Memories of happy days

Julien Green, who writes in French, was born in Paris of American parents. He spent his childhood in France, returning to the United States only to study at the University of Virginia and to serve in both world wars. American life is the background for his two novels, Mont-Cinere (1926) and Mo'ra (1950). French provincial life is the setting for show more Adrienne Mesurat (The Closed Garden) (1927), and also for Leviathan (The Dark Journey) (1929). Each in His Darkness (1961) is a novel about a Frenchman and his dying uncle in America. In his diary, Julien Green reveals his "sensitive, poetic nature" and provides insights into the obsessive, nightmarish atmosphere of his works, as well as into the major conflicts of his life---Catholicism versus Protestantism, and "the struggle between spiritual energy and sensual emotion" (Justin O'Brien, SR). (Bowker Author Biography) show less