“From Paul to POL: A Journey Through Forty Years of Independent Publishing”

In 1983, a young publisher who had already made a name for himself in the “big” houses made the choice of independence. POL editions were born from this decision of Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens. We were able to take the measure of this adventure when he died on January 2, 2018. We will not succumb to the temptation to make an inventory of the authors he discovered, supported, accompanied. Let’s just say that entire sections of our literature have emerged in the “desirable place” that he had been able to create.

Defining precisely what was specific about his work, what objectives animated him, what he defended, rejected, encouraged is a task that is now the responsibility of testimony and research. In 2022, an international symposium was held at the universities of Poitiers and Paris Cité to try to approach these forty years of publication. The book which appears today makes it possible to discern several tracks. What distinguishes POL, say the editors of the book, is perhaps, in addition to the desire for freedom and the taste for risk, a concern for form, for writing that never fails, whatever the personalities of the writers it publishes, bringing to life and evolving a constantly renewed modernity, without avant-gardism or renunciation. We will also note an original, complex practice of relations with “his” writers, which Frédéric Boyer, who succeeded him, defines as “support insecurity”.

Diverting a title from Olivier Cadiot, Future, ancient, fugitive, the book combines testimonials, thematic studies and perspective. It makes it possible to measure the impact of an exceptional company, and brings to life the endearing journey that leads from Paul to POL