Bust of Asterix author Goscinny unveiled in Warsaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
26.09.2013 12:09
A bust of Asterix author Rene Goscinny was unveiled by his daughter outside the French Lycee in Warsaw on Wednesday.
Anne Goscinny unveils the bust of Rene Goscinny in Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
The late author, who was born in Paris in 1926, was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants and his father Stanislaw Goscinny had worked for a time as a chemical engineer in Warsaw.
The bust marks the very first statue of the world-renowned scribe to be erected anywhere across the globe.
“The idea is very moving for me, particularly because the monument stands in the city where my father's family lived,” said Anne Goscinny, as quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
The first appearance of the immortal character Asterix was for Pilote magazine in 1959, with Goscinny joining forces with illustrator Albert Uderzo.
A book, Asterix le Gaulois (Asterix the Gaul) followed in 1961, and the pair worked on 24 volumes together until Goscinny's death from a heart attack in 1977.
The series has been published in over 100 languages, ranging from Polish to Persian, and even Esperanto and Ancient Greek.
In Poland, Goscinny's Le Petit Nicolas (Mikolajek) series of children's books also enjoys widespread acclaim. (nh)