Woman of Letters: Irene Nemirovsky and Suite Francaise

Produced with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, and IMEC, the French foundation that holds the Nemirovsky archive, Woman of Letters explores the life of Irene Nemirovsky, author of the million-selling novel Suite Francaise. Born in Kiev in 1903, Nemirovsky immigrated to France during the Russian Revolution. A celebrated Parisian writer between the wars, she died in Auschwitz in 1942.

Compiled with Nemirovsky’s daughter, Denise Epstein, Woman of Letters includes reproductions of more than one hundred photographs, letters, and documents from the family archive. The preface by Museum of Jewish Heritage Director David Marwell and Olivier Corpet addresses the current controversy surrounding accusations that Nemirovsky, though Jewish, wrote earlier works that could be considered anti-Semitic. Woman of Letters includes a translation, by Sandra Smith, of the last short story published in the author’s lifetime, along with notes for Captivity, the unfinished third volume of Suite Francaise. The book will accompany a traveling exhibition, on view at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York through 2008.

The book contains an interview with Denise Epstein by Olivier Corpet; a short story, “The Virgins,” by Irene Nemirovsky; notes for Captivity; and a chronology of the life of Irene Nemirovsky by Olivier Philipponnat and Patrick Lienhardt.

Olivier Corpet is founder and director of IMEC (l’Institut Memoires d l’Edition Contemporaine), the largest nongovernmental literary archive in France.

Garrett White, founder of Five Ties Publishing, is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. His translations include An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Bunuel.