Gaston Gallimard

France. Gallimard grew out of the literary magazine La Nouvelle Revue française, founded by André Gide and others, whose editors asked him to run its book publishing from 1911. He famously turned down Proust at first, then won him back, and built a list of Camus, Sartre and much of modern French literature, along with the prestigious Pléiade editions. Gallimard remains a family-controlled independent house.