Adieu Gary Cooper

The hero of this portrait of 1960s American youth is Lenny, who no longer believes in the values of traditional America. In Vietnam, the war has bogged down, and student protest keeps growing: “You want me to tell you, Lenny? Gary Cooper’s finished. Gone, the calm American, sure of himself and of his cause, always against the bad guys, always for the right side, always making justice triumph and always winning in the end. Farewell, the America of certainties. Now it’s Vietnam, universities exploding, and black ghettos. Ciao, Gary Cooper.”

The original title, The Ski Bum, published in 1965, followed The Talent Scout and forms the second part of Gary’s “American Comedy.” Written directly in English, the book was not translated but rewritten in French five years later by Romain Gary himself. New elements were added to the original text, but it remains a light, ironic comedy, recalling for Jacqueline Piattier, in her review at publication, “the best pages of Bonjour Tristesse, though here one should say ‘Bonjour Jeunesse,’ since it is eternal youth, romantic and duped by life, that lies at the heart of the book” (Le Monde, 5 July 1969).

This French text is dedicated “à Diego,” Romain Gary and Jean Seberg’s son, then aged six. Because Diego Gary had been born out of wedlock, the first years of his life were concealed, his father using diplomatic contacts to have a false birth certificate drawn up dated 26 October 1963, a date after his marriage to Seberg — the couple having married secretly on 16 October 1963, in the Corsican village of Sarrola-Carcopino.

A very fine copy.