Green, Julien (Hartridge)

or Julian Green

(born Sept. 6, 1900, Paris, France—died Aug. 13, 1998, Paris) French-born American writer. Born in France of American parents, Green lived mostly in France, though he taught for a few years in the U.S. Green's novels are written in French and are usually set in French provincial towns or in the American South. In the intense, claustrophobic atmosphere of these novels, neurotic characters engage in obsessive relationships marked by secrecy, guilt, betrayal, sexual passion, and violence. In 1970 the Académie Française awarded him its grand prize for literature in appreciation of his masterful French prose style, which is marked by clarity, precision, and simplicity. Green's works were collected in Complete Works, 10 vol. (1954–65).

Green, Julien (Hartridge) (1900– ) writer; born in Paris, France. Son of Americans living in France, he spent his entire youth in France except for three years at the University of Virginia (1919–22); later he visited the United States for extended periods. He grew up speaking English at home but French in all other situations; he wrote all but two of his works in French, even those set in America, such as his drama, South (1953) and the Civil-War trilogy that began with The Distant Lands (1989), as well as his multi-volume diaries. Most of his works—such as Adrienne Mesurat (1927) and Moira (1950)—are somber psychological studies of individuals set in grim households marked by thwarted passions, madness, and death, and are regarded as covertly expressing the tension caused by his Catholicism and homosexuality. In 1972 he became the first American elected to the Academie Française.