Gustave Thibon


Gustave Thibon was a French philosopher.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

Biography

Although essentially self-taught, Thibon was an avid reader – especially of poetry, in French, Provençal and Latin. He was very impressed by the First World War, which led him to hate patriotism and democracy. The young Gustave Thibon travelled extensively, at first to London and Italy, and later to North Africa, where he served in the military, before returning to his native village at the age of 23. Under the influence of writers such as Léon Bloy and Jacques Maritain he converted to Catholicism. At the invitation of the latter, he started his literary career in the pages of the Revue Thomiste.
During World War II Thibon hosted the philosopher Simone Weil at his farm; he published S. Weil's work La Pesanteur et la Grâce in 1947.

Works