Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958) was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He attended two of the finest Paris lycées and graduated in 1906 writing a thesis in archaeology and with a degree as an archivist-paleographer. He attributes this training in history and scholarship to his scrupulous realism and attention to minute detail. He fought in the first world war, and he was a longtime friend of fellow Literature Laureate André Gide. Roger Martin du Gard died in 1958 in Nice, France. Roger Martin du Gard’s fiction has been linked with the realist and naturalist traditions and shows a sympathy for humanist socialism and pacifism. His first success, Jean Barois, was published in 1913, but he is best known for The Thibaults, a monumental picture of the world before the outbreak of the WWI published in twelve volumes between 1922 and 1940. The Thibaults follows the fortunes of two brothers, from their upbringing in a prosperous Catholic bourgeois family.

Translator bio:

Bill Johnston translates from Polish and French. He has translated books by Magdalena Tulli, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Jerzy Pilch, Stefan Żeromski, Andrzej Stasiuk and Wieslaw Myśliwski, among others. His honors include the National Translation Award in Poetry of Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz in 2018 and the PEN Translation Prize for Myśliwski's Stone Upon Stone in 2012. His translation of Charles Ferdinand Ramuz’s Great Fear on the Mountain was a finalist for the 2024 PEN Translation Prize.