Jules Romains, born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule (August 26, 1885 – August 14, 1972), was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement. His works include the play Knock ou le Triomphe de la medecine, and a cycle of works called Les Hommes de bonne volonte (Men of Good Will).

Jules Romains was born in Saint-Julien-Chapteuil in the Haute-Loire but went to Paris to attend first the lycee Condorcet and then the prestigious Ecole normale superieure. He was close to the Abbaye de Creteil, a utopian group founded in 1906 by Charles Vildrac and Rene Arcos, which brought together, among others, the writer Georges Duhamel, the painter Albert Gleizes and the musician Albert Doyen. He received his agregation in philosophy in 1909.

In 1927, he signed a petition (that appeared in the magazine Europe on April 15) against the law on the general organization of the nation in time of war, abrogating all intellectual independence and all freedom of expression. His name on the petition appeared with those of Lucien Descaves, Louis Guilloux, Henry Poulaille, Severine... and those of the young Raymond Aron and Jean-Paul Sartre from the ecole normale superieure.

During World War II he went into exile first to the United States where he spoke on the radio through the Voice of America and then, beginning in 1941, to Mexico where he participated with other French refugees in founding the Institut Franзais d'Amerique Latine (IFAL).

A writer on many varied topics, Jules Romain was elected to the Academie Franзaise on 4 April 1946, occupying chair 12 (of 40). In 1964, Jules Romains was named citizen of honor of Saint-Avertin. Following his death in Paris in 1972, his place in the Academie Franзaise was taken by Jean d'Ormesson.

Jules Romains is remembered today, among other things, for his concept of Unanimism and his cycle of novels in Les Hommes de bonne volonte (The Men of Good Will), a remarkable literary fresco depicting the odyssey over a quarter century of two friends, the writer Jallez and politician Jerphanion, who provide an example in literature of Unanimism.

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