Born in Paris in 1900 of American parents, his mother being from Savannah, his father from Virginia, Julian Hartridge Green’s early years were nourished by his mother’s stories of the American Civil War, the Secession and the Deep South. These stories were tainted with nostalgia and melancholy because the South had lost the war. This sense of a

nostalgie d’un pays perdu

remained as an undercurrent in Green’s work and reached its climax in the 1980s and 1990s with the publication of his trilogy of novels,

Les Pays lointains

[

The Distant Lands

] (1987),

Les Etoiles du Sud

[

The Stars of the South

] (1989) and

Dixie

(1995).

Green’s spiritual formation, the key elements of which were a daily reading of the Bible in English (the King James version) and the abiding influence of his

2809 words

Citation: O'Dwyer, Michael. "Julien Green". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13138, accessed 28 March 2024.]

13138 Julien Green 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.