J. Robert Oppenheimer, For Example

J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, FOR EXAMPLE: the Drama of the Eternal Outsider, is an ironic polemic inspired by the story of Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb. Drawing on a detail in Oppenheimer’s childhood, Frederic Raphael (screenwriter EYES WIDE SHUT) not explores this strange, chilly and haughty scientist, but takes off into a dazzling exploration of exceptional men throughout history.

He is fascinated by the way in which being scapegoated or bullied may have helped create the exceptionalism of towering figures. Throughout history, the most egregious example of this phenomenon is hatred of the Jews. It is the enduring enmity towards these ultimate outsiders that Raphael excavates with forensic savagery and scathing wit. And, having done so, he turns over a further stone or two and exposes to the light the many ambiguities and paradoxes of human motivation.

Frederic Raphael has been a writer for more than fifty years. He has written more than twenty novels, including THE LIMITS OF LOVE, A DOUBLE LIFE and THE GLITTERING PRIZES trilogy (the first volume of which was also a TV series); four volumes of short stories; two biographies (Byron and Somerset Maugham); his SOME TALK OF ALEXANDER, a long study of Greece, ancient and modern; and A JEW AMONG ROMANS, about Flavius Josephus and his legacy. He has published three volumes of essays and reviews, many of which have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the LA Times, the Spectator, the Sunday Times (London), the Literary Review, Poetry National Review, Commentary, etc. A further collection of essays, WITHOUT PREJUDICE, is in preparation. OF GODS AND MEN (1998) is a collection of original versions of Greek myths.

Five volumes of his notebooks have been published under the general title PERSONAL TERMS. The sixth volume, THERE AND THEN, will be published by the Carcanet Press in summer of 2013 All the millions of words in his notebooks are handwritten.

His screenplays include DARLING, for which he won an Academy Award (Oscar) and other awards; TWO FOR THE ROAD, which gained an Oscar nomination; FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD;

COAST TO COAST and Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT. He has also written two series for UK television, OXBRIDGE BLUES and AFTER THE WAR.

He has written a number of full length radio programmes for the BBC, including THE EMPTY JEW, THE THOUGHT OF LYDIA, A THOUSAND KISSES (about the Latin poet Catullus). JAKE, the filmography of the great director Jake Liebowitz, will be broadcast later this year.

With the late Kenneth McLeish,he translated the works of Aeschylus and plays by Sophocles and Euripides (Medea was a great success for Fiona Shaw and for Annette Bening). He also translated Latin poets, including Catullus. His translation of The Satyrica of Petronius appeared in 2000. His long essay on Constantine Cavafy will appear in the next edition of PARNASSUS.

He has lived with his wife Sylvia in France, Spain, Italy and Greece, as well as in England. He now divides his time between a house in the Perigord (south-western France) and a beach-front cottage in the Cyclades, Greece. He has been married to Sylvia for 58 years. He values independence above awards or offices.