Calmann-Lévy

Calmann-Lévy was founded in 1836, and its building’s pediment is inscribed with the names of some of literature’s greatest figures, including Balzac, Baudelaire, D’Annunzio, Dumas, Gorki, Flaubert, Hugo, Lamartine, Pirandello, Renan, Sand and Stendhal. The prestige of the past, however, has never overshadowed the ambitions of the present. On the contrary, Calmann-Lévy has always been committed to creating collections that quickly become flagship brands in their own right, such as Traduit De, founded in 1946, which publishes translations of Knut Hamsun and Hermann Hesse, among others, and Liberté de l’Esprit, created in 1947 by Raymond Aron, who is also published by Calmann-Lévy alongside Hannah Arendt, Robert Paxton and Léon Poliakov.

Calmann-Lévy is the historical publisher of the Anne Frank Diary, whose 90th anniversary we celebrated in 2019. In an eponymous collection created in partnership with the Mémorial de la Shoah Jewish museum and documentation centre in Paris, Calmann-Lévy publishes a range of texts whose scientific and historical value represent a significant advance in the understanding and knowledge of the Holocaust.

In 2010, Calmann-Lévy created the “Territoires” collection, devoted to regional French literature, thanks to which such novelists as Jean Anglade, Jean-Paul Malaval, Antonin Malroux and Françoise Bourdon have joined the line-up. Launched in 2011, the Robert Pépin Presents… collection is proud to publish such major thriller writers as Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos and Lee Child. The collection follows in the footsteps of authors who have established the publisher’s reputation in the genre and are now all regrouped under the brand “Calmann-Lévy Noir”: Patricia Highsmith, Donna Leon and, more recently, Tana French, Donato Carrisi, Niko Tackian, Camilla Grebe, Alex Michaelides, Jérôme Loubry, who enjoy worldwide successes.

Authors translated from foreign languages include Thomas Harris, Martin Amis whose Zone of Interest published in 2015, Howard Jacobson (Man Booker prize laureate), or Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love. As for French literature, in addition to such emblematic authors as Barbara Constantine or Elise Fontenaille, new voices such as Guillaume Musso, Pierre Lemaitre, Yann Queffélec, Marie-Bernadette Dupuy, Julien Sandrel, Laurence Peyrin or even Guillaume Sire, Cécile Pivot…

Nonfiction constitutes a substantial share of the publisher’s production, and Calmann-Lévy took particular pride in publishing the autobiographical reflections of Malala Yousafzaï, the 2014 Peace Prize Laureate, or Nora Fraisse’s bestselling testimony Marion, 13 ans pour toujours about bullying, and more recently, Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist from Sweden. Our attachement to History is also present with writers such as Antony Beevor or Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Calmann-Lévy has recently developed a graphic line: Calmann-Lévy Graphique. It includes several works by L’Homme étoilé, and very recently the magnificent adaptation of Guillaume Musso’s novel La Vie secrète des écrivains by Miles Hyman.

Calmann-Lévy includes the following brand: Kero.