Le Livre de Poche

Le Livre de Poche ( " The paperback " ) is a French book series. The publication series was launched on 9 February 1953 by Henri Filipacchi and is published by Hachette publishing house.

History of the Book series

A Paperback format existed even before the book of the same series: 1905 a series of books under the name Livre de poche was created by Jules Tallandier publisher to life. Thus, especially the low-price segment for known novels was served. Henri Filipacchi 1953 convinced his publisher Albin Michel colleagues, Calmann - Lévy, Grasset and Gallimard to start the Livre de poche series, and are therefore the "founding fathers" of the book series. On February 9, 1953, the first books on the market, gaining considerable popularity came. Especially among students the books of the series were sought that offered well-known literature at low prices and remembered their design of the title pages of books on cinema posters. 1954 Hachette bought the naming rights to the book series, published from now on in the Hachette Publishing.

Initially, every other week came a new book added in 1955 already each week. Were still sold 8 million copies in the period 1957-1958, there were already 28 million in 1969.

Shortly after the founding of the Livre de Poche competitors were added: the series J'ai lu by Flammarion (1958), Presses Pocket by Presses de la Cité (1972) and Folio Gallimard (1972). To date, however, remains Le Livre de poche with over a billion books sold ( 18 million in 2002), the best-selling French books series. The best-selling book in the series is Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain -Fournier, followed by au poing by Hervé Bazin Vipère (each more than 4 million copies sold). The best-selling author Agatha Christie ( over 40 million ), followed by Émile Zola ( 22 million ).