Claude Sarraute: A Legendary French Writer and Journalist
Known for her many novels published by Plon and Flammarion but also for having participated in the show Les Grosses Têtes alongside Philippe Bouvard then Laurent Ruquier, the formidable Claude Sarraute passed away at her home at the age of 95, in the night from Monday to Tuesday.
A Life Dedicated to Writing and Journalism
Daughter of the lawyer Raymond Sarraute and the Jewish-Russian writer Nathalie Sarraute (died at 99 years old), Claude Sarraute was born on July 24th 1927 in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. She grew up surrounded by her two sisters Dominique and Anne. As a teenager, she studied at the Faculty of Letters and Law in Paris before obtaining a degree in English. She tried her hand at comedy for a while before finally giving up. It was only a little later that she decided to embark on journalism. She started by working for the Sunday Express in 1954 and then as an editorialist for Le Monde. The year 1991 saw her try her hand at television journalism for the first time. From 1985 to 1995, she joined the show Les Grosses Têtes, directed by Philippe Bouvard on RTL. After this experience on the radio, she finally joined “La bande à Ruquier” and thus joined France Inter and then Europe 1.
A Family Life Filled with Love
Claude Sarraute had three husbands. The first Stanley Karnow was an American journalist and historian with whom she lived from 1948 to 1955. On May 17th 1957, she married Christophe Tzara and gave him two sons: Laurent and Martin. However, the couple divorced in 1966. The same year, she had a son, Nicolas, with the philosopher and writer Jean-François Revel whom she married the following year, in 1967. A year later, the couple had a daughter, Véronique. In 2006, she lost her husband.
