Romain Gary was born Roman Kacew in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). He grew up in Vilna and later in Warsaw, Poland, with family. In 1925, his father abandoned his family and remarried, and Kacew moved with his mother to Nice, France. He studied law, first in Aix-en-Provence and later in Paris. In World War II he became a pilot in the French Air Force. When the Nazis invaded and occupied France, he fled to England, changed his name to Romain Gary, and served with the Free French Forces in Europe and North Africa and was highly decorated for his bravery in the war (Compagnon de la Libération, Légion d'Honneur).
After the war, he worked in the French diplomatic service and married his first wife, author and journalist Lesley Blanch. His first novel, "Education européenne" (A European Education), was published in 1945. In 1952, he became secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations in New York, and later in London. In 1956, he became Consul General of France in Los Angeles. He divorced Lesley Blanch in 1961 and married American actress Jean Seberg in 1962. He wrote the screenplay for the film "The Roots of Heaven" in 1958 and went on to direct two films, "Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou" in 1968 and "Kill!" in 1971, which starred his ex-wife Seberg, whom he had divorced in 1970. In 1979 Seberg committed suicide, and Gary followed her in 1980.
Over the course of his career he had written more than 30 novels, and had become one of France's most popular and prolific writers. In addition to writing under his own name, he wrote under the pseudonyms of Émile Ajar, Shatan Bogat, Rene Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi.
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La vie devant soi
12 editions - first published in 1975 -
Les racines du ciel
9 editions - first published in 1956 -
Promise at Dawn
9 editions - first published in 1961Be first in line! -
Chien blanc
8 editions - first published in 1970 -
Lady L
8 editions - first published in 1959Be first in line! -
Charge d'âme
6 editions - first published in 1977 -
La promesse de l'aube
6 editions - first published in 1960 -
The Roots of Heaven
6 editions - first published in 1958 -
Le grand vestiaire
5 editions - first published in 1948 -
Tulipe
5 editions - first published in 1946 -
Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable
5 editions - first published in 1975 -
Éducation européenne
5 editions - first published in 1945 -
The Ski Bum
5 editions - first published in 1965 -
Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou
4 editions - first published in 1962 -
Gros-câlin
4 editions - first published in 1974 -
La tête coupable
4 editions - first published in 1968 -
Les cerfs-volants
4 editions - first published in 1980 -
Europa
4 editions - first published in 1972 -
Pseudo
4 editions - first published in 2002 -
Les mangeurs d'étoiles
3 editions - first published in 1966
Romain Gary
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Alternative names
- Émile Ajar
- Shatan Bogat
- Fosco Sinibaldi
- Rene Deville
| March 31, 2017 | Edited by Clean Up Bot | add VIAF and wikidata ID |
| December 22, 2010 | Edited by Hermann Schindler | filled in bio, purged mispelled names |
| December 22, 2010 | Edited by Hermann Schindler | added "Rene Deville" |
| December 22, 2010 | Edited by Hermann Schindler | merge authors |
| April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |