Historical Figure
André Gide
1869–1951
French author and Nobel laureate (1869–1951)
Talk to André Gide
Have a conversation with this historical figure through AI
Biography
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author whose writing spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his beginnings in the symbolist movement to criticising imperialism between the two World Wars. Author of more than 50 books, he was described in his New York Times obituary as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century by the literary cognoscenti."
In Their Own Words (5)
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
Autumn Leaves, Philosophical eLibraryhttps://books.google.com/books?id=xUtdDnEhkMMC&pg=PT12&lpg=PT12#v=onepage&q&f=false, 2012, (Feuillets d'automne, 1941, trans. Jeanine Parisier Plottel) , 2012
The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious.
Entry for August 23, 1926 , 1889
The abominable effort to take one's sins with one to paradise.
Detached Pages, entry for 1913 , 1889
The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?
p. 159 , 1902
The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.
Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16 , 1925
Timeline
The story of André Gide, told in moments.
Published Les Nourritures terrestres (The Fruits of the Earth), a prose poem celebrating sensual liberation. It sold poorly at first but later became a bible for 1920s French youth.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Catholic Church had placed his complete works on the Index of Forbidden Books the year before.
More from the Industrial
Explore what happened on the days that shaped André Gide's life. Today In History connects historical figures with the events, births, and deaths that defined their era. Browse all historical figures or explore today's events.