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André Gide

French author and Nobel laureate (1869-1951) · France · Writers · Died at 81

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A writer who turned his life into literature: the Protestant professor's son who spent fifty books reconciling moral strictness with sexual transgression, pederasty with principle, and came out the other side with a Nobel Prize and a reputation as France's greatest man of letters in his century.

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A life in dates

1951Died19 February 19511950Grand Prize for the Best Novels of the Half-CenturyAward1949Goethe Plaque of the City of FrankfurtAward1947Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1929“Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love.”In their words21 January 1929Entry for January 21, 1929

1926“The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.”In their words23 August 1926Entry for August 23, 1926

1924“There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.”In their wordsSi le grain ne meurt [If It Die] (1924), ch. III

1913“No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.”In their wordsDetached Pages, entry for 1913

1903“True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.”In their wordsPortraits and Aphorisms (1903), Pretexts

1901“Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.”In their wordsLiterature and Ethics, entry for 1901

1869Born22 November 1869

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

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In their own words 10

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André Gide
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10 statements, newest first

  1. Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love.

    Jan 21, 1929, Entry for January 21, 1929, Own words

  2. The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.

    Aug 23, 1926, Entry for August 23, 1926, Own words

  3. 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.

    1925, Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16, Own words

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Awards

Grand Prize for the Best Novels of the Half-Century1950
Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt1949
Nobel Prize in Literature1947
Goethe Medal for Art and Science

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About this person

André Paul Guillaume Gide was born in Paris on 22 November 1869 and began writing in the symbolist style before his work sprawled across genres and decades. He published more than fifty books - fiction and autobiography both - using them to document what he called the two sides of his personality: Protestant austerity pulling against sexual adventurousness he refused to hide. A self-professed pederast, he wrote to explore how a person might be fully himself, own his nature, without abandoning his values. Between the wars he criticized imperialism and flirted with Communism in the early 1930s, but a 1936 trip to the USSR turned him against Stalin and toward the anti-Stalinist left. By the 1940s he had drifted back to traditional values and renounced Communism as a break with Christian civilization. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and died in Paris on 19 February 1951, his obituary calling him France's greatest contemporary man of letters.

Country
France
Category
Writers
Type
Writer / Author
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1869 to 1951 · aged 81

In common with André

Marcel PagnolAlso in Fanny (1932)Pierre BlancharAlso in Pastoral Symphony (1946)Marc AllégretAlso in Voyage au Congo (1927)Satsuo YamamotoAlso in Pastoral Symphony (1938)Pierre FresnayAlso in Fanny (1932)Jean DelannoyAlso in Pastoral Symphony (1946)

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