John Steinbeck enters Thursday, more than 60 years after his Nobel Prize, in the famous Library whose catalog forms a Pantheon of letters.

Since the creation of the collection in 1931, integrated into the Gallimard editions in 1933, the model has not changed.

Pocket format, opacified Bible paper, Garamond characters, leather cover with fine gold gilded spine, white case: the Pléiades are immediately recognizable.

"The requirement" in the quality of manufacture is a term that often comes up with the production director of Gallimard, Pascal Lenoir.

"The Pléiade reader expects his volume bought in bookstores to be perfect", he underlines.

It ends in the Ateliers Babouot factory in Lagny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, with the helping hand that slips the 1,664-page volume into a white cardboard slipcase.

Under a photo of the author, "John Steinbeck" in red, "Romans" in black.

And it starts with the manufacture of paper at the Papeterie du Léman, near the lake of the same name, in Publier (Haute-Savoie).

The leather cover of the Pléiade books on a production line at the Ateliers Babouot factory, February 6, 2023 in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

This factory, when it started working for La Pléiade, belonged to the Bolloré group, which sold it in 2009. This rival of Gallimard in the publishing sector still sees its name printed at the end of the volume: the precious paper is signed Bolloré Thin Papers, which has gradually supplanted other suppliers.

A machine works there, to order, only a few times a year.

For John Steinbeck's volume, it was early December.

Reprints over decades

"Paper machine No. 4 is the one that produces, among other things, paper for Gallimard, which we call in our range the Bible 36 chamois," production manager Ivan Fourmond told AFP.

36 grams per square meter, buff color (a shade of yellow close to beige).

Paper machine no. 4 which makes the bible paper for the Pléiade volumes, at the Papeterie du Léman, on December 12, 2022 in Publier, in Haute-Savoie © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

"It's about 80 meters long, from start to finish, on three floors, since there are a lot of steps to make a sheet of paper," he adds.

Big rolls come out of this machine, perfectly smooth and even.

Head to the Normandy Roto Impression site, on the outskirts of Alençon, 800 km away.

He is the only one who has the confidence of Gallimard editions.

"The reel, the blank paper, goes into the printing unit. We print double-sided and we print in two 48-page books, that is to say that we print 96 pages in one rotation of the printing group. impression", explained in January its general manager Christophe Pillon.

An employee works on paper machine No. 4 which manufactures the bible paper for the Pléiade volumes, at the Papeterie du Léman, on December 12, 2022 in Publier, Haute-Savoie © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP / Archives

The result is verified by the human eye.

The alignment of text blocks between front and back must be impeccable.

These notebooks laid flat leave for the last stage, at Babouot.

They will start by resting there in the warehouse of the factory.

Covering 3,700 m2, it has a reserve of some 300 different authors whose works are ready to be rebound.

The storage warehouse for printed Bible paper at the Ateliers Babouot factory, on February 6, 2023 in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

Because the Pléiade is an almost unique case of reprints spanning decades.

"Our machines must comply with Gallimard's requirements" and "the operator must adapt to machines from different eras", underlines Marie-Amandine Erika, manufacturing technician.

New Zealand Leather

Installed near the banks of the Marne for half a century, the place is deliberately humid.

This bible paper keeps more flexibility and regularity in a rather high hygrometry.

A volume of La Pléiade takes three weeks to manufacture, between the printed notebooks leaving the warehouse and the finished product.

Notebooks printed on Bible paper at the Ateliers Baouot factory, February 6, 2023 in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

We track down printing or folding defects right from the start.

The notebooks are assembled with cotton sewing thread, then glued together, provided with a flyleaf, held in a "muslin", finally trimmed.

It is then necessary to add to them the famous cardboard cover dressed in leather.

The skins from New Zealand sheep are tanned and dyed in France.

Each era or century has its own colour: havana for the 20th century, therefore Steinbeck.

What will be that of the authors of the 21st century?

"We don't know yet ourselves...", replies Hélène Ladégaillerie, production manager at Babouot.

Rolls of leather used for the cover of the Pléiade volumes at the Ateliers Baouot factory, February 6, 2023 in Lagnu-sur-Marne, near Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

The backs are decorated with 23 carat gold, with irons that apply the horizontal stripes characteristic of the collection.

For 260,000 copies per year, Gallimard consumes some 45 kg of the precious metal.

A machine applies to these backs the curvature appreciated by bibliophiles.

Checked and re-checked at each stage, each volume is completed by hand when it receives its transparent plastic rhodoïd jacket, is inserted into its slipcase, then placed together in cardboard.

An employee of the Ateliers Baouot factory checks the quality of the Pléiade volumes, on February 6, 2023 in Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

The four Steinbeck novels together can go to the distributor, then to the bookstore.

At the beginning of the introduction, page IX, the reader will discover these words from 1939: "I never wanted to be a popular writer".

© 2023 AFP