The Life Before Us

About Romain Gary

Romain Gary (19141980) was born Roman Kacew in Vilnius to a family of Lithuanian Jews. He changed his name when he fled Nazi-occupied France to fight for the British as an RAF pilot. He wrote under several pen names and is the only writer to have received the Prix Goncourt twice. A diplomat and filmmaker Gary was married to the American actress Jean Seberg. He died in Paris in 1980 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ralph Manheim (1907-1992) was an American translator of German and French literature as well as occasional works from Dutch Polish and Hungarian. The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation a major lifetime achievement award in the field of translation is named in honor of Manheim and his work. He won many awards in his lifetime including a MacArthur genius grant a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Book Award. James Laughlin (19141997) founded New Directions in 1936 while still a student at Harvard. He wrote and compiled more than a dozen books of poetry as well as stories and essays; seven volumes of his correspondence with his authors are available from W.W. Norton.