André Schwarz-Bart

André Schwarz-Bart (May 28, 1928, Metz, France - September 30, 2006, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe) was a French novelist of Polish-Jewish origins.

Schwarz-Bart was author of what is regardedFact|date=February 2007 as one of the greatest literary works of the post-World War II period, "The Last of the Just" (originally published as "Le Dernier des justes"). The book, which traces the story of a Jewish family from the time of the Crusades to the gates of Auschwitz, earned Schwarz-Bart the Prix Goncourt in 1959. He won the Jerusalem Prize in 1967.

Schwarz-Bart's parents moved to France in 1924, a few years before he was born. In 1941, they were deported to Auschwitz. Soon after, Schwarz-Bart, still a young teen, joined the Resistance, despite the fact that his first language was Yiddish, and he could barely speak French. It was his experiences as a Jew during the war that later prompted him to write his major work, chronicling Jewish history through the eyes of a wounded survivor.

Schwarz-Bart died of a complications after heart surgery in 2006. He had spent his final years in Guadeloupe, with his wife, the novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, whose parents were natives of the island. The two co-wrote the book "Pork and Green Bananas" (1967). It is also suggested that his wife collaborated with him on "A Woman Named Solitude". [Hunter (2002)]

Their son, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, is a noted jazz saxophonist. [http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Schwarz.html]

Bibliography

* "The Last of the Just" (1959)
* "Pork and Green Bananas" (1967)
* "A Woman Named Solitude" (1972)
* "In Praise of Black Women" (2001)

Notes

References

* [http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Schwarz.html Hunter, Michelle (2000) "Simone Schwarz-Bart"]

External links

* [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/02/arts/CB_A-E_BKS_Guadeloupe_Obit_Schwarz_Bart.php Obituary in the "International Herald Tribune"]