Librairie de l'Humanité

The bookshop and publishing arm of L'Humanité. It began in 1913, when the daily still belonged to the Socialist Party; after the Congress of Tours the new Communist Party took over the paper and its bookshop in 1921. Meant to be the party's sole publisher, with Boris Souvarine in charge for a few years, it absorbed other communist imprints, including the Bibliothèque communiste and Éditions Clarté, and between 1920 and 1925 issued 20 to 40 titles a year, averaging about 5,600 copies each. It was not closed outright but replaced: in 1925 the party created the Bureau d'éditions, de diffusion et de publicité to run the national leadership's publishing, and in 1927 added the Éditions Sociales Internationales, more closely controlled by the Comintern. That line of descent leads to the Éditions Sociales of 1944.

Years

1913–1927

Location

Paris, France

Name history

1. 1913–1920 Librairie de l'Humanité (socialist) — Bookshop and publisher of the Socialist Party's daily L'Humanité
2. 1921–1925 Librairie de l'Humanité (communist) — Absorbed the Bibliothèque communiste and Éditions Clarté
3. 1925–? Bureau d'éditions, de diffusion et de publicité — Took over the party leadership's publishing
4. 1927–? Éditions Sociales Internationales — Comintern-controlled successor; later Éditions Sociales

Affiliation

Bookshop and publishing house of L'Humanité — socialist until 1920, then of the French Communist Party

Languages

French

Succeeded by

Éditions Sociales

Authority records

Wikidata · VIAF · Library of Congress · GND · ISNI · BnF

Sources

Cairn — Les maisons d'édition du PCF, 1920–1956; French Wikipedia — Éditions sociales

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