Special program “Romain Gary”, born Roman Kacew in Vilnius in 1914, diplomat and author of an important literary work of which The roots of heaven (Prix Goncourt 1956) and under the name of Émile Ajar The life ahead (Prix Goncourt 1975), Romain Gary committed suicide in 1980. Kerwin Spire, academic and writer, devotes a trilogy to him, the second volume of which has just been published under the title Mr Romain Gary, Writer-director – 108, rue du Bac – Paris, VIIᵉ – Babylone 32-93 at Gallimard.
Kerwin Spire, born in Marseilles in 1986, has a degree in political science and a doctorate in literature. Thanks to unpublished archives, he continues after Mr. Romain Gary, Consul General of France, 1919 Outpost Drive, Los Angeles 28, California his trilogy by exploring the influence of his wife Jean Seberg and the seventh art on the career of the writer-diplomat, in a second volume entitled Mr. Romain Gary, Writer-director – 108, rue du Bac – Paris, VIIᵉ – Babylone 32-93 to Gallimard editions.
“Romain Gary returned to Paris in 1960 after his American years. He brought back The Promise at Dawn in his luggage, which made him an essential character in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It was a time of rupture for the writer who decides to leave the diplomatic career to devote himself to his work. But power never stays away from him and he stands out in the salons of General de Gaulle and André Malraux where the future of France. It was also the period of his life together with Jean Seberg, the birth of their son Diego and their secret marriage. After following his wife on the film sets, he embarked on the adventure of cinema , and tries to become a director. The exercise proves to be perilous for an artist in the grip of all doubts.”
“When in February 1956, Romain Gary arrived in Los Angeles, the companion of the Liberation had not yet had the Goncourt for The Roots of Heaven and had not begun to write The Promise of Dawn. During the four years when he held the post of Consul General of France in the City of Angels, all the threads of a Hollywood story are tied that will upset both the man and his work.Mr. Romain Gary is the story of the transformation of ‘a man who, beyond his many lives, is always trying to reinvent himself. He is also the fresco of an intense era on which a great wind of freedom is blowing.” (Presentation of the publisher)
REPORTAGE : Meeting with Vincent Belloy, specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s, on the occasion of the auction of an exceptional copy of the novel “La vie avant soi”, by Émile Ajar (pen name of Romain Gary) (Prize Goncourt 1975).