DESTRÉE, JULES

(1863-1936)

   Jules Destrée was born in Marcinelle on 21 August 1863. A novelist and essayist, Destrée was a socialist and advocate of French-language interests (Wallons et Flamands, Walloons and Flemings [1923]). He gained notoriety for his Lettre au Roi sur la séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre (Letter to the king on the separation of Wallonia and Flanders [1912]) in which he declared that outside of official circles and the city of Brussels and its immediate environs, which he labeled an agglomérat du métis ("agglomeration of half-breeds"), there were no Belgians.

   Destrée was the leading force in securing establishment of the Académie royale de Langue et de Littérature française, founded in 1921. He died in Brussels on 2 January 1936.