BALZAC, JEAN LOUIS GUEZ DE (1594-1654), French author, was born at Angouleme. At the age of 18 he travelled in Holland with Theophile de Viaud, with whom he later ex changed bitter recriminations. He was early befriended by the duc d'Epernon and his son Louis, cardinal de la Valette, who took him to Rome. His letters written to his acquaintances, and to many who held high positions at the French court, gained for him a great reputation. Compliments were showered upon him, and he became an habitué of the Hotel de Rambouillet. Richelieu was Lavish of praise and promises, but never offered Balzac the preferment he expected. In 1624 a collection of his Lettres was published, and was received with great favour. From the château of Balzac, whither he had retired, he continued to cor respond with Jean Chapelain, Valentin Conrart, and others. In 1634 he was elected to the Academy. His fame rests chiefly upon the Lettres, a second collection of which appeared in 1636. Recueil de nouvelles lettres was printed in the next year. His letters, though empty and affected in matter, show a real mastery of style, introducing a new clearness and precision into French prose and encouraging the development of the language on national lines by emphasizing its most idiomatic elements. Balzac has thus the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to Malherbe's in verse. In 1631 he published a eulogy of Louis XIII. entitled Le Prince; in 1652 the Socrate chretien, the best of his longer works; Aristippe ou de la Cour in 1658; and several dissertations on style.
His Oeuvres were collected in 1665 by Valentin Conrart. There are numerous English translations from Balzac, dating from the 17th century.