Anatole France

Penguin Island (Dodo Press) Anatole France

Anatole France (1844-1924), born François-Anatole Thibault, was a French author. He studied at the Collège Stanislas and after graduation he helped his father by working at his bookstore. After several years he secured the position of a cataloguer at Bacheline- Deflorenne and at Lemerre, and in 1876 he was appointed a librarian for the French Senate. He became known after the publication of The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881). Along with Emile Zola, he became involved in the Alfred Dreyfus affair. He signed Zola's manifesto, publicly condemning the indictment of treason against Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain, who was being scapegoated to protect corrupt officials in the army. In 1901, France wrote about the affair in his book Monsieur Bergeret. He was elected to the French Academy in 1896 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. His later works include The Procurator of Judea (1902), Penguin Island (1908) and The Revolt of the Angels (1914).