'Our life is a book'

 

“Our life is a book that writes itself and whose principal themes sometimes escape us. We are like characters in a novel who do not always understand what the author wants of them.” – Julien Green

The first non-French national (he’s American) to be admitted to the famed Académie Française, Green was born on this date in 1900 to American parents living in France.  After spending time in America in his late teens, he returned to France and in 1922 –  after a false start as a painter – began a nearly 80-year writing career.

 He remained there for the rest of his long life (he died in 1998) except during World War II, when he went back to the U.S.  There, he played a major role in the United States Office of War Information as   the “French” voice for Voice of America and keeping up contacts with the French Resistance. 

Most noted for his 19-volume diary, spanning some 80 years, Green gave the world a unique window on the artistic and literary scene in Paris.  The popularity of his diary was, he said, based on his free form and spontaneous writing style, folksy and highly readable.

 

“The secret is to write just anything, to dare to write just anything,” he said,  “because when you write just anything, you begin to say what is important.”