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Anatole France (1844–1924)

1921 Literature

In recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace and true Gallic temperament.

Anatole France, the pseudonym of Jacques-Anatole Thibault, created remarkably clear works full of skepticism, irony and social criticism, qualities that made him heir to the tradition of Voltaire.

The son of a bookseller, Thibault always lived surrounded by literary works. Since he was devoted to reading from his youth, and throughout his life he would maintain a passion for knowledge and storytelling. When he was 7 years old, Thibault told his parents he wanted to be famous.

Although his mother was unhappy with what she considered to be her son’s vanity, Thibault’s father believed that, with a bit of experience in the world, the young Jacques would soon grow tired of fame. Time proved his prediction right.

Thibault received a classical education at Stanislas College, an all-boys school in his native Paris, before a brief attendance at the Chartes School. Over the next years he worked at various jobs, all of them involving writing. He was a freelance journalist from 1862 to 1877, a librarian at the Senate from 1876 to 1890 and a literary critic for the newspaper Le Temps from 1888 to 1892. Despite demanding occupations, Thibault, under the pseudonym Anatole France, dedicated time to his personal writing. He explored almost all genres, but was a novelist and storyteller at heart. He wrote in classical French, which lent itself wonderfully to his style and subject matter.

France’s first major success was Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (Sylvestre Bonnard’s Crime), published in 1881, and the novel received a prize from the prestigious French Academy. Balthazar (1889) and Thaïs (1890) followed, but his most celebrated novel, La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque (At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque), was published in 1893. A year later he wrote Histoire Contemporaine (Contemporary Stories), which marked a change in direction. This collection protested against the Dreyfus case, a political scandal involving anti-Semitism that divided the country for a decade, and showed his concern with other current events. In later years France was increasingly concerned with social questions, and they filled the pages of most of his last works.

His private life had three distinct periods. His first marriage, to Marie-Valérie Guérin de Sauville, was celebrated in 1877 but ended in divorce 16 years later. He met Leontine Arman de Caillavet, the inspiration for his Thaïs, in 1888 and had a relationship with her until 1910, and then he married Emma Laprévotte in 1920.