A total of 115 authors announced on Wednesday evening their decision to leave Grasset editions in protest against the dismissal of their CEO, Olivier Nora, after 26 years at the helm. They accuse Vincent Bolloré, owner of the Hachette group, of undermining editorial independence. The open letter, signed by figures like Virginie Despentes and Bernard-Henri Lévy, refuses to let their work become 'the property of Vincent Bolloré'.
Grasset editions, a subsidiary of the Hachette group controlled by Vincent Bolloré since 2023, officially announced on Tuesday the departure of Olivier Nora, CEO for 26 years. The authors describe this dismissal as 'an unacceptable attack on editorial independence and creative freedom'.
In their open letter titled 'We are 115 authors leaving Grasset', published Wednesday evening, the signatories pay tribute to Olivier Nora: 'Grasset editions were our home, unique because it peacefully brought together female and male authors who disagreed on almost everything. Olivier Nora was the bulwark and the cement through his moral elegance, availability, and commitment'.
'We do not want our ideas, our work, to be his property', they write about Bolloré, whom they accuse of saying: 'I am at home and I do what I want'. They refuse to be 'hostages of an ideological war aiming to impose authoritarianism everywhere in culture and media'. Signatories include Frédéric Beigbeder, Sorj Chalandon, Anne Sinclair, and Pauline Dreyfuss. Sorj Chalandon told AFP: 'I have always said that if a hair of Olivier Nora was touched, I would leave Grasset'.
A source close to the matter links Nora's departure to a disagreement over publishing Boualem Sansal's next book, but the author disputes this, citing a message from Nora: 'You are not the cause'. Jean-Christophe Thiery will succeed Olivier Nora.
