Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt was born in Lyon in 1960. As a child, one of his major hobbies was music and playing the piano. The boy wanted to become a composer, but soon left the idea and decided to go to college, where teachers liked his talent as a writer. However, he did not leave music lessons, but continued to study at the Conservatory of Lyon. In 1986, Schmitt entered the Faculty of Philosophy at Ecole Normal Superierre, who successfully completed and later defended his doctoral thesis on Diderot
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Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt was born in Lyon in 1960. As a child, one of his major hobbies was music and playing the piano. The boy wanted to become a composer, but soon left the idea and decided to go to college, where teachers liked his talent as a writer. However, he did not leave music lessons, but continued to study at the Conservatory of Lyon.
In 1986, Schmitt entered the Faculty of Philosophy at Ecole Normal Superierre, who successfully completed and later defended his doctoral thesis on Diderot and Metaphysics. In the future, part of this scientific work will be included in the essay “Diderot or the philosophy of temptation”, which he will publish in 1997.
Critics’ recognition and the first audience sympathy Schmitt received thanks to his play “A Night in Valoni”, which was staged with great success in 1991 by the Shakespeare Theatre.
The next production was The Visitor, which took place during World War II in the office of Sigmund Freud. For this play in 1994, Schmitt received three Moliere Awards, among which were nominations “Best Production of the Year” and “Discovery of the Year”. The success of The Visitor was a turning point in Schmitt’s literary career. Since then, performances on his works have been held on stages around the world.
Schmitt was not only a talented playwright, with considerable success he wrote prose. In 1994, he published his first novel, The Selfish Sect, which was also enthusiastically received by critics.
After The Visitor in 1996, Schmitt wrote Mysterious Variations. This drama was created specifically for
Alain Delon And Francis Uster. It was staged at the Teatro Marigny in Paris and instantly won the hearts of theatergoers around the world.
Another gift for Schmitt’s admirers was the production of the play “Frederick, or Boulevard of Crime”, in which Jean-Paul Belmondo played the main role. In 1998, the performance was successfully held on the stage of the Teatro Marigny.
Schmitt’s second novel, The Gospel of Pilate, became a literary event in the autumn of 2000. The author of the novel was awarded the Grand Prix of Elle magazine, which testified to his popularity among a wide range of readers.
In 2001, for a set of works for the theater, Schmitt was awarded the Theatre Prize of the French Academy.
In 2002 and 2004, his new novels “When I Was a Work of Art” and “Part of the Other” were released.
Today, Erik-Emmanuel Schmitt works and lives in Brussels. Since 2008, he has also been a Belgian citizen.
