ABSTRACT
In 1913 a minor author known as a dilettante in the Parisian world of literature, a writer of several articles, some translations from the English, and a volume or two of short sketches, paid the publisher Grasset to bring out Swann's Way. An American critic, D. W. Alden, has written: "On the day after the prize, only one voice was raised in real praise of Proust; it was that of his new champion, Jacques Riviere, who declared in Excelsior that never was the Academy better inspired." A number of voices were raised against Proust however. Riviere, who placed Proust's work among the greatest masterpieces of French literature, decided to silence those voices by becoming the ardent supporter of Proust. "The Goncourt Prize," which appeared in the N.R.F. in January 1920, shortly after the award, answered those critics who claimed that Proust was too old to receive it.
