Jusserand, JeanJules

▪ French scholar

born Feb. 18, 1855, Lyon

died July 18, 1932, Paris

      French scholar and diplomat who, as French ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1902–25), helped secure the entry of the United States into World War I.

      He was a noted Middle English literature scholar. En Amérique jadis et maintenant (1916; With Americans of Past and Present Days, 1917) was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for history (1917). He was ambassador to the United States under five presidents, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt. His major works on medieval English literature include Les Anglais au moyen âge: l'épopée mystique de William Langland (1893; Piers Plowman, 1894) and Histoire littéraire du peuple anglais (vol. 1, 1894, vol. 2, 1904; “Literary History of the English People”).

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