Editing Julien van Noord (section)

== Early life ==
Julien was born in [[Rotterdam]] on 26 December 1867. He was the youngest child of [[Matteo Norte]] and [[Camilla Norte]]. His parents had converted to Judaism in 1859, and he was raised as a Jew from birth. The family moved to [[Paris]] in 1871.

As a young man, Julien rejected the religious practice of his household. In 1887, he began describing himself as an atheist. He nevertheless read French translations of Homer and Hesiod and developed a lasting interest in the gods of ancient Greece. He treated them as literary representations of human ambition and weakness rather than as objects of worship.

Julien began publishing essays in French during the 1890s. He preferred abstract arguments and rarely conceded a point once he had stated it in print. When readers challenged him, he often replied that they had misunderstood the question. His correspondence earned him a reputation for arrogance that followed him throughout his career.