Claude Sarraute (1927–2023)

Claude Sarraute was born in Paris, one of three daughters of writer Nathalie Sarraute and her husband Raymond Sarraute, a lawyer. She attended the École alsacienne and studied at the faculties of arts and law in Paris before getting a degree (licence) in English in 1949 and beginning a brief career as a stage actor. In 1948, she married the American journalist Stanley Karnow; the couple divorced in 1955. Claude Sarraute gave up acting and entered journalism in 1952, working for British newspapers, including the Sunday Express, and Le Monde, where she had the entertainment beat. She became known for writing humorous articles and droll books such as Mademoiselle, s’il vous plaît (Please, Miss, 1991). In 1987, she began a long career in French television and radio journalism. She married as her second husband Christophe Tzara, a physicist and son of the Romanian-French Jewish writer Tristan Tzara. Her third husband was Jean-François Revel, an author, journalist and philosopher. She has two sons, one of whom is the journalist Martin Tzara.