Rosette C. Lamont
American theater critic (1927–2012)
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Rosette Clementine Lamont[1] (February 15, 1927 – January 5, 2012) was an American theater critic. She was author of The Two Faces of Ionesco (1978) and Ionesco’s Imperatives (1993), as well as English-language translator of Charlotte Delbo's memoirs Auschwitz and After. She was also a full professor at Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center before moving to Sarah Lawrence College.
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Bernard Seidler(divorced)
Fredrick H. Farmer(divorced)
Rosette C. Lamont | |
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| Born | February 15, 1927 Paris, France |
| Died | January 5, 2012 (aged 84) Falmouth, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Theater critic |
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| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (1973) |
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Biography
Rosette Lamont was born on February 15, 1927, in Paris.[2][1] She was the only child of concert pianist Ludmila Lieberman Salomon and furrier Alexandre Salomon, both of whom were Russian emigrants to France.[2] After immigrating to the United States as World War II refugees, she was raised in the Upper West Side in Manhattan.[2] She attended Hunter College, where she obtained a BA in 1947, and Yale University, where she obtained an MA in 1948 and a PhD in 1954.[1]
In 1950, Lamont began working at Queens College as a tutor.[1] She was later promoted to instructor in 1954, assistant professor in 1959–65, associate professor in 1965, and full professor in 1967.[1] She also became a full professor at CUNY Graduate Center in 1968.[1] She moved to Sarah Lawrence College in 1994, supporting their experimental theater work and calling the institution her "utopia on a hill".[2]
Marvin Carlson called Lamont "a leading scholar on the post-war French theatre".[3] She was widely known as an authority on Eugene Ionesco.[2] She wrote two books on the subject: The Two Faces of Ionesco (1978) and Ionesco’s Imperatives (1993).[2] A theater critic, she contributed to publications like The New York Times, TheaterWeek, and The New York Theatre Wire.[2] She was also part of the first editorial board for the journal Western European Stages, where she wrote essays on contemporary Parisian theatre.[3] She published an English translation of Auschwitz and After, after meeting its writer Charlotte Delbo.[4]
In 1973, Lamont was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship "for a study of the anti-hero in the drama and the novel".[1] She also served as a 1974 Department of State Scholar Exchange Program envoy and a 1983-1984 Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellow.[2] She also received the Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Officier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.[2]
Lamont was twice-divorced, from Bernard Seidler and Fredrick H. Farmer.[2] She was a long-time friend of playwright Eugène Ionesco, whom she met when his play Rhinoceros made its Broadway debut.[2] She also was in a relationship with Saul Bellow, whose 1964 novel Herzog had one of its major characters, Ramona, inspired by her.[5] Her mother was murdered at some point after Lamont's first marriage.[4]
Lamont died on January 5, 2012, in Falmouth, Massachusetts.[2]
References
- The Two Faces of Ionesco (1978)[a]
- Ionesco's Imperatives (1993)[12]
- Auschwitz and After (English translation)