Olympedia – Literature, Open

In the literature category five medals were awarded, one gold and two silver and bronze medals each. The gold medal was won by French Géo-Charles for The Olympic Games. Géo-Charles was the pseudonym of Charles Guyot, who became best known as the Olympic Literary Man. He was also active in several sports activities.

The silver medals were awarded to British writer Dorothy Margaret Stuart and Danish author Josef Petersen. Stuart received it for Sword Songs. She joined The English Association in 1930 and was a member of the Executive Committee from 1937-61, Honorary Secretary of the Association from 1949-51, and edited the News-Letter from it’s inception in 1946 to 1961. She was known for her literary criticism and for several historical biographies. Petersen wrote mostly about ancient and medieval motifs and was well recognized for his knowledge of ancient cultures, but not from the contemporary literary criticism. He won all his Olympic art medals (1924, 1932 and 1948) with works on ancient Greek sports motifs, in 1924 for Euryale.

The bronze medals went to French Charles Anthoine Gonnet for Face to Face with Olympia’s God and Irish Oliver St. John Gogarty for Ode to the Tailteann Games. Gonnet also played rugby for the French national team from 1921-27. In 1924, he was a substitute for the French national team at the Paris Olympics, but did not play in any match. He was also an athlete, swimmer and boxer. Besides his writing Gogarty was a physician, sportsman, pilot and politician, and from 1922-36 served as a senator in the Irish Parliament.