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Founded in 1902 under the will of Edmond de Goncourt, this society of ten writers meets annually over lunch to award the most prestigious of France's literary prizes to what is judged the best imaginative prose work of the year. Their verdict has not always been ratified by posterity, but the prize guarantees unusually good sales.
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The Académie Goncourt is a French literary organization based in Paris that was founded in 1900 in accordance with the wishes of French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt (1822-1896), and in opposition to the then existing policies towards writers by the Académie française.
Wishing to honor his deceased brother Jules (1830-1870), de Goncourt named his friend Alphonse Daudet to oversee his estate that he bequeathed for the establishment of an organization to promote literature in France. Each December since 1903, a ten-member Board of the Académie has awarded the Prix Goncourt for the best work of fiction of the year.
Membership is reserved to writers who have produced works in the French language but it is not limited to citizens of France. In 1996 the Spanish novelist and scriptwriter Jorge Semprun became the first foreigner to become a member of the academy.
In addition to the Prix Goncourt, which comes with a symbolic cheque of 10 Euros, the Goncourt academy is also responsible for awarding 5 bourses of a more substantial nature.
The ten members of the academy are usually called les dix, and they meet the first Tuesday of each month, except in summer. Since 1914 they have convened in an oval room, the salon Goncourt on the second floor of the Drouant restaurant in the heart of Paris. The cutlery or tableware that they use while meeting and dining at the restaurant constitutes the main physical continuity of the academy. Each new member receives the fork and knife of the member which he (or she) is replacing, and a new name is then added on the knife and the fork.
The cooking is reported to be excellent.
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 | French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Académie Goncourt". Read more |
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