René François Armand "Sully" Prudhomme was a French poet and essayist. He was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1901. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901, announced November 14, 1901. Sully Prudhomme, “in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect”. Sully Prudhomme: born 1839, Paris, France. Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).