9 In Support of Philosophy 1973–1976
As far as publishers were concerned, Jacques Derrida always
insisted on his independence. From the very fi rst contract he ever
signed, he struck out the ‘preferential clause’ that tied him to sub-
mitting his following works to the same publisher. His main links
were, for many years, with reviews rather than publishing houses: he
was less close to Éditions de Minuit than to Jean Piel and Critique,
less close to Éditions du Seuil than to Philippe Sollers and Tel Quel.
On both these sides, relations had become diffi cult if not impossible.
As for the Presses Universitaires de France, who had published his
fi rst works on Husserl, they were a much too traditional publishing
house for the projects he was now developing. And since his quarrel
with Foucault, it was clear that Gallimard would have nothing
further to do with him.
For Michel Delorme and Éditions Galilée, Derrida showed
immediate enthusiasm. The small scale of the publisher, its coop-
erative character, and the attention it paid to the material aspect
of books were all factors that appealed to him. After the success of
The Title of the Letter, Derrida wanted to go further and produce
a real series. At the end of summer 1973, he discussed this at length
with Delorme, who seemed ‘ready for anything’, as Derrida wrote
to Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. He wanted the latter, as well as Jean-
Luc Nancy and Sarah Kofman, to help manage the project. At the
end of October or beginning of November, Derrida suggested that
they meet up in Paris ‘to look over all eventualities, systematically
and in minute detail, with all the papers to hand’.^1
The Speculative Remark by Jean-Luc Nancy, which Derrida
greatly admired, was to fi gure among the fi rst titles, as well as The
Jewish Figures of Marx by Élisabeth de Fontenay and Camera
Obscura by Sarah Kofman. Derrida was convinced that the philo-
sophical series they were envisaging answered a real need. It could
rapidly assume ‘a very necessary and very active place’.^2 One of
Galilée’s advantages was the speed with which it could react: things
were soon licked into shape, and the fi rst books came out at the end