France loses one of its greatest American admirers and ambassadors. Paul Auster died at his home in Brooklyn on the night of Tuesday, April 30 from complications of lung cancer. He was 77 years old.
Born in Newark (New Jersey), the author was inseparable from New York, the setting of many of his novels (his New York trilogy, Brooklyn Follies…) but it was also part of French heritage. Indeed, the American considered France as his “ second country “. He discovered it early, at Columbia University, where he studied French, Italian and British literature. He lived in Paris from 1971 to 1975, during which time he translated French poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Jean-Paul Sartre as part of a small independent publishing house that he had launched and worked at various odd jobs to make a living. He was notably a telephone operator at the Paris office of the New York Times.
The face of New York, a “rock star in Paris”
Later, as a writer, he became the face of the Big Apple in the eyes of the French. In 2007, New York Magazine noted its popularity on the other side of the Atlantic. “ The first thing you hear when reading Auster, everywhere in the world, is French. A simple successful author in our region, Auster is a rock star in Paris. He is the subject of illustrated books – one of them, entitled New York by Paul Auster, contains photos of places taken from the master’s novels – considered an official ambassador of New Yorkness, alongside Woody Allen ».
A lover of French culture
In 2007, the Ministry of Culture named him Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. He also received the Médicis Étranger Prize for Leviathan, the story of a writer who accidentally dies in the explosion of a bomb he made. “ Paul Auster was more than a friend of France, a lover of its culturedeclared the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, Wednesday May 1. French culture has lost a great conduit. »
Founder of the network Meeting of French-speaking authors founded in New York, Sandrine Mehrez-Kukurudz says that a “ incredible number of photos » by Paul Auster have been re-posted in recent hours by its members in tribute to the deceased writer. “ It’s not just readers that he has had an impact. He was also a source of inspiration for authors ». Lessons from her New York trilogyshe said to herself “ marked » in his youth by the work of the New Yorker. “ We are losing a natural ambassador of the Francophonie, through his history, his love for France. He is not the only name that embodies the French-speaking world in the United States, but he is the first that comes to mind. ».
