Henri Bergson won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature for his rich and vital ideas.
Bergson was a French philosopher whose writing examined time, consciousness, memory, intuition, and creativity. His major books include Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution.
The Swedish Academy honored the richness and vitality of his ideas, showing that the literature prize has sometimes recognized philosophical prose rather than novels, poetry, or drama. Bergson’s writing was widely read in Europe and North America during the early twentieth century.
Bergson is sometimes mistaken for Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre, both French writers and philosophers who later won the literature Nobel. Camus won in 1957, while Sartre won in 1964 and declined the prize.