Louis Begley
Encyclopedia
Louis Begley is an America
n novelist.
at the time part of Poland
and now in Ukraine
, as the only child of a physician. Using forged identity papers that enabled them to pretend to be Polish
Catholics, his mother and he survived the almost wholly successful German attempt to kill all Polish Jews.
He lived with his mother at first in Lwów, and then in Warsaw
until the end of the August 1944 Warsaw uprising
. By the time World War II
ended, they were in Kraków
, where they were reunited with Begley’s father.
During the school year 1945/46, Begley attended the Jan Sobieski gimnazjum in Kraków. It was his first experience of formal instruction since kindergarten during Soviet occupation of Stryj, which followed German invasion of Eastern Poland in 1939.
The family left Poland in the fall of 1946 for Paris
and, in late February 1947, left Paris for New York
, arriving March 3, 1947. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Begley studied English Literature at Harvard College
(AB '54, summa cum laude). Service in the United States Army
followed, the last eighteen months of it in Göppingen
, Germany
, with the 9th Division.
. Upon his graduation in 1959 (LL.B. magna cum laude), he joined the New York firm now known as Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate. He became a partner January 1, 1968, while serving at the newly established Paris office. Upon his return to New York, Begley headed for many years the firm’s international practice. He retired from the firm on January 1, 2004.
prize for biography for her work on the French writer Custine, which is available in English as A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine. Anka’s other works are Par les yeux de Marcel Proust
, Denoël, 1971, La Femme Soleil, Denoël, 1976, Victoria, Gallimard, 1978, Manhattan
, Grasset, 1986, Reines éphémères, Mères perpétuelles, Albin Michel, 2001, Les Périls du Mariage, Albin Michel, 2004, and Napoléon à Moscou, Odile Jacob
, 2007. Her Garcon, un cent d’huîtres, a study of the role of gastronomy
in the novels of Balzac, was published by Editions Odile Jacob in 2010, and by Arche Verlag (Hamburg) in January 2011. It will be published in the autumn of 2011 in English translation by Other Press (New York), as Balzac's Omelet.
Begley has three children:
Peter Begley, a painter and a sculptor, lives in Paris. Peter is married to Anne Bazin-Begley, a French specialist in Central European international relations. They have two children, Jacob and Elisabeth.
Adam Begley
, a writer, lives in Northamptonshire
, England
. He is married to Anne Cotton. He is currently working on a biography of John Updike
, to be published by Harper Collins.
Begley’s daughter Amey, a novelist and art historian, is married to Charles Larmore, W. Duncan MacMillan Professor of Philosophy, at Brown University
. They have two children, Nicholas and Julia. The family lives in Providence, Rhode Island
. Under her pen name Laura Moore, Amey is the author of six novels.
Begley’s stepchildren, are Anka Muhlstein’s sons:
Robert Dujarric is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University Japan Campus
, in Tokyo
. He lives in Tokyo.
Stephane Dujarric is Director of the United Nations
News and Media Division. Steph is married to Ilaria Quadrani, a private dealer in master prints. They live in New York City, with their daughter Isabella and sons Henri and Julien.
Schmidt Steps Back will be published in German translation, as Schmidts Einsicht in November 2011, by Suhrkamp Verlag, which has published in German all of LB's novels.
Schmidt Steps Back, continuing the story of Schmidtie, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in March 2012.
All of Begley’s novels have been published by Alfred A. Knopf
, and republished by Ballantine
Publishing Company. His novels have been translated into fifteen languages.
(Frankfurt
) under the title Das Gelobte Land.
Venedig Unter Vier Augen, a book on Venetian
themes by Anka Muhlstein and Louis Begley, was published in 2003 by Marebuch Verlag (Hamburg
). It was also published in English in 2005 by Haus Publishing
under the title Venice for Lovers, and reissued under the same title by Grove Press
in the U.S..
Zwischen Fakten und Fiktionen, the text of LB's lectures given as part of Poetik Dozentur at Heidelberg University in November 2006, was published by Suhrkamp in January 2008.
The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head, Franz Kafka
: A Biographical Essay was published by Atlas & Co. in 2008.
Why the Dreyfus Affair
Matters was published by Yale University Press
in 2009. In the preface, Begley wrote that president Barack Obama, in his inaugural speech, had taken the first step to redeem his campaign pledge to close Guantanamo. As of August 2011, two and a half years later, that pledge has gone un-redeemed.
-Aer Lingus
International Fiction Prize, National Book Award
Finalist, National Book Critics’ Circle Finalist, PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, Prix Médicis
Étranger, Jeanette-Schocken-Pries, Bemerhavener Bürgerpreis für Literatur, American Academy of Letters Award in Literature, and Konrad Adenauer
-Stiftung Literaturpreis.
. He served on PEN's board of directors from 1992-2001.
He is a member of the American Philosophical Society
and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He is a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres Philosophical Society.
The University of Heidelberg conferred on him in 2008 the degree of D. Phil., honoris causa.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n novelist.
Early life
Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in StryjStryj
Stryj may refer to:*Stryj, Lublin Voivodeship *Stryi, Ukraine - Stryj in Polish...
at the time part of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and now in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, as the only child of a physician. Using forged identity papers that enabled them to pretend to be Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
Catholics, his mother and he survived the almost wholly successful German attempt to kill all Polish Jews.
He lived with his mother at first in Lwów, and then in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
until the end of the August 1944 Warsaw uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
. By the time World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended, they were in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, where they were reunited with Begley’s father.
During the school year 1945/46, Begley attended the Jan Sobieski gimnazjum in Kraków. It was his first experience of formal instruction since kindergarten during Soviet occupation of Stryj, which followed German invasion of Eastern Poland in 1939.
The family left Poland in the fall of 1946 for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and, in late February 1947, left Paris for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, arriving March 3, 1947. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, Begley studied English Literature at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
(AB '54, summa cum laude). Service in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
followed, the last eighteen months of it in Göppingen
Göppingen
Göppingen is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the district Göppingen. It is situated at the bottom of the Hohenstaufen mountain, in the valley of the river Fils....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with the 9th Division.
Career as a lawyer
In 1956 Begley entered Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
. Upon his graduation in 1959 (LL.B. magna cum laude), he joined the New York firm now known as Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate. He became a partner January 1, 1968, while serving at the newly established Paris office. Upon his return to New York, Begley headed for many years the firm’s international practice. He retired from the firm on January 1, 2004.
Family
In 1956, Begley married Sally Higginson. They were divorced in May, 1970. In March 1974, Begley married his present wife, Anka Muhlstein, born in Paris. A historian and biographer, Anka has been honored twice by the French Academy’s prize for history, for her biographies. These biographies include the eighteenth century explorer, Cavelier de La Salle, and her ancestor James de Rothschild, the founder of the French Rothschild bank. Muhlstein has received the GoncourtGoncourt
Goncourt is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France....
prize for biography for her work on the French writer Custine, which is available in English as A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine. Anka’s other works are Par les yeux de Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
, Denoël, 1971, La Femme Soleil, Denoël, 1976, Victoria, Gallimard, 1978, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, Grasset, 1986, Reines éphémères, Mères perpétuelles, Albin Michel, 2001, Les Périls du Mariage, Albin Michel, 2004, and Napoléon à Moscou, Odile Jacob
Odile Jacob
Odile Jacob is a French publisher who founded Les Éditions Odile Jacob in the middle of the 1980s. She is also a trained scientist, studying the workings of the brain, the mind and thought. She is a member of Le Siècle.-Biography:...
, 2007. Her Garcon, un cent d’huîtres, a study of the role of gastronomy
Gastronomy
Gastronomy is the art or science of food eating. Also, it can be defined as the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine...
in the novels of Balzac, was published by Editions Odile Jacob in 2010, and by Arche Verlag (Hamburg) in January 2011. It will be published in the autumn of 2011 in English translation by Other Press (New York), as Balzac's Omelet.
Begley has three children:
Peter Begley, a painter and a sculptor, lives in Paris. Peter is married to Anne Bazin-Begley, a French specialist in Central European international relations. They have two children, Jacob and Elisabeth.
Adam Begley
Adam Begley
Adam Begley is an American freelance writer, and was the books editor for the New York Observer.He graduated from Harvard College, and from Stanford University with a Ph.D...
, a writer, lives in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He is married to Anne Cotton. He is currently working on a biography of John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
, to be published by Harper Collins.
Begley’s daughter Amey, a novelist and art historian, is married to Charles Larmore, W. Duncan MacMillan Professor of Philosophy, at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. They have two children, Nicholas and Julia. The family lives in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. Under her pen name Laura Moore, Amey is the author of six novels.
Begley’s stepchildren, are Anka Muhlstein’s sons:
Robert Dujarric is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Japanese Studies at Temple University Japan Campus
Temple University Japan Campus
Temple University, Japan Campus is an international campus of Temple University in Philadelphia, US. TUJ has classrooms and student facilities in two buildings in Minato, Tokyo, Japan...
, in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. He lives in Tokyo.
Stephane Dujarric is Director of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
News and Media Division. Steph is married to Ilaria Quadrani, a private dealer in master prints. They live in New York City, with their daughter Isabella and sons Henri and Julien.
Novels
- Wartime LiesWartime LiesWartime Lies is a semi-autobiographical novel by Louis Begley first published in 1991. Set in Poland during the years of the Nazi occupation, it is about two members of an upper middle class Jewish family, a young woman and her nephew, who avoid persecution as Jews by assuming Catholic identities...
(1991) - The Man Who Was Late (1993)
- As Max Saw It (1994)
- About Schmidt (1996), basis for the eponymous 2002 filmAbout SchmidtAbout Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. It is loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. Many of the scenes were filmed on location, especially in Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado...
- Mistler's Exit (1998)
- Schmidt Delivered (2000)
- Shipwreck (2003)
- Matters of Honor (2007)
Schmidt Steps Back will be published in German translation, as Schmidts Einsicht in November 2011, by Suhrkamp Verlag, which has published in German all of LB's novels.
Schmidt Steps Back, continuing the story of Schmidtie, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in March 2012.
All of Begley’s novels have been published by Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, and republished by Ballantine
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
Publishing Company. His novels have been translated into fifteen languages.
Non-Fiction
In 2001, a selection of Begley's essays and journalistic pieces was published by Suhrkamp VerlagSuhrkamp Verlag
Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature.In January 2010 the headquarters of the company moved from Frankfurt to Berlin.-Early history:...
(Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
) under the title Das Gelobte Land.
Venedig Unter Vier Augen, a book on Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
themes by Anka Muhlstein and Louis Begley, was published in 2003 by Marebuch Verlag (Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
). It was also published in English in 2005 by Haus Publishing
Haus Publishing
Haus Publishing is a London-based publishing company which was formally established in 2002.-History:Haus Publishing was founded in 2005 by Barbara Schwepcke, the former publisher of Prospect magazine...
under the title Venice for Lovers, and reissued under the same title by Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
in the U.S..
Zwischen Fakten und Fiktionen, the text of LB's lectures given as part of Poetik Dozentur at Heidelberg University in November 2006, was published by Suhrkamp in January 2008.
The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head, Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
: A Biographical Essay was published by Atlas & Co. in 2008.
Why the Dreyfus Affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
Matters was published by Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
in 2009. In the preface, Begley wrote that president Barack Obama, in his inaugural speech, had taken the first step to redeem his campaign pledge to close Guantanamo. As of August 2011, two and a half years later, that pledge has gone un-redeemed.
Awards
Prizes and awards include: The Irish TimesThe Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
-Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus Group Plc is the flag carrier of Ireland. It operates a fleet of Airbus aircraft serving Europe and North America. It is Ireland's oldest extant airline, and its second largest after low-cost rival Ryanair...
International Fiction Prize, National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
Finalist, National Book Critics’ Circle Finalist, PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award, Prix Médicis
Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."...
Étranger, Jeanette-Schocken-Pries, Bemerhavener Bürgerpreis für Literatur, American Academy of Letters Award in Literature, and Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
-Stiftung Literaturpreis.
Other Distinctions
From 1993 to 1995, Begley was president of PEN American CenterPEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
. He served on PEN's board of directors from 1992-2001.
He is a member of the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He is a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres Philosophical Society.
The University of Heidelberg conferred on him in 2008 the degree of D. Phil., honoris causa.