Life
Jean Follain was born in the small town of Canisy, south of Saint-Lô where he spent his childhood. He attended a college 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 Faculte 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 1933 he published his first collection with Eugène Guillevic and Pierre Albert-Birot. In 1934 he married the daughter of the painter Maurice Denis. In 1939 he received the Mallarmé Prize. Jean Follain received the Prix Blumenthal in 1941, awarded to poets who refused to collaborate with the Vichy Government.
In 1951 he gave up his career as a business lawyer and was appointed to the post of judge (magistrate) of the High Court in Charleville. 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, attending to the cultural decade of Cerisy-la-Salle near Canisy. In 1970 he received the grand prize for poetry from L'Académie Française. He died in Paris on 10 March 1971 when, returning from a banquet given by the Boat Touring Club, he was run over by a car shortly after midnight at the outlet of the tunnel of the Quay of des Tuileries. He was buried on 16 March in Canisy.
The "Reading Association at Saint-Lô" and the city of Saint-Lô with the assistance of the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs of the Lower Normandy Regional Centre of Letters and the Council General of France organise a biannual literary Prize in his name: Jean Follain Prize in the city of Saint-Lô.
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