Gracq, Julien (1910–2007)

French surrealist poet, critic, and novelist. His short polemical work La Littérature à l'estomac (1950) is a virulent attack on the post-war literary and awards scene, and he refused to accept the Prix Goncourt for his novel Le Rivage des Syrtes/The Opposing Shores (1951). Other works include the novel Un Balcon en forêt/A Balcony in the Forest (1956), the collection of short stories La Presqu'île (1970), the play Le Roi pêcheur (1948), and several volumes of criticism.

Gracq was born in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil (Maine-et-Loire). His first two novels, Au château d'Argol/The Castle of Argol (1938) and Un Beau ténébreux/A Handsome Stranger (1945), established him among a small côterie of critics and readers; Le Rivage des Syrtes won him a much wider audience. He also translated Heinrich Kleist (Penthesilea 1954), and his critical works include André Breton (1948), Préférences (1961), and Lettrines (1967 and 1974).