Jean Anouilh

Jean Anouilh was born in Bordeaux, France in 1910. His family moved to Paris in 1918, where Anouilh received a secondary education and was accepted to the university Sorbonne, but had to drop out due to financial difficulties. After that, he worked as a copywriter. Anouilh was called to military service in 1929. His financial problems worsened when he married the actress Monelle Valentin in 1931 and only had a small military conscription salary on which to support himself and his wife. Eventually, Anouilh started working as a playwright, ultimately becoming was one of France’s most prolific post-WWII writers, with a career spanning five decades. Today, he is best known for his 1943 play Antigone.