Romain Gary

Romain Gary
Born Roman Kacew[1]
21 May 1914 (1914-05-21)
Vilnius
Died 2 December 1980 (1980-12-03) (aged 66)
Paris, France
Occupation diplomat, pilot, writer
Nationality French
Citizenship France
Education Law
Alma mater Aix-en-Provence
Genres Novel
Notable work(s) Les racines du ciel
La vie devant soi as Émile Ajar
Notable award(s) Prix Goncourt (1956 and 1975)
Spouse(s) Lesley Blanch (1944–1961)
Jean Seberg (1962–1970)
Children 1
Literature portal

Romain Gary (21 May [O.S. 8 May] 1914 – 2 December 1980) was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice (under his own name and under a pseudonym).

Contents

Early life

Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew (Yiddish: קצב, Russian: Рома́н Ка́цев).[1][2] In his books and interviews, he presented many different versions of his parents' origins, ancestry, occupation and his own childhood. His mother, Mina Owczyńska (1879—?),[3][4] was a Jewish actress from Švenčionys and his father was a businessman Arieh-Leib Kacew (1883—1942) from Trakai.[5][6] Arieh Leib abandoned the family in 1925 and remarried. When Gary was fourteen, he and his mother moved to Nice, France. Gary studied law, first in Aix-en-Provence and then in Paris. He learned to pilot an aircraft in the French Air Force in Salon-de-Provence and in Avord Air Base, near Bourges.

Career

Following the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, he fled to England and under Charles de Gaulle served with the Free French Forces in Europe and North Africa. As a pilot, he took part in over 25 successful sorties, logging over 65 hours of air time. During this time, he changed his name to Romain Gary. He was greatly decorated for his bravery in the war, receiving many medals and honours among which Compagnon de la Libération and commander of the Légion d'honneur. It was in 1945 that he published his first novel Education européenne . Immediately following his service in the war, he worked in the French diplomatic service in Bulgaria and Switzerland.,[7] ultimately becoming the secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations in New York, in 1952.[7] In 1956, he became Consul General of France in Los Angeles. It was in this post he became acquainted with Hollywood.[7]

Literary work

Gary would become one of France's most popular and prolific writers, authoring more than thirty novels, essays and memoirs, some of which he wrote under a pseudonym.

He is the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice. This prize for French language literature is awarded only once to an author. Gary, who had already received the prize in 1956 for Les racines du ciel, published La vie devant soi under the pseudonym of Émile Ajar in 1975. The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to the author of this book without knowing his real identity. A period of literary intrigue followed. Gary's cousin's son Paul Pavlowitch posed as the author for a time. Gary later revealed the truth in his posthumous book Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar.[8] It was not unusual for Gary to write under an assumed name. He also published as Shatan Bogat, Rene Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi, as well as his own name Roman Kacew.[9][10]

In addition to his success as a novelist, he was involved in movies. He wrote the screenplay for the motion picture, The Longest Day and co-wrote and directed the 1971 film Kill!,[11] starring his now ex-wife Seberg. In 1979, he was a member of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.[12]

Personal life and final years

Gary's first wife was the British writer, journalist, and Vogue editor Lesley Blanch (author of The Wilder Shores of Love). They married in 1944 and divorced in 1961. From 1962 to 1970, Gary was married to American actress Jean Seberg, with whom he had a son, Alexandre Diego Gary. According to Diego Gary, he was a distant presence as a father; "Even when he was around, my father wasn't there. Obsessed with his work, he used to greet me, but he was elsewhere."[13]

Suffering from depression after Seberg's 1979 supposed suicide, Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound[14] on 2 December 1980 in Paris, France, though he left a note which said specifically that his death had no relation to Seberg's suicide. He also stated in his note that Émile Ajar was himself.

Gary was cremated in Père Lachaise Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.[15]

Bibliography

As Romain Gary

As Émile Ajar

As Fosco Sinibaldi

As Shatan Bogat

Filmography

As director

As screenwriter

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b Benjamin Ivry, "A Chameleon on Show," Daily Forward, January 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Romain Gary et la Lituanie
  3. ^ Myriam Anissimov. Romain Gary, le Caméléon. Paris: Les éditions Folio Gallimard, 2004. ISBN 9782207248355
  4. ^ Benjamin Ivry «A Chameleon on Show»
  5. ^ Encyclopedie sur la mort «Romain Gary»
  6. ^ Schoolcraft, Ralph W. (2002). Romain Gary: the man who sold his shadow. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 165. ISBN 0812236467. 
  7. ^ a b c Bellos, David, Romain Gary: A Tall Story, 2010
  8. ^ Gary, Romain, Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar, GALLIMARD - NRF (17 juillet 1981), 42p, ISBN 978-2070263516.
  9. ^ Lushenkova, Anna (2008). "La réinvention de l'homme par l'art et le rire: 'Les Enchanteurs' de Romain Gary". In Clément, Murielle Lucie. Écrivains franco-russes. Faux titre. 318. Rodopi. pp. 141–163. ISBN 9042024267. 
  10. ^ Di Folco, Philippe (2006). Les grandes impostures littéraires: canulars, escroqueries, supercheries, et autres mystifications. Écriture. pp. 111–113. ISBN 2909240703. 
  11. ^ Romain Gary on the IMDb website
  12. ^ "Berlinale 1979: Juries". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1979/04_jury_1979/04_Jury_1979.html. Retrieved 2010-08-08. 
  13. ^ Paris Match No.3136
  14. ^ "Romain Gary". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/226290/Romain-Gary. Retrieved June 24, 2009. 
  15. ^ Beyern, B., Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres, Le Cherche Midi, 2008, 377p, ISBN 978-2749113500

External links