Authors’ Heirs Threaten Pullout

The heirs of three of France’s best-known 20th-Century authors and 55 other writers threatened today to switch publishers if a corporate raider succeeded in gaining control of the Gallimard publishing house.

The heirs and copyright holders of Nobel laureates Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Andre Gide made the threat in a statement also signed by Paris-based Czechoslovak author Milan Kundera and best-selling novelist Marguerite Duras.

“If a financial or industrial group succeeds in gaining control of Gallimard, thus jeopardizing its independence, we would immediately withdraw” from Gallimard’s list, they said.

Publishing sources said the authors were likely to find it extremely difficult to pull out if Gallimard changed hands.

French media said construction group Bouygues had expressed interest in buying shares in France’s largest independent publisher since a bitter ownership feud among four Gallimard children broke out in January.

Gallimard’s highbrow list makes it the most sought-after jewel in French publishing.

On Monday, a French court effectively blocked attempts by the publishing house’s chief executive, Antoine Gallimard, to create a new holding company to protect the group against any outside raiders.