Death of Hervé de la Martinière, one of the great figures of French publishing
Hervé de La Martinière, former founder and CEO of La Martinière Publishing, died on Thursday, May 8, at the age of 78. His death was announced on Saturday, May 10, by the publishing house and the Média-Participations group.
Born on January 1, 1947 in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), this self-taught man entered the publishing world at a young age, first in the distribution sector of Hachette, where he worked from 1972 to 1975. Having become sales director of Grasset, Fayard, and Chêne, between 1975 and 1979, Hervé de la Martinière became editor at Hachette Littérature, then at Hachette Réalités, before becoming manager of Éditions du Chêne, from 1983 to 1986, and general director of Nathan between 1987 and 1991.
"In 1992, he set out to create his own publishing house, Éditions de La Martinière, dedicated to fine and illustrated books," recalls the press release announcing his death, sent by Éditions de La Martinière and the Média-Participations group. This was followed by "ambitious acquisitions, the most notable of which was the New York-based Abrams Books in 1997."
In 1999, the publication of La Terre vue du ciel by Yann Arthus-Bertrand was "a global success, with 3.5 million copies sold." Hervé de La Martinière was also the publisher of Tous les hommes n'habitent pas le monde de la façon by Jean-Paul Dubois, awarded the Prix Goncourt in 2019 (Éditions de l'Olivier), and of the "Fait Maison" series by chef Cyril Lignac (from 2020).
In 2004, he took over Seuil and associated publishing houses (Points, Métailié, L'Olivier, etc.), making the group "one of the major players in French publishing, controlling its distribution and circulation."
In 2006, Hervé de la Martinière launched a legal action against Google, which was massively digitizing books without publishers' permission and against the wishes of rights holders. He was joined by the National Publishing Union (SNE) and fellow publishers. The dispute ended in 2011 after a digitization agreement was reached with the internet giant.
In 2018, Hervé de La Martinière integrated his publishing house into the Média-Participations group, and became its vice-president.
"He was above all a fervent admirer of his authors, to whom he devoted unfailing loyalty and friendship (...); a lover of literature who was keen to create a literary department named after his publishing house; a defender of the bookstore and of a certain idea of publishing," according to the publishing house and Média-Participations.
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