Anatole France was born Jacques Anatole Thibault in 1844. After finishing school at age 20, he spent some time working in his father's bookshop. From 1876 to 1890, he served as the assistance librarian to the Senate. He was married several years, but it ultimately ended in divorce, largely due to his liaison with another woman, Mme de Caillavet. His 27-year relationship with de Caillavet, at whose salon he presided until the time of her death in 1910, proved influential on his personal and literary life.

Although he wrote throughout his lifetime, his first great success did not come until 1881 with Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard. In 1885, he published Livre de mon ami, an autobiographical novel that continued through several later works-- Pierre Noziére (1899), Le Petit Pierre (1918), and La Vie au fleur (1922). Between 1888 and 1892, he wrote columns as the literary critic for the newspaper Le Temps. The columns were later published in a complete, four-volume set. France's most celebrated work, La Rôtisserie de la Reine Rédauque, was published in 1893. For France, the 18th century was a Golden Age and central to much of his work. He later turned to social questions.

In 1896, France was elected to the French Academy. He was also awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in October 1924.