Parent company Hachette Publication types Books Parent organization Hachette Founder Michel Lévy | Country of origin France Official website calmann-levy.fr Headquarters location Paris, France Founded 1836 | |
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Calmann-Lévy is a French publishing house founded in 1836 by Michel Lévy (1821–1875) and his brother Kalmus "Calmann" Lévy (1819–1891), as Michel Lévy frères. It was renamed Calmann Lévy after the death of Michel in 1875.
By 1875, the company was among the foremost publishing houses of Europe. It was the publisher of most of the important French authors of the second half of the 19th century, including Balzac, Baudelaire, René Bazin, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Dumas, Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Lamartine, Ernest Renan, George Sand, Stendhal. In 1893, Calmann was succeeded by his sons Georges, Paul and Gaston, who went on to publish authors including Anatole France, Pierre Loti and Proust. During Nazi occupation, Gaston Lévy was interned, and the publishing company, run by the Germans, was renamed Éditions Balzac in 1943. After the liberation, the company was headed by Léon Pioton. Authors edited in the postwar period include: Arthur Koestler, Elia Kazan, Anne Frank, and later Donna Leon, Nicolas Hulot, Patricia Cornwell, among others.
Since 1993, Calmann-Lévy has been owned by Hachette (which is in turn owned by Lagardère Group).