Romain Gary, Roman Kacew, Émile Ajar
Romain Gary
"His life is his work, and his work is his life" – is how we could describe Romain Gary (1914-1980) also known under the pseudonyms of Émile Ajar, Shatan Bogat, Lucien Brûlard, René Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi. There are fewer credible facts about his life than of those he came up with while writing and giving interviews to the mass media. To us he is known as Romain Kacew, born on the 8th of May 1914 in Vilnius, in the family of Trakai Second Guild merchant Leib Kacew and Mina Owczynska Bregsztejn. There is little information regarding his childhood – the family soon separated, and Mina’s life path, and probably her son’s, oscillated back and forth between Poland and Russia. Only in 1921 did Mina, together with Romain, settle for a longer period in Vilnius, in apartment number 4, at 16, Great Pohulanka Street (Pl. Wielka Pohulanka), which today is 16, J. Basanavičiaus street.
As seen on
Vilnius - The Jerusalem of the North
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