32 Facts About Julien Green

Julien Green often Julian Green, was an American writer who lived most of his life in France and wrote mostly in French and only occasionally in English.

Julien Green was the recipient of many awards and one of the few writers to have his collected works published in Gallimard's Pleiade library during his lifetime.

Julian Hartridge Green was born to American parents in Paris on 6 September 1900.

Julien Green was the namesake of an ancestor on his mother's side, Julian Hartridge, who served as member of the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America and then as a Democratic Representative from Georgia to the US Congress for four years; Julien's parents settled in Paris in 1893.

Toward the end of his life Green told an interviewer that when his father's employer, Southern Cotton Oil Company, allowed him to work in Germany or France, Julien's mother urged they settle in France on the grounds that the French, having recently suffered defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, would prove sympathetic to Americans who identified with the defeated US Confederacy.

Julien Green was the youngest of seven children born to Protestant parents.

Julien Green was educated in French schools, including the Lycee Janson-de-Sailly.

Julien Green died in 1914, and Green became a Roman Catholic in 1916.

Julien Green immediately signed up for a six-month term of service with an ambulance unit of the American Red Cross.

Julien Green's first published work in French was the Pamphlet contre les catholiques de France, which appeared under the pseudonym Theophile Delaporte.

Julien Green launched his career as a novelist with Mont-Cinere in 1926.

Julien Green had already committed his second novel to another publisher, but Maritain was "enthusiastic" to publish his third, Adrienne Mesurat, a few months later, seeing in it "an interior power, a rectitude, and a profundity that are admirable".

About this time his French publishers identified him as "Julien Green", using the French spelling of his first name.

One feel safe in saying Julian Julien Green is an important novelist.

Julien Green visited the US again in the early 1930s, beginning and abandoning work on a novel set in the 19th-century American South.

Julien Green stayed at first with a cousin in Baltimore.

Julien Green found that a friend had safely stored his papers and apartment furnishings, including family heirlooms.

Julien Green gave talks at Mills College and Goucher College, and he contributed articles to Harper's Magazine, Commonweal, and The Atlantic Monthly.

Julien Green translated two works by Charles Peguy into English: The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc and Basic Verities, Men and Saints.

Julien Green was elected to succeed to Francois Mauriac's chair in the Academie francaise on 3 June 1971, the first member not a French citizen.

Julien Green was received and delivered his inaugural lecture on 16 November 1972.

Julien Green's resignation was not accepted and he was not replaced until after his death.

Julien Green's subjects included the Paris literary scene before World War II and the relationship between language and personality.

Julien Green died in Paris on 13 August 1998, shortly before his 98th birthday.

Julien Green's remains were entombed in a chapel designed for him in St Egid Church, Klagenfurt, Austria.

Jourdan tried to restrict the publication of some of Julien Green's work, protecting his reputation with a new "prudishness" even more than Julien Green had in censoring his own journals for publication.

For many years Julien Green was the companion of Robert de Saint-Jean, a journalist, whom he first met in November 1924.

Julien Green arranged for him to gain entry to Portugal and then transfer to the US.

Julien Green began work on a novel set in the pre-Civil War American South while visiting the US in 1933.

Julien Green abandoned the two chapters he had completed upon learning that Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind was nearing publication.

In France, both during his life and today, Julien Green's reputation rests principally not on his novels, but on his journals, which spanned the years 1919 to 1998, and which he edited and published in nineteen volumes.

Julien Green published four autobiographical volumes between 1963 and 1974.