placing it among the leading literary bookstores. Poetry, plays, essays, and French and international literature, as well as youth reading material are its forte.

The prestigious GALLIMARD name is no stranger to success. The company was created by Gaston Gallimard, with origins from the New French Review – the NRF founded by André Gide and his friends. It began publishing in 1911 and became one of the paragons of French independent publishing. The literary collection of the Gallimard Editions is almost a hundred years old, includes some 20,000 references, and carries almost all the great names of French, European, and international literature.

The Librairie Gallimard Montreal bookstore covers a wide range of literature and promotes French and Québécois publishers. Both the Montreal and Internet clientele expect the bookstore to sell all available collections of the Gallimard Editions. And they are absolutely right to do so! This bookstore was the first to put up an online site in Quebec, January 1, 1996. GallimardMontreal.com was therefore the very first virtual bookstore in Quebec. The site’s appearance was lauded by Jean-Pierre Cloutier in his Chroniques de Cybérie, dated January 19, 1996: “A very comprehensive site […] for the Librairie Gallimard Montreal bookstore. The site is a reflection of the bookstore’s ventures, which in addition to selling books, also organizes discussions and meetings focused on certain books, themes, or authors.

Director Jean-Francois Chételat offers an incisive word of welcome: “The disappearance of books has been forecasted for the last fifty years. Radio, television, and videos were supposed to push them to extinction. The “information superhighway” is the new threat. We would like to turn this foe into a friend and use it to show the allure of books…” (http://www.cyberie.qc.ca/chronik/960119.html). Originally, the website’s address was mostly circulated around literary forums of the academic world, namely in the United States; now, however, the site is visited by Francophiles and Francophones from all over the world, and held in high regard by professors, students, and book trade shows who find it less costly, less time consuming, and less risky to have a book sent from Montreal than from Europe. The web site is now in its third generation. About 25% of its sales are from online orders, including from regions outside Quebec. In this new version of the site, both regular and new visitors, as well as professionals, will have many more tools at their disposal to save their search results, put books aside for future purchases, track the progress of their orders, and keep up to date on new titles. We are, of course, very happy to receive your comments about this new site.

Ferdinand, your virtual bookstore.