Anatole France was a French poet, writer, and author who wrote several best-selling books. He was born on April 16, 1844, and died on October 12, 1924. In his time, he was seen as the perfect French man of letters, even though he was skeptical and ironic. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921 "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, marked as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament." He was a member of the Académie Francaise. France is also often seen as the inspiration for Marcel's literary hero Bergotte in Marcel Proust's book in Search of Lost Time. France, who loved reading and was the son of a bookseller, spent most of his time around books. Many writers and researchers went to his dad's bookstore, which had a lot of books and papers about the French Revolution. France went to the private Catholic school Collège Stanislas and worked in his father's shop after high school to help out. After working for a while, he got jobs as a cataloger at Bacheline-Deflorenne and Lemerre. He was made a librarian for the French Senate in 1876.
