Eugène Brieux (1858–1932) wrote LES AMÉRICAINS CHEZ NOUS (AMERICANS IN FRANCE, 1920) in a spirit of gratitude toward Americans for having rallied to the aid of the Allies in the Great War and with a warmth of feeling that turned him again after a long hiatus to write in a comic vein. He was also personally grateful to Americans for their acceptance of his earlier play LES AVARIÉS, which dealt with the effects of syphilis transmitted to a wife and child and which had been banned from the French stage in 1901. Touting its educational value, actor Richard Bennett successfully produced and toured it as DAMAGED GOODS in the United States in 1913, the same year that Upton Sinclair published a novelization of the play, with Brieux’s approval. Brieux had risen from poverty and began by writing comedies while working as a journalist. His breakthrough came in 1892 when André Antoine staged BLANCHETTE at the Théâtre Libre, a Paris theatre that specialized in Zola-inspired gritty Naturalism. Brieux’s plays of the 1890s, 1900s, and 1910s continued exploration of controversial social problems, demonstrating particularly the difficulties faced by women. LA ROBE ROUGE (THE RED ROBE, 1900) exposed corruption in the judicial system. MATERNITÉ (MATERNITY, 1900) touches on abortion. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1910. During the Great War, Brieux devoted himself entirely to aid for blinded soldiers. While posterity would not validate Bernard Shaw’s declaration that Brieux was “the greatest writer France has produced since Molière,” his plays brought difficult issues to mainstream audiences and often led to reforms. His contemporaries wrote of his sincerity, his unassuming humanity, and his personal generosity.