Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist best known for In Search of Lost Time, published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, with Swann's Way as its first. Born in Paris to a wealthy family, he moved in elite salons that supplied much of the material for the book. Confined by illness during his last three years, he died in 1922, and his brother Robert saw the remaining volumes into print. Critics regard him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.