Which French poet became the first Nobel Prize in Literature laureate in 1901?

Sully Prudhomme became the first Nobel Prize in Literature laureate in 1901.

The Swedish Academy selected Prudhomme, whose real name was René François Armand Prudhomme, for the inaugural literature award. The Nobel Prize was one of the original prizes established from Alfred Nobel’s will, and the first awards were presented in Stockholm in December 1901.

Prudhomme was associated with the Parnassian poetic movement, which valued formal precision and polished language. His work often explored philosophical and emotional themes rather than political campaigning or narrative adventure.

A common mix-up is to identify Victor Hugo or Émile Zola as the first laureate because both were major nineteenth-century French writers. Neither received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The first award went to Prudhomme, decades before the prize became associated with globally famous novelists and poets.