[2] The publisher was founded on 31 May 1911 in Paris by Gaston Gallimard, André Gide, and Jean Schlumberger as Les Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF).

From its 31 May 1911 founding until June 1919, Nouvelle Revue Française published one hundred titles including La Jeune Parque by Paul Valéry.

During the occupation of France in World War II, Gaston Gallimard was hosted in Carcassonne by poet Joë Bousquet.

He returned to Paris in October 1940 to enter discussions with the Third Reich authorities, who wished to control his publishing company.

[5][better source needed] Other important authors include Salman Rushdie, Roald Dahl, Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Philip Roth, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, Pablo Neruda and John Steinbeck.