Romain Rolland (January 29, 1866 – December 30, 1944) was a French writer and dramatist, best known as the author of the novel series Jean-Christophe (1904-12). Photo right with Gandhi

In 1928 he and Hungarian scholar, philosopher and natural living experimenter Edmund Bordeaux Szekely founded the International Biogenic Society to promote and expand on their ideas of the integration of mind, body and spirit and the virtues of a natural, simple, vegetarian lifestyle. (The Biogenic Society was continued by Szeckely's widow after his death in 1979, but it is not known for how long)

In 1889 he went to Rome, where he met Malvida von Meysenburg, who was a friend of Richard Wagner and Freidrich Neitzsche. Her ideas, together with the teaching of Tolstoy, largely shaped his political, humanitarian, and internationalist ideas.

In 1903 was appointed to the first chair of music history at the Sorbonne, retiring in 1913. Meanwhile Rolland produced a series of biographies: Beethoven (1903), Hugo Wolf (1905), Michel-Angelo (1906), and Tolstoi (1911).

Romain Rolland was a lifelong pacifist. He protested against the first World War in Au-dessus de la Mêlée (1915), Above the Battle (Chicago, 1916).

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.

In the 1920s he turned to interpreting the mystical philosophy of Asia, especially India, in works such as Mahatma Gandhi (1924). His book on Gandhi contributed to the Indian nonviolent leader's reputation and the two men met in 1931 (see photo).