Romain Gary

Romain Gary (1914-1980), Novelist

Born Romain Kacew on May 8, 1914 in Vilnius, Lithuania, his father was Russian and his mother was French. At age fourteen, he and his mother moved to France where he later studied law and learned to pilot an aircraft. Following the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, a Jew, he fled to England and under Charles de Gaulle served with the French Free Forces in Europe and North Africa.

After the war, he worked in the French diplomatic service and in 1946 published his first novel. He would become one of France's most popular and prolific writers, authoring more than thirty novels, essays and recollections some of which he wrote under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar. He is the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice.

Romain Gary was married to actress Jean Seberg with whom he had a son, Alexandre Diego Gary.

His books include:

As Romain Gary:

• La nuit sera longue
• Chien blanc
• Les racines du ciel - Prix Goncourt

As Emile Ajar:

• Gros calin
• La vie devant soi - Prix Goncourt

Suffering from depression after the 1979 suicide of his former wife, Jean Seberg, Romain Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on December 2, 1980 in Paris, France.