Jean Follain

Jean Follain (29 August 1903 – 10 March 1971) was a French writer, poet and corporate lawyer. Follain was a friend of Max Jacob, André Salmon, Jean Paulhan, Pierre Pussy, Armen Lubin, and Pierre Reverdy. Prix littéraire Jean Follain de la Ville de Saint Lô is a literary award honouring his name and contributions to French literature. He died in 1971 in a car accident.

Life

Jean Follain was born in the small town of Canisy (province of la Manche), south of Saint-Lô, where he spent his childhood. He attended a middle school (Collège, the title of a later prose work) where his father was professor of the Natural Sciences. In 1919 he went to Leeds in a vain attempt to improve his English, and in 1921 he began studying law at Faculté de Caen. For health reasons he was exempted from military service.

In 1927 he passed his bar exams in Paris and started attending the meetings of the group "Sagesse" ("Wisdom") where he made the acquaintance of André Salmon, Pierre Reverdy, Pierre Mac Orlan and Max Jacob. In 1949 he became a member of the Board of the "Pen Club". In 1957, he travelled to Thailand and Japan, and in 1958 he received the International Award of Capri. In 1960 he travelled to Brazil, Peru and Bolivia and in 1966 to the United States. He also visited Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal in 1967. He resigned from the bench in 1961, to participate in the cultural Decades of Cerisy-la-Salle, near Canisy. In 1970 he received the grand prize for poetry from L'Académie Française. The Black Insect Habit Empire Face the Animal From Elsewhere (2014, The Gallery Press) (translated and selected by Ciaran Carson, plus poetic meditations by Carson on the subject poems)

Prose Paris (1935) Canisy (1942) Chef-Lieu (1950) Transparence of the World D'Après Tout

Awards Mallarmé Prize (1939) International Prize of Capri (1958) Grand Prize of Poetry (L'Académie française 1970) Prix Blumenthal (1941)