Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the complete works of classic authors in a pocket format.

[1] The Library of America series, launched in 1979, is a similar project in the United States inspired by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade.

André Gide and Jean Schlumberger, creators of the Nouvelle Revue française (NRF), took interest in this, and integrated the collection into Gallimard on 31 July 1936.

Directors of the collection: Each of the volumes published presents a similar high-quality appearance: a leather binding, stamped in gold on the spine, enclosing a text block on bible paper, all in a practical small format.

At the beginning of 2017, the collection includes nearly 800 books and more than 250 authors (collective works excluded): The authors who were alive when published in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade are:[3] The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade also publishes an Album de la Pléiade every Summer, which is an illustrated book in the same format as the rest of the series, usually dedicated to one of the writers but sometimes also dedicated to writers from a specific time period (1989 album) or to an important topic (1970 and 2009 albums) from the collection.