Romain Gary

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Romain Gary
La vie devant soi
Notable awardsPrix Goncourt (1956 and 1975)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1944; div. 1961)​
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1970)​
Children1
 Literature portal

Romain Gary (pronounced

aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names. He is considered a major writer of French literature of the second half of the 20th century. He was married to Lesley Blanch, then Jean Seberg
.

Early life

Gary was born Roman Kacew (

French Air Force in Salon-de-Provence and in Avord Air Base, near Bourges.[9]

Career

Despite completing all parts of his course successfully, Gary was the only one of almost 300 cadets in his class not to be commissioned as an officer. He believed the military establishment was distrustful of him because he was a foreigner and a

Consul General in Los Angeles and became acquainted with Hollywood.[11]

As Émile Ajar

In a memoir published in 1981, Gary's nephew Paul Pavlowitch claimed that Gary also produced several works under the pseudonym Émile Ajar. Gary recruited Pavlowitch to portray Ajar in public appearances, allowing Gary to remain unknown as the true producer of the Ajar works, and thus enabling him to win the 1975 Goncourt Prize, a second win in violation of the prize's usual rules.[12]

Gary also published under the pseudonyms Shatan Bogat and Fosco Sinibaldi.[12]

Literary work

Place Romain-Gary, located in Paris' 15th arrondissement

Gary became one of France's most popular and prolific writers, writing more than 30 novels, essays and memoirs, some of which he wrote under a pseudonym.

He is the only person to win the

Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to the author of that book without knowing his identity. 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.[13] Gary also published as Shatan Bogat, René Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi, as well under his birth name Roman Kacew.[14][15]

In addition to his success as a novelist, he wrote the screenplay for the motion picture The Longest Day and co-wrote and directed the film Kill! (1971),[16] which starred his wife at the time, Jean Seberg. In 1979, he was a member of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.[17]

Diplomatic career

After the end of the hostilities, Gary began a career as a

Les Racines du ciel
—in London (1955), then as Consul General of France in Los Angeles (1956–1960). Back in Paris, he remained unassigned until he was laid off from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1961).

Personal life and final years

Côte d'Azur
; they lived there in 1950–57.

Gary's first wife was the British writer,

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."[18]

After learning that Jean Seberg had had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary challenged him to a duel, but Eastwood declined.[19]

Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 2 December 1980 in Paris. He left a note which said that his death had no relation to Seberg's suicide the previous year. He also stated in his note that he was Émile Ajar.[20]

Gary was cremated in Père Lachaise Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.[21]

Legacy

The name of Romain Gary was given to a promotion of the École nationale d'administration (2003–2005), the Institut d'études politiques de Lille (2013), the Institut régional d'administration de Lille (2021–2022) and the Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg (2001–2002), in 2006 at Place Romain-Gary in the 15th arrondissement of Paris and at the Nice Heritage Library. The French Institute in Jerusalem also bears the name of Romain Gary.

On 16 May 2019, his work appeared in two volumes in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade under the direction of Mireille Sacotte.

In 2007, a statue of Romualdas Kvintas, «The Boy with a Galoche», was unveiled, depicting the 9-year-old little hero of the Promise of Dawn, preparing to eat a shoe to seduce his little neighbor, Valentina. It is placed in Vilnius, in front of the Basanavičius, where the novelist lived.

A plaque to his name is affixed in the Pouillon building of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille where he studied.

In 2022, Denis Ménochet portrayed Gary in White Dog (Chien blanc), a film adaptation by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette of Gary's 1970 book.[22]

Bibliography

Several Romain Gary works in Bulgarian translations.

As Romain Gary

As Émile Ajar

As Fosco Sinibaldi

As Shatan Bogat

Filmography

As screenwriter

As actor

As director

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ a b c Ivry, Benjamin (21 January 2011). "A Chameleon on Show". Daily Forward.
  2. ^ Romain Gary et la Lituanie Archived 26 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ISBN 978-2-207-24835-5
    , pp. ??
  4. ^ "Romain Gary". Encyclopédie sur la mort. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  5. ISBN 0-8122-3646-7
    .
  6. ^ Schwartz, Madeleine. "Romain Gary: A Short Biography". The Harvard Advocate.
  7. ^ Passports of mother Mina Kacew and nurse-maid Aniela Voiciechowics. See Lithuaninan Central State Archives, F. 53, 122, 5351 and F. 15, 2, 1230. Copies of the documents are in the personal archive of a Moscow historian Alexander Vasin.
  8. ^ a b c d Marzorati 2018
  9. ^ "Romain Gary: The greatest literary conman ever?".
  10. ^ "Ordre de la Libération". Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  11. ^ a b c Bellos, David (2010). Romain Gary: A Tall Story. pp. ??.
  12. ^ a b Prial, Frank J. (2 July 1981). "Gary won '75 Goncourt under Pseudonym 'Ajar'". The New York Times.
  13. ISBN 978-2-07-026351-6
    .
  14. ISBN 978-90-420-2426-7
    .
  15. ISBN 2-909240-70-3
    .
  16. ^ "Romain Gary". IMDb. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  17. ^ "Berlinale 1979: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  18. ^ Paris Match No.3136
  19. ^ Bellos, David (12 November 2010). "Romain Gary: au revoir et merci". The Telegraph. UK.
  20. ^ D. Bona, Romain Gary, Paris, Mercure de France-Lacombe, 1987, p. 397–398.
  21. ISBN 978-2-7491-1350-0
  22. ^ Demers, Maxime (2 November 2022). "«Chien blanc»: le goût du risque d'Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved 30 May 2023.

Further reading

External links

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