Romain Gary (born Roman Leibovich Kacew; May 21, 1914 [Old Style May 8] – December 2, 1980), also known by the pen name Émile Ajar, was a Lithuanian-born French novelist, diplomat, film director, and military pilot. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice (once under a pen name). He is considered a major writer in French literature of the second half of the 20th century.
Early life
Gary was born Roman Leibovich Kacew (Yiddish: רומן קצב, romanized: Roman Katsev; Russian: Рома́н Ле́йбович Ка́цев, romanized: Roman Leibovich Katsev) in Vilnius, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. In his books and interviews, he described many different stories about his parents’ backgrounds, jobs, and his own early life. His mother, Mina Owczyńska (1879–1941), was a Polish-Jewish actress from Švenčionys (Svintsyán, Święciany). His father was a businessman named Arje-Lejb Kacew (1883–1942) from Trakai (Troki), also a Lithuanian Jew. The couple separated in 1925, and Arje-Lejb later married again. Gary later said that his real biological father was Ivan Mosjoukine, a famous actor and film star. Mosjoukine worked with Gary’s mother and looked similar to Gary. Mosjoukine is mentioned in Gary’s memoir Promise at Dawn.
In 1915, Gary and his family were sent to central Russia and lived in Moscow until 1920. In 1923, they returned to Vilnius, which was then part of Poland. His mother worked as a taylor there, and in 1926, they moved to Warsaw. When Gary was fourteen, he and his mother left Poland illegally to live in Nice, France. Gary studied law in Aix-en-Provence and later in Paris. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1935.
Military service
Gary joined the French Air Force in 1938. He trained to fly airplanes in Salon-de-Provence and at Avord Air Base, near Bourges. Even though he completed all parts of his training successfully, Gary was the only one of nearly 300 students in his class who was not given a position as an officer. He believed the military was suspicious of him because he was a foreigner and a Jew. He trained on Potez 25 and Goëland Léo-20 airplanes and accumulated 250 hours of flying time. After a three-month delay, he was promoted to sergeant on 1 February 1940.
On 13 June 1940, Gary was lightly injured in a Bloch MB.210 airplane. He was disappointed by the armistice, but after hearing General de Gaulle’s radio message, he decided to go to England. After several failed attempts, he flew to Algiers from Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque in a Potez airplane. When he joined the Free French forces, he became an assistant officer and served on Bristol Blenheims. He participated in battles across Africa and was promoted to second lieutenant. He returned to England to train on Boston III airplanes.
On 25 January 1944, Gary helped his pilot, who had temporarily lost his vision, to reach the bombing target and return safely. The third landing was successful. This event, along with a later BBC interview and an article in the Evening Standard newspaper, played an important role in his career. He ended the war as a captain in the London offices of the Free French Air Forces. As a bombardier-observer in the Groupe de bombardement Lorraine (No. 342 Squadron RAF), he participated in more than 25 successful missions, accumulating over 65 hours of flight time. During this time, he changed his name to Romain Gary. He was honored for his bravery, receiving many medals and awards, including Compagnon de la Libération and commander of the Légion d’honneur.
Writer
In 1945, he published his first novel, Éducation européenne. After his military service, he worked for the French government in Bulgaria and Switzerland. In 1952, he became the secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations. In 1956, he became Consul General in Los Angeles and met people in Hollywood.
Gary became one of France’s most popular and productive writers, creating more than 30 novels, essays, and memoirs. Some of these works were written under different names.
He is the only person who has won the Prix Goncourt twice. This prize, given for French language literature, is usually awarded only once to an author. Gary won it in 1956 for Les racines du ciel. In 1975, he published La vie devant soi under the name Émile Ajar. The Académie Goncourt gave the prize to the book’s author without knowing it was Gary. At first, Gary’s cousin’s son, Paul Pavlowitch, pretended to be the author. Later, Gary explained the truth in his book Vie et mort d’Émile Ajar, which was published after his death. Gary also used other names, including Shatan Bogat, René Deville, and Fosco Sinibaldi, as well as his birth name, Roman Kacew.
In addition to writing, he created the screenplay for the movie The Longest Day and co-wrote and directed the film Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (1971), which featured his wife, Jean Seberg. In 1979, he was part of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.
In a memoir from 1981, Paul Pavlowitch said Gary also used the name Émile Ajar for other works. Gary asked Pavlowitch, his cousin’s son, to act as Ajar in public, so Gary could stay hidden and win the 1975 Goncourt Prize (a second win, which broke the prize’s rules).
Gary also used the pseudonyms Shatan Bogat and Fosco Sinibaldi.
Diplomat
After the war ended, Gary started working as a diplomat for France because of his role in helping free the country. He worked in several places, including Bulgaria from 1946 to 1947, Paris from 1948 to 1949, and Switzerland from 1950 to 1951. He also worked in New York from 1951 to 1954 at France's mission to the United Nations. During this time, he often met the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, whose ideas greatly influenced Gary, especially when creating the character of Father Tassin in the book Les Racines du ciel. Gary later worked in London in 1955 and served as France's Consul General in Los Angeles from 1956 to 1960. When he returned to Paris, he did not have a job until he was let go from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1961.
Personal life and final years
Gary's first wife was Lesley Blanch, a British writer, journalist, and editor for Vogue. She wrote a book called The Wilder Shores of Love. They married in 1944 and divorced in 1961. From 1962 to 1970, Gary was married to Jean Seberg, an American actress. They had a son named Alexandre Diego Gary. Diego Gary said his father was not often present in his life: "Even when he was around, my father wasn't there. He was focused on his work and would greet me, but he was not fully with me."
After learning that Jean Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary challenged Eastwood to a fight, but Eastwood refused.
Gary died on December 2, 1980, in Paris, from a gunshot wound he inflicted on himself. He left a note stating his death was not connected to Jean Seberg's suicide the year before. In the note, he also said his name was Émile Ajar.
Gary was cremated in Père Lachaise Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea near a town called Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
Legacy
The name of Romain Gary was used to name a program at the École nationale d'administration from 2003 to 2005, a program at the Institut d'études politiques de Lille in 2013, a program at the Institut régional d'administration de Lille from 2021 to 2022, and a program at the Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg from 2001 to 2002. In 2006, a street called Place Romain-Gary was created in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, and a plaque was placed at the Nice Heritage Library. The French Institute in Jerusalem is also named after Romain Gary.
On May 16, 2019, his work was published in two volumes in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, with Mireille Sacotte as the editor.
In 2007, a statue of Romualdas Kvintas, titled "The Boy with a Galoche," was unveiled. The statue shows a 9-year-old boy from the story The Promise of Dawn about to eat a shoe to impress his friend Valentina. It is located in Vilnius, in front of the Basanavičius building, where the author lived.
A plaque with Romain Gary’s name is attached to the Pouillon building at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille, where he studied.
Media depictions
In the 2019 American movie Seberg, which is about a real person's life, Yvan Attal plays Gary. In 2022, Denis Ménochet played Gary in the movie White Dog (Chien blanc). This movie is based on Gary's 1970 book and was made by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.