Anatole France 
Balthasar 

Anatole France began his career as a poet and a journalist. Le Parnasse Contemporain published one of his poems, La Part de Madeleine. He sat on the committee which was in charge of the third Parnasse Contemporain compilation. He moved Paul Verlaine and Mallarmé aside of this Parnasse. As a journalist, from 1867, he wrote a lot of articles and notices. He became famous with the novel Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard. Its protagonist, skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, embodied France’s own personality. The novel was praised for its elegant prose and won him a prize from the French Academy. Masterful and poignant blending of religious and occult mysticism. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921 ‘in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament.’ Anatole France began his career as a poet and a journalist. In 1922, France’s entire works were put on the Prohibited Books Index of the Roman Catholic Church.