Cover of the first book clandestinely published by Les Éditions de Minuit, as part of the French Resistance during WWII

Les Éditions de Minuit (midnight editions) is a French publishing house which has its origins in the French Resistance of World War II and still publishes books today. Cover of Le Silence de la mer, a French novel by Vercors (Jean Bruller) published clandestinely during the French Resistance, WWII. From [1]. This work is copyrighted. ... Cover of Le Silence de la mer, a French novel by Vercors (Jean Bruller) published clandestinely during the French Resistance, WWII. From [1]. This work is copyrighted. ... Publishing is the activity of putting information in the public arena. ... The French Resistance is the name used for resistance movements that fought military occupation of France by Nazi Germany and the resulting Vichy France during World War II after France surrendered in 1940. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... A book is a collection of leaves of paper, parchment or other material, bound together along one edge within covers. ...

History

It was founded by writer and illustrator Jean Bruller (1902-1991) and writer Pierre de Lescure (1891-1963) in 1941 in Paris, during the German occupation of northern France (by November 1942, German forces occupied the whole of France). At this time, the media and all forms of publishing were controlled and censored by the German occupiers. Les Éditions de Minuit was set up to circumvent this censorship, and so was a secret or underground publisher until the liberation of Paris (August 25, 1944). Though anyone who creates a written work may be called a writer, the term is usually reserved for those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... An illustrator is a graphic artist that specializes in enhancing written text by providing a graphic representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. ... Jean Bruller (1902-1991) was a French writer and illustrator who co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit. ... 1902 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Though anyone who creates a written work may be called a writer, the term is usually reserved for those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Events January-February January 11 - The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... France surrendered to Nazi Germany early in World War II (June 24, 1940). ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. ... August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The first book published was La Silence de la mer (The Silence of the Sea) by co-founder Jean Bruller (in 1942, under the pseudonym Vercors), which was distributed, like other Resistance texts, by being passed from person to person. This was followed in 1943 by Chroniques interdites (banned newspaper columns, various authors), L'honneur des poètes (the honour of poets) poetry collected by Paul Eluard, Le cahier noir (The Black Notebook) by François Mauriac and Le musée Grévin (The Grévin Museum (waxworks)) by Louis Aragon. 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... A pseudonym is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to their legal name (whereas an allonym is the name of another actual person assumed by one person in authorship of a work of art; e. ... Jean Bruller (1902-1991) was a French writer and illustrator who co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit. ... In language, text is something that contains words to express something. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Paul Éluard was the nom de plume of Eugène Grindel (December 14, 1895 - November 18, 1952), a French poet. ... François Mauriac ( October 11, 1885– September 1, 1970) was a French author. ... A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection wax figures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses. ... Louis Aragon (October 3, 1897 - December 24, 1982), French historian, poet and novelist. ...

During World War II, Jean Bruller and Pierre de Lescure were joined by a small group of printers. Together they risked imprisonment (and worse) to publish works by some of France's greatest authors (under pseudonyms), including Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon Jacques Maritain, François Mauriac, Jean Paulhan, André Chamson, André Gide and even the first unabridged French translation of John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down (Nuits noires). The word printer is used to describe a company that provides commercial printing services, involving typesetting, printing and book-binding. ... A pseudonym is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to their legal name (whereas an allonym is the name of another actual person assumed by one person in authorship of a work of art; e. ... Paul Éluard was the nom de plume of Eugène Grindel (December 14, 1895 - November 18, 1952), a French poet. ... Louis Aragon (October 3, 1897 - December 24, 1982), French historian, poet and novelist. ... Jacques Maritain (November 18, 1882 – April 28, 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher who had one of the great minds of the 20th century. ... François Mauriac ( October 11, 1885– September 1, 1970) was a French author. ... André Paul Guillaume Gide ( November 22, 1869 – February 19, 1951) was a French author and spokesman for gay rights. ... John Steinbeck - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The Moon Is Down book cover The Moon Is Down is a novel by John Steinbeck, an American author. ...

After the war, when Les Éditions de Minuit was first able to operate openly, it continued to publish books but for the first few years was financially unstable. In the 1950s, the company began to be more successful. It was the first to publish several novels by Samuel Beckett (who wrote in French as well as English, and was resident in France at the time). Other authors published include Alain Robbe-Grillet, Claude Simon, Marguerite Duras and Robert Pinget. Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. ... Quantum Leap Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (April 13, 1906 – December 22, 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. ... Alain Robbe-Grillet (born August 18, French agricultural engineer, filmmaker and writer. ... Claude Simon (French, born 10 October 1913 in Tananarive/ Madagascar): He is the 1985 Nobel Laureate in Literature who in his novels combines the poets and the painters creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition. ... Marguerite Donnadieu (April 4, 1914 - March 3, 1996), better known as Marguerite Duras, was a writer and film director. ... Robert Pinget (Geneva, July 19, 1919 - Tours, August 25, 1997) was a major avant-garde French writer, born in Switzerland, who wrote several difficult novels and other prose pieces that drew comparison to Beckett and other major Modernist writers. ...

Today

The style of the front covers of their books is still almost as sparse as the edition of Le Silence de la mer shown above. The only decoration is a blue border and the symbol of Les Éditions de Minuit: a star and the letter m.

External link

• Official website of Les Éditions de Minuit (http://www.leseditionsdeminuit.fr/) (in French)