Paul Pavlowitch

Paul Pavlowitch (born February 5, 1942, in Nice) is a French writer, editor and journalist.[1]

Biography

Presented as his "nephew" by Romain Gary, Paul Pavlowitch is the son of Dinah Owczyńska, first cousin of Gary, Paul being therefore the second cousin of the latter.

A grant enabled him to study law in Toulouse and Paris (1964); after obtaining the license, a stay in an American university is financed by the writer who considers him a bit like his son. After having been a librarian at the Arago high school in Paris, Pavlowitch becames a “copyist” then an English translator for various publishing houses, an editor at the Mercure de France, a publishing house run by Simone Gallimard.

The Emile Ajar affair

Pavlowitch is famous for having endorsed, in the early 1970s, the pseudonym of Émile Ajar at the request of Romain Gary, who wanted to write under another name; Pavlowitch thus played for eight years the author of the novels Gros-Câlin, La Vie devant soi, Pseudo[2] and L'Angoisse du roi Salomon, actually written by his “uncle”. Émile Ajar won the Prix Goncourt in 1975, a reward he ultimately did not refuse. Gradually, journalists established the relationship between Ajar-Pavlowitch and Romain Gary. The latter then imagines, mischievously, a confession of Ajar. The result is Pseudo (1976), a novel featuring a mysterious, tyrannical, egocentric uncle named Tonton Macoute, in which everyone can recognize Gary. Violent and comical, this novel analyzes the intricacies of literary creation.

But the links between Paul Pavlowitch, who got caught up in the writer's game, and Romain Gary (who signed a contract with Mercure de France for five books by Ajar) are deteriorating. The latter calls on his lawyer to formalize an arrangement: 40% of his royalties go to Pavlowitch who, in exchange, guarantees the secrecy of the agreement, and signs several letters to Romain attesting that he is only 'a puppet.[3]

In 1981, shortly after the death of Romain Gary on December 2, 1980, Paul Pavlowitch published a book under his name with Fayard editions, L'Homme que l'on croyait, where he gave his version of the adventure. On June 30, 1981, as a prelude to the release of this autobiography, he had the true identity of Ajar,[4] published in an AFP press release. On July 3, 1981, he was invited on the set of the literary program Apostrophes by Bernard Pivot.[5] A short posthumous text by Romain Gary, Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar (dated March 21, 1979), was published urgently on July 17.[6]

A documentary directed by Philippe Kohly for French television (Le Roman du double), broadcast in 2010, describes with sympathy this unusual story which in its time aroused the hostility of some journalists and literary critics.

Paul Pavlowitch worked for L'Autre Journal, in the 1980"s and the 1990s, founded by Michel Butel. He also teaches in prison.

Private life

Father of two daughters, Anna, president of Flammarion and Éditions Albin Michel, and Julia, director of Éditions Phébus and Libretto.[7]

Books
  • L’Homme que l’on croyait, document, Fayard, 1981
  • La Peau de l’ours, roman, Mazarine, 1986
  • Victor, document, Fayard, 2000
  • Céline, roman, Fayard, 2002
  • Un autre monde, roman, Fayard, 2004
  • Tom, roman, Ramsay, 2005

References
  1. J-F Hangouët, La Traversée des frontières, Découvertes, Gallimard, 2007, Paris.
  2. « Paul Pavlowitch, 58 ans, a personnifié Émile Ajar, Goncourt 1980 et invention de son oncle Romain Gary. Il s'en remet en écrivant. Altéré. », Libération.
  3. Michel Lafon, Benoît Peeters, Nous est un autre. Enquête sur les duos d'écrivains, Flammarion, 2006
  4. Marie-Françoise Quignard, Le Mercure de France. Cent un ans d'édition, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1995
  5. Pierre Assouline, Paul Audi, Pierre Bayard, Lectures de Romain Gary, Gallimard, 2010
  6. Roussel, Frédérique. "Sa mère avait raison : Romain Gary dans la Pléiade". Libération (in French). Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  7. "Anna et Julia Pavlowitch, entre fiction et réalité, rires et larmes". July 11, 2021.
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