Georges-Célestin Crès (1875 – 13 December 1935) was a French editor and bookseller, highly active early in the 20th century.

Life

Georges Crès was born in 1875 in Paris, where he began his career at 13 years old as a bookstore clerk. An autodidact, he began writing in 1905 under the pseudonym Jean Serc, with his first article, "Un clérical athée, M. Jules Soury," appearing in the ''

Mercure de France The () was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was publis ...

''. In 1908, he opened a bookstore in Paris, and he began operating as a publisher the following year. Crès worked with

Adolphe van Bever Adolphe van Bever (25 December 1871, 12th arrondissement of Paris – 7 January 1927, Paris) was a 19th–20th-century French bibliographer and erudite. Biography Born in a poor family, he nevertheless one day discovered a passion for science ...

to produce a collection titled "Les Maîtres du livre" ("The Masters of the Book"), which included woodcuts by . He also published a collection called "Artistes nouveaux" ("New Artists"), overseen by

George Besson George Besson (25 December 1882 – 19 June 1971) was a French art critic, and the founder and director of ''Cahiers d'Aujourd'hui''. His wife Adèle was the subject of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's ''Portrait of Adèle Besson'', and he was the subjec ...

. These books were beautifully produced but relatively inexpensive. In 1913, he established the publishing house Crès & C^ie (Crès & Co.), which he renamed Éditions Georges Crès & C^ie in 1918. It was based in the

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in ...

. The Swiss section of the French foreign ministry's propaganda office sent Crès to Switzerland in July 1916, and he was tasked with establishing two French-language bookstores in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

. In the 1920s, he was also a distributor for the publishers , La Banderole, La Chimère,

Devambez Maison Devambez is the name of a fine printer's firm in Paris. It operated under that name from 1873, when a printing business established by the royal engraver Hippolyte Brasseux in 1826 was acquired by Édouard Devambez. At first the firm sp ...

, the Société littéraire de France, and others. After a serious car accident, Crès sold his printing house in 1925 to René Gas and Camille Sauty. He instead took over management of a small publisher called Les Arts et le Livre in 1928, which was renamed Les Œuvres représentatives that year. After his departure, Éditions Crès went bankrupt in 1935. Crès died in 1935. His son Jean Crès carried on his father's publishing tradition, producing a collection in honor of Georges titled "La Tradition du livre" ("The Tradition of the Book") in 1947. The younger Crès worked as a master printer and publisher until his death in June 1969, and his own son Raymond continued the family tradition as a printer until his retirement; he died in March 2017.

Notable works printed by Georges Crès & C^ie

Books

* ''La Bibliothèque de l'Académie Goncourt'' * "Classica" series (including works by

René Bizet René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

Léon Bloy Léon Bloy (; 11 July 1846 – 3 November 1917) was a French Catholic novelist, essayist, pamphleteer (or lampoonist), and satirist, known additionally for his eventual (and passionate) defense of Catholicism and for his influence within Frenc ...

Élie Faure Jacques Élie Faure (; 4 April 1873 in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, France – 29 October 1937 in Paris) was a French medical doctor, art historian and essayist. He is the author of the ''History of Art,'' considered a historiographical pillar in the d ...

Rémy de Gourmont Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Gour ...

, Paul Reboux,

Victor Segalen Victor Segalen (14 January 1878 – 21 May 1919) was a French naval doctor, ethnographer, archeologist, writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist, linguist and literary critic. He was born in Brest. He studied medicine and graduated at the Nav ...

Marcel Schwob Mayer André Marcel Schwob, known as Marcel Schwob (23 August 1867 – 26 February 1905), was a French symbolist writer best known for his short stories and his literary influence on authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alfonso Reyes, Roberto Bo ...

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the ...

) * "Drames d'histoire et de police" series (including works by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

, J. Storer Clouston,

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

, Arthur Morrisson, , Marriot Wattson) * ''Histoire de l'Art'' by

Elie Faure Elie may refer to: People * Elie (given name) * Elie (surname) Places *Elie, Fife, a village in Scotland, now part of the town of Elie and Earlsferry *Elie, Manitoba, Canada **Elie, Manitoba tornado See also *Elie Hall, Grenada *Elie House, cou ...

* "Les Grands Livres" series (including ''

Gargantua and Pantagruel ''The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel'' (), often shortened to ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' or the (''Five Books''), is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It tells the advent ...

'', '' Le Rouge et le Noir'', plays by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

) * Complete works of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

Periodicals

* ''La Phalange, revue mensuelle de littérature et d'art'' edited by Henri Aimé and

Jean Royère Jean Royère (1902–1981) was one of the leading figures of French twentieth-century decorative arts. While absorbing the zeitgeist, and riffing on the modernist vocabulary, his sense of proportion, texture and colour twisted and turned the comm ...

* ''Les Cahiers d'aujourd'hui'' edited by George Besson

References

Bibliography

* « L'éditeur Georges-Célestin Crès est mort », in ''Toute l’Édition'', 21 décembre 1935, nº 303. *« Crès, Georges » par Marie-Gabrielle Slama, in ''Dictionnaire encyclopédique du Livre'', Paris, Cercle de la Librairie, 2002, tome 1, .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cres, Georges 1875 births category:1935 deaths category:French editors category:Publishing companies of France Defunct publishing companies