born Jan. 29, 1866, Clamecy, France
died Dec. 30, 1944, Vézelay
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist.
At age 14 he went to Paris to study and found a society in spiritual disarray, and his life and writings came to reflect his concern with major social, political, and spiritual events. From 1910 he taught music history at the Sorbonne. His best-known novel is Jean-Christophe (1904–12), a 10-volume epic whose protagonist is modeled half on Ludwig van Beethoven and half on himself. His pamphlet Above the Battle (1915) calls on France and Germany to respect truth and humanity during World War I. In the 1920s he turned to interpreting the mystical philosophy of Asia, especially India, in works such as Mahatma Gandhi (1924). He wrote several other major biographies, including Beethoven (1910). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.