Romain Gary

Romain Gary (French: [gaʁi]; 21 May [O.S. 8 May] 1914 – 2 December 1980), born Roman Kacew and also known by pen names such as Émile Ajar, was a French diplomat, novelist, film director and World War II aviator of Litvak origin. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two different names.

Early life

Gary was born Roman Kacew (Yiddish: קצב‎, Russian: Рома́н Ка́цев) in Vilna, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania).^[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—?),^[1][3] was a Litvak actress from Švenčionys and his father was a businessman Arieh-Leib Kacew (1883—1942) from Trakai, also a Lithuanian Jew.^[4][5] Arieh Leib abandoned the family in 1925 and remarried. Gary later claimed that his actual father was the celebrated actor and film star Ivan Mozzhukhin, with whom his actress mother had worked and to whom he bore a striking resemblance. Mozzhukhin appears in his memoir Promise at Dawn.^[6] When Gary was fourteen, he and his mother moved to Nice, France. Converted to Catholicism by his mother, 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 bombardier-observer, he took part in over 25 successful sorties, logging over 65 hours of air time.^[7] During this time, he changed his name to Romain Gary. He was decorated for his bravery in the war, receiving many medals and honours, including Compagnon de la Libération and commander of the Légion d'honneur. In 1945 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.^[8] In 1952 he became the secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations.^[8] In 1956, he became Consul General in Los Angeles and became acquainted with Hollywood.^[8]

Literary work

Gary became 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 Émile Ajar in 1975. 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.^[9] Gary also published as Shatan Bogat, Rene Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi, as well as his birth name Roman Kacew.^[10][11]

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),^[12] 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.^[13]

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."^[14]

After learning that Jean Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary challenged him to a duel, but Eastwood declined.^[15]

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.^[16]

Gary was cremated in Père Lachaise Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.^[17]

Bibliography

As Romain Gary

• Éducation européenne (1945); translated as A European Education
• Tulipe (1946); republished and modified in 1970.
• Le Grand Vestiaire (1949); translated as The Company of Men (1950)
• Les Couleurs du jour (1952); translated as The Colors of the Day (1953); filmed as The Man Who Understood Women (1959)
• Les Racines du ciel — 1956 Prix Goncourt; translated as The Roots of Heaven (1957); filmed as The Roots of Heaven (1958)
• Lady L (1958); self-translated and published in French in 1963; filmed as Lady L (1965)
• La Promesse de l'aube (1960); translated as Promise at Dawn (1961); filmed as Promise at Dawn (1970)
• Johnie Cœur (1961, a theatre adaptation of "L'homme a la colombe")
• Gloire à nos illustres pionniers (1962, short stories); translated as "Hissing Tales" (1964)
• The Ski Bum (1965); self-translated into French as Adieu Gary Cooper (1969)
• Pour Sganarelle (1965, literary essay)
• Les Mangeurs d'Etoiles (1966); self-translated into French and first published as The Talent Scout (1961)
• La Danse de Gengis Cohn (1967); self-translated into English as The Dance of Genghis Cohn
• La Tête coupable (1968); translated as The Guilty Head (1969)
• Chien blanc (1970); translated as White Dog (1970); filmed as White Dog (1982)
• Les Trésors de la Mer Rouge (1971)
• Europa (1972); translated in English in 1978.
• The Gasp (1973); self-translated into French as Charge d'ame (1978)
• Les Enchanteurs (1973); translated as The Enchanters (1975)
• La nuit sera calme (1974, interview)
• Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable (1975); translated as Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1977)
• Clair de femme (1977); filmed as Womanlight (1979)
• La Bonne Moitié (1979, play)
• Les Clowns lyriques (1979); new version of the 1952 novel, Les couleurs du jour (The Colors of the Day)
• Les Cerfs-volants (1980)
• Vie et Mort d'Émile Ajar (1981, posthumous)
• L'Homme à la colombe (1984, definitive posthumous version)
• L'Affaire homme (2005, articles and interviews)
• L'Orage (2005, short stories and unfinished novels)
• Un humaniste, short story

As Émile Ajar

• Gros câlin (1974)
• La vie devant soi — 1975 Prix Goncourt; filmed as Madame Rosa (1977); translated as "Momo" (1978); re-released as The Life Before Us (1986).
• Pseudo (1976)
• L'Angoisse du roi Salomon (1979); translated as King Solomon (1983).
• Gros câlin – new version including final chapter of the original and never published version.

As Fosco Sinibaldi

• L'homme à la colombe (1958)

As Shatan Bogat

• Les têtes de Stéphanie (1974)

Filmography

As director

• Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou (Birds in Peru) (1968) starring Jean Seberg
• Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (1971) also starring Jean Seberg

As screenwriter

• The Roots of Heaven (1958)
• The Longest Day (1962)

Further reading

• Ajar, Émile (Romain Gary), Hocus Bogus, Yale University Press, 2010, 224p, ISBN 978-0-300-14976-0 (translation of Pseudo by David Bellos, includes The Life and Death of Émile Ajar)
• Anissimov, Myriam, Romain Gary, le caméléon (Denoël 2004)
• Bellos, David, Romain Gary: A Tall Story, Harvill Secker, 2010, 528p, ISBN 978-1-84343-170-1
• Gary, Romain, Promise at Dawn (Revived Modern Classic), W.W. Norton, 1988, 348p, ISBN 978-0-8112-1016-4
• Huston, Nancy, Tombeau de Romain Gary (Babel, 1997) ISBN 978-2-7427-0313-5
• Bona, Dominique, Romain Gary (Mercure de France, 1987) ISBN 2-7152-1448-0
• Cahier de l'Herne, Romain Gary (L'Herne, 2005)
• Schoolcraft, Ralph W. (2002). Romain Gary: The Man Who Sold his Shadow. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3646-7. 
• Blanch, Lesley, Romain, un regard particulier (Editions du Rocher, 2009) ISBN 978-2-268-06724-7
• Marret, Carine, Romain Gary – Promenade à Nice (Baie des Anges, 2010)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romain Gary.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Romain Gary

• Romain Gary at the Internet Movie Database