Romain Gary

See also: Gary

Romain Gary , of his true name Romance Kacew , born the May 8th 1914 with Vilnius (Lithuania) and deceased the December 2nd 1980 with Paris, was a Romancier French of Russian origin , single double prize winner of the Prix Goncourt.

Biography

Romain Kacew is the son of Leonid Kacew and Nina Owczynska. Leonid Kacew is the second husband of the mother of Gary, which he married during his pregnancy, letting plane a doubt about the reality of the paternity of the child. Gary is raised by his/her mother after the departure of her father of the conjugal home when he was child. Gary was claimed Jewish by his/her mother who however baptized it catholic with Warsaw where they lived of 1917 to 1928.

Gary arrives with his/her mother to France, with Nice, the 13 years age. He studies the right to Paris. Naturalized French in 1935, it is called with the military service to be useful in aviation where it is built-in 1938. In 1940 it joined the free France where it serves in the Free French Air forces. It is during this period that Romain Kacew chooses the pseudonym of Gary (meaning burns! Russian ). He finishes the war like Compagnon of the Release and commander of the Légion of honor.

After the end of the hostilities, it starts a career of diplomat to the service of France. For this reason, it remains in Bulgaria, Suisse, with New York (with the the United Nations, 1952-54), in Bolivia, then in the capacity as General consul of France with Los Angeles of 1957 to 1961, date on which it puts on leave Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

He was the husband of the écrivaine Lesley Blanch and the American actress Jean Seberg, which he divorced. A little more than one year after the suicide of this one (September 1979), it gives itself death by drawing a ball in the mouth.

The business Emile Ajar

After his disappearance, one learned that, under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar , he was also the author of four novels whose paternity had been allotted to a close relative Paul Pavlovitch, which had ensured the role of Ajar near the press and the public opinion.

Let us add that Ajar and Gary were not its only pseudonyms since it also made a political whodunnit under the name of Shatan Bogat the Heads of Stéphanie , and a signed satirical allegory Fosco Sinibaldi (letters S, I and N masking G, has and R of Gar-ibaldi) the Man with the dove .

Romain Gary is thus the only writer to have ever been, by will of ambiguous mystification (Gary and Ajar means respectively burns! and the ember in Russian; sentences of the one in the different one), are rewarded twice by the Prix Goncourt, the first time under its pseudonym running, for the Roots of the sky , in 1956 and the second time under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, for the Life in front of oneself , in 1975.

Duplicating Ajar/Gary mystification had not passed unperceived from all. In its autobiographical novel the father adopted Didier Van Cauwelaert reports that a coed of the Faculty of letters of Nice, that it names Helene, prepared two years before the public revelation a report where she supported with the great distress of her professors that Gary and Ajar were only one and even nobody.

Re-elected and posterity

Scorned by the critic of alive sound, considered as reactionary author because diplomatic gaullist, the Ajar episode was the thumb your nose in literary All-Paris of an authentic genius of the language which one does not cease redécouvrir today.

Several of its books were adapted to the cinema, in particular Clair of woman (1979) by Costa-Gavras, with Yves Montand and Romy Schneider in the main roles, and the Life in front of oneself (1977) by Moshé Mizrahi, which gained the Oscar of the best foreign film, and in the role of Mrs Rosa, Simone Signoret gained the César of the best actress.

Romain Gary also carried out two films, for which it held at the same time the role of realizer and that of scenario writer. This part of its work hardly was success.

Romain Gary gave his name to a promotion of the National school of administration (2003-2005).

Work

Writings

Under the name of Romain Kacew:
  • 1937 : Wine of dead the

Under the pseudonym of Romain Gary:

Under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar:

Under the pseudonym of Fosco Sinibaldi:

  • 1958 : the Man with the dove

Under the pseudonym of Shatan Bogat:

  • 1974 : Heads of Stéphanie

Films

Song

  • 1971 : Kill' EM all

See too

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