“The entire Gallimard Jeunesse team has the immense sadness to announce the death of Christine Baker”, we could read on Monday April 24 on the Twitter account of the French publishing house. Unknown to the general public, the former editorial director of Gallimard Jeunesse was nevertheless the one who had discovered the British Harry Potter saga, acquired the rights to it and imported it into French bookstores. She passed away at the age of 71, as J.K. Rowling’s first book turns 25 this year.
The entire Gallimard Jeunesse team is deeply saddened to announce the death of Christine Baker. A key figure in children’s publishing, she has for more than 44 years defended the most beautiful texts, the greatest authors and illustrators of children’s literature. pic.twitter.com/HDvn2IiEYC
Christine Baker started out as a bookseller in London before joining Gallimard Jeunesse. For more than 40 years, his role was to track down the best English novels and select those that would be translated by the French publisher. It is, for example, to her that we owe the translation of the books of Philip Pullman (At the crossroads of the worlds) and Roald Dahl (Charlie and the chocolate factory).
Interviewed by Le Parisien in 2018, Christine Baker returned to her first meeting with Harry Potter. A Scottish friend had told him “of a well-crafted wizarding story written by a young single mother”. She immediately fell in love. “For a first novel, it was exceptionally masterful, there was practically nothing to change,” she says. It was perfectly constructed, the characters had depth, all with humor and, of course, incredible inventiveness. It was just unheard of.”
A remarkable intuition, since since its first French publication in October 1998, Gallimard has sold 30 million copies of the adventures of the sorcerer’s apprentice.
