Green, Julien

Green, Julien (1900-1998), French novelist, born in Paris of American parents. He was educated at the University of Virginia, served with the French army in World War I, and settled in Paris to study painting and music before establishing himself as a writer. His novels, written in French, show a preoccupation with sin, evil, violence, and madness. They include Adrienne Mesurat (1927; The Closed Garden, 1928), Leviathan (1929; The Dark Journey, 1929), and To Leave Before Dawn (1963; trans. 1967). His Journals (1938-1955) reflected his religious concern; Green believed that the writer had two duties—to himself and to God. In 1971 he became the first non-French member of the Académie Française.