Sébastien Japrisot

Sébastien Japrisot
Born Jean-Baptiste Rossi
4 July 1931
Marseille, France
Died 4 March 2003 (aged 71)
Vichy, France
Pen name Sébastien Japrisot
Robert Huart
Occupation Author
Screenwriter
Film director
Nationality French
Period 1950-2003
Genre Literary fiction, thriller
Signature

Sébastien Japrisot (4 July 1931 – 4 March 2003) was a French author, screenwriter and film director, born in Marseille. His pseudonym was an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Rossi, his real name. Japrisot has been nicknamed "the Graham Greene of France".

Famous in the Francophony, he is little known in the English-speaking world, though a number of his novels have been translated into English and have been made into films.

Biography

Sébastien Japrisot made his mark as an author at seventeen, when his novel Les Mal Partis was published in France and America. He followed this with outstanding translations of J. D. Salinger's novels. He pursued a successful career in advertising and publicity.

In 1962, he had an intriguing idea for a crime novel. As he did not feel at ease about his entry into this new field, he used an anagram of his own name as his pseudonym. However, the reception to The 10.30 from Marseille left no one in doubt that a great crime writer had made his debut. The book was quickly made into a film by Costa-Gavras starring Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Catherine Allégret, Jacques Perrin, etc.

His second mystery was Trap for Cinderella. This won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for 1963. The film starred Dany Carrel, and Madeleine Robinson.

He followed this with The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, which won him a second major French award - Le Prix d'Honneur 1966. In England it won the Crime Writer's Association Silver Dagger for the best Thriller published in the United Kingdom in 1968 by a foreign writer.

He was also scriptwriter and film director. One Deadly Summer was made into a film starring Isabelle Adjani. A Very Long Engagement was an international bestseller and won the Prix Interallié.

French bibliography

Novels

Crime novels

Screenplays

Translations in French

Collections

English translations

Books
Year of publication in France Original French title
France 		English title / translation
United States United Kingdom 		Publication
1950 Les Mal Partis The False Start
= Awakening
Transl. ?
  1. The False Start. London, Secker and Warburg, 1951, 212 p.
  2. Awakening. New York, Harper [1952], 244 p.
1950 Visages de l'amour et de la haine Faces of Love and Hatred -
1962 Compartiment tueurs The 10:30 from Marseille
= The Sleeping-car murders
Transl. by Francis Price
  1. The 10:30 from Marseille. Garden City, N.Y. : Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday [1963], 181 p.
  2. The 10:30 from Marseille. London : Souvenir Press, 1964, 181 p.
  3. The Sleeping-car murders. Harmondsworth, Eng. ; New York : Penguin Books, 1978, c1963, 181 p. ISBN 0-14-004992-4
  4. The Sleeping car murders. New York, N.Y. : Plume, [1997], 181 p. ISBN 0-452-27778-7
  5. The 10:30 from Marseille. London : Harvill Press, 1998, 214p. ISBN 1-86046-440-8 (pbk)
1963 Piège pour Cendrillon Trap for Cinderella
Transl. by Helen Weaver
  1. New York : Simon and Schuster, 1964, 171 p.
  2. London : Souvenir Press, 1965, 171 p.
  3. New York : Plume, 1997, 171 p. ISBN 0-452-27779-5
1965 L'Odyssexe - -
1966 La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil The Lady in the car with glasses and a gun
Transl. by Helen Weaver
  1. New York : Simon and Schuster, [1967], 240 p.
  2. London : Souvenir Press, 1968, 240 p. ISBN 0-285-50076-7
  3. New York : Penguin Books, 1980, 253 p. ISBN 0-14-005361-1 (pbk.)
  4. New York : Plume, [1997], 224 p. ISBN 0-452-27777-9
  5. London : Harvill, 1998, c1967, 233p. (Panther). ISBN 1-86046-439-4 (pbk)
1968 Adieu l'ami Goodbye, friend
Transl. by Patricia Allen Dreyfus
  1. London : Souvenir Press, 1969, 185 p. ISBN 0-285-50263-8
  2. New York : Simon and Schuster, [1969], 185 p.
  3. London : Corgi, 1971, 126 p. ISBN 0-552-08705-X (pbk)
1977 L'Été meurtrier One Deadly Summer
Transl. by Alan Sheridan
  1. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1980, 279 p. ISBN 0-15-169381-1
  2. Harmondsworth ; New York : Penguin Books, 1981, c1980, 297 p. (Penguin crime fiction). ISBN 0-14-005846-X (pbk.)
  3. New York : Plume, 1997. ISBN 0-452-27780-9
  4. London : Harvill, 2000, c1980, 279 p. ISBN 1-86046-773-3 (pbk.)
1986 La Passion des femmes Women in Evidence
= The Passion Of Women
Transl. by Ros Schwartz
  1. The Passion Of Women. New York : Crown, c1990, 312 p. ISBN 0-517-56940-X
  2. Women in evidence. Harpenden : No Exit, 1995, c1990, 310p. ISBN 1-874061-25-4 (pbk.)
  3. Women in evidence. New York, N.Y. : Plume, [2000], 326 p. ISBN 0-452-28162-8 (pbk.)
1991 Un long dimanche de fiançailles A Very Long Engagement
Transl. by Linda Coverdale
  1. New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1993, 327 p. ISBN 0-374-28335-4
1992 Le Passager de la pluie Rider on the Rain
Transl. by Linda Coverdale
  1. London : Harvill, 1999, 150 p. ISBN 1-86046-542-0 (pbk)

Filmography

Additionally, in 1992, Daam Autos (The Lady in the Car) premiered in Estonia, which is based on the novel La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil by Japrisot. It was directed by Peeter Urbla, adapted for screen by Roman Balayan.

Director - Filmography

Awards

External links