger. At first, the books were not bound, but sewn. Later, in the 1950s, NRF published a series of books in bindings designed by Paul Bonet and others. These were cardboard bindings printed in colourful, modern patterns, which are now coveted collector's items. Several other series of books were also published- each with its own distinctive appearance- so the publisher came to master many genres of literary book editions.