Simone Gallimard (née Cornu; 5 December 1917 – 22 October 1995[1] ) was a French editor, leader of the Mercure de France.
[2] Gallimard was the daughter of André Cornu [fr], a politician and a senior French official who was a senator, deputy before the war and secretary of state for fine arts in different governments, between 1951 and 1954.
The four children of this marriage were Francoise, Christian, Antoine and Isabelle, all working in the book trade.
She was surrounded by renown literary directors such as Renaud Matignon, Michel Cournot, Paul Pavlowitch, Nicolas Bréhal.
She was at the heart of the "Émile Ajar affair": Ajar was awarded the prix Goncourt, when he was in fact the pseudonym of Romain Gary, who still remains the only recipient of two Goncourt awards.