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Mémoires
Sur les chemins qui marchent
Francis Lacassin

Editions du Rocher • October 2006 • 355 pages

Sophie Colpaert
Translation: Rebecca Schwars

 

In the cosy world of French publishing, Francis Lacassin has, for more than forty years, spread his love for cult fiction (graphic novels, police thrillers, and the supernatural), as well as for literary personalities existing outside the margins of society, whether obscure (Jack London) or misunderstood (Casanova). The first volume of Lacassin's memoirs, a bracing tract of some 350 pages, both enlightening and entertaining, has recently been published. The book is highly recommended to anyone passionate about literature, either fiction or travel.

For an entire generation of readers, Francis Lacassin remains best known for rescuing Jack London from the annals of children's literature, revealing the depth and extent of this author's work. Lacassin published the complete works of London , an international first, as many of these works, while translated in French under Lacassin's guidance, were never published in the United States . These 52 volumes, published by 10/18 from 1973 to 1984, became a long-term project for Lacassin, followed by a public eager for literary discovery.

During the 1970s, when graphic novels were taken seriously only by children (and the teachers who confiscated them), Lacassin, along with fellow fans such as filmmaker Alain Resnais, sought to rediscover these works and accord them a greater appreciation.

“Friendly observer of marginal literature” as he described himself in the foreword to his Mythologie du roman policier (expanded edition published in 1993 by Christian Bourgois), Lacassin was an equally enthusiastic promoter of police thrillers, a genre also languishing in obscurity. Indeed, it was thanks to these two marginal literary genres that Lacassin first made his mark in the publishing world, as he himself describes it in the first chapter of his memoirs.

His story begins in the spring of 1957, under a tent, during the Algerian conflict. At the time, Lacassin was engrossed by Thomas Narcejac 's Cas Simenon. A pioneering author of police thrillers, like his contemporary Pierre Boileau, Narcejac described in simple terms the new directions in police fiction being forged by Simenon.

Lacassin wrote an enthusiastic letter to Narcejac, already considered a master of suspense. This letter, and Narcejac's response, was the beginning of a long friendship - and an even longer career in publishing for Lacassin.

During his long career, Lacassin nurtured friendships with numerous authors including Marcel Allain (one of the creators of Fantômas), Léo Malet, and Georges Simenon, to whom he devoted numerous works (Conversations avec Simenon, La vraie naissance de Maigret). For the misunderstood Léo Malet (Boileau considered him twenty-five years ahead of his time, the reason for poor sales of his work and his relative isolation), Lacassin brought out his complete works, five volumes including commentary. Bouquins (Robert Laffont) brought its author a modest, and gratifying, commercial success during his lifetime.

During his forty years as a publisher, Lacassin left an indelible, and highly recognizable, mark. Known for his meticulous and thorough approach, Lacassin sought to present both authors and their works in detail, by including supplementary material such as annexes, articles, and letters, precisely dated. Finally, he demonstrated, in his by now famous prefaces, that one could write simply - and without jargon – about literature, bringing its pleasures to a wider public.

His memoirs, however, suffer from one serious fault – an intense desire to read all the books Lacassin mentions, and to discover all the writers he promoted during his career.

A second volume will be brought out in 2007 by Rocher.

For more about Lacassin, read his interview with Lire magazine, accessible here.