Previously published in France in 1963 under the title Partir avant le jour by the Éditions Bernard Grasset. It was translated by Anne and Julian Green.

 

From the dust cover

Autobiography, confession of adolescence, an exercise in the art of evoking past experiences ... Julian Green's memories of his childhood are full of many fascinations.

When he was born in 1900, the century was itself just beginning. Green's description of a happy family life reaches back to the American South in the 19th century and deep inside his burgeoning self, which he analyzes with amazing objectivity. The main factors in the author's development are his creativity, his conversion to Catholicism and his nascent sexuality. Julian Green's determination to 'say everything' is impressive. The narcissism of youth, the anguish of his mother and the brutal realities of the human condition, of which he became aware at an early age, are all explored in the first volume of his autobiography.

The Green Paradise closes on the young Green, aged just 16, joining an American contingent bound for ambulance service in the First World War.

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