Anatole France

Anatole France was the son of a bookseller and spent much of his early life at his father’s bookstore in Paris. France studied at the private Catholic college Collège Stanislas de Paris. He began working as a journalist in 1867 and as a poet in 1869. France’s 1881 novel, Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard, brought him fame and literary acclaim. In addition to poetry and fiction, France also wrote several memoirs, plays, and works of literary criticism and social criticism. In 1921, France won the Nobel Prize to recognize his literary achievements. He died at age 80 in 1924.