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1951 Nobel Prize in Literature

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The 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature
Pär Lagerkvist
"for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."
DateNovember 1951
LocationStockholm
CountrySweden
Presented bySwedish Academy
Hosted byAnders Österling
First awarded1901
Website1951 Nobel Prize in Literature
← 1950 · Nobel Prize in Literature · 1952 →

The 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."[1] Lagerkvist is the fourth Swedish recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Selma Lagerlöf in 1909, Verner von Heidenstam in 1916, and Erik Axel Karlfeldt in 1931.

Laureate

Main article: Pär Lagerkvist

Pär Lagerkvist wrote novels, poetry, plays, short stories and essays and were one of major Swedish literary figures of the first half of the 20th century. In his early years Lagerkvist supported modernist and aesthetically radical views, as shown by his manifesto Ordkonst och bildkonst ("Word Art and Picture Art", 1913) and the play Den Svåra Stunden ("The Difficult Hour", 1918). In 1916, he published Ångest ("Anguish"), a violent and disillusioned collection of poems. The novel Bödeln ("The Hangman", 1933) and the play Mannen utan själ ("The Man Without a Soul", 1936) expresses Lagerkvist's indignation over rising fascism. A recurring theme in his writings is the fundamental question of good and evil, and the problem of man's relation to God. This theme is particularly notable in the 1944 novel Dvärgen ("The Dwarf"), which became his first major success, followed by Barabbas (1950), a novel that won Lagerkvist world recognition.[2] His works also include the notable autobiographical novel Gäst hos verkligheten ("Guest of Reality", 1925),[2] and two of his most important works, the collection of poems Aftonland ("Evening Land", 1953) and the novel Sibyllan ("The Sibyl", 1956), which were published after he was awarded the Nobel prize.[3][4]

Deliberations

Nominations

Pär Lagerkvist had first been proposed for the prize in 1947.[5] Following the publication of his novel Barabbas, Lagerkvist had been one of the favourites to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.[6] In 1951 the Nobel committee for literature received nine nominations for Lagerkvist, including nominations from the French authors and previous laureates André Gide and Roger Martin du Gard, and the Swedish Academy decided to award him the prize.[5]

In total the Nobel committee received 44 nominations for 25 individuals including Taha Hussein, Paul Claudel, Winston Churchill (awarded in 1953), Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Tarjei Vesaas and Halldór Kiljan Laxness (awarded in 1955). The Greek authors Nikos Kazantzakis and Angelos Sikelianos were nominated both individually and for a shared prize by academy member Sigfrid Siwertz. The Spanish writer José Ortega y Gasset were nominated by 18 members of the Royal Spanish Academy. Six of the nominees were newly nominated among them Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Rómulo Gallegos, José Maria Ferreira de Castro, and María Enriqueta Camarillo. Two women were nominated namely the Australian author Katherine Susannah Prichard and the Mexican writer Maria Enriqueta Camarillo.[7]

The authors James Bridie, Lloyd C. Douglas, Oscar Micheaux, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, Richard Malden, Abraham Cahan, Algernon Blackwood, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Pedro Salinas, Louis Lavelle, René Guénon, Henri-René Lenormand, Antoine Bibesco, Tadeusz Borowski, Andrei Platonov, Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Henrik Visnapuu, Sadegh Hedayat, Fumiko Hayashi, Miyamoto Yuriko, Božena Slančíková (known as Timrava), and Margaret Mayo died in 1951 without having been nominated for the prize.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize
No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)
1 Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969)  Venezuela novel, short story
2 Júlio Dantas (1876–1962)  Portugal poetry, drama, novel, essays
3 Ezequiel Martínez Estrada (1895–1964)  Argentina poetry, essays, literary criticism, biography Sociedad Argentina de Escritores
4 José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955)  Spain philosophy, essays
5 Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974)  Sweden poetry, novel, short story, drama
6 Winston Churchill (1874–1965)  United Kingdom history, essays, memoir
7 Sotíris Skípis (ca. 1881–1952)  Greece poetry, drama, translation unnamed[8]
8 Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883–1969)  Australia novel, short story, drama, poetry, autobiography
9 Manuel Gálvez (1882–1962)  Argentina novel, poetry, drama, essays, history, biography Manuel Alcobre (1900–1977)
10 Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968)  Spain philology, history
11 Zalman Shneour (1887–1959)  Belarus
 United States 		poetry, essays
12 Mark Aldanov (1886–1957)  Ukraine
 France 		biography, novel, essays, literary criticism Ivan Bunin (1870–1953)
13 Mika Waltari (1908–1979)  Finland short story, novel, poetry, drama, essays, screenplay Aarne Anttila (1892–1952)
14 Paul Claudel (1868–1955)  France poetry, drama, essays, memoir Kåre Foss (1895–1967)
15 Alfred Noyes (1880–1958)  United Kingdom poetry, drama, essays, biography, novel, short story, literary criticism Laurence McGinley, S.J. (1905–1992)
16 María Enriqueta Camarillo (1872–1968)  Mexico novel, short story, drama, poetry, translation Leavitt Olds Wright (1891–1980)
17 Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1887–1970)  Ukraine
 Israel 		novel, short story Simon Halkin (1899–1987)
18 Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)  Norway poetry, novel
19 Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)  France novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
20 Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951)  Greece poetry, drama Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970)
21 Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957)  Greece novel, philosophy, essays, drama, memoir, translation
22 Ferreira de Castro (1898–1978)  Portugal novel Holger Sten (1907–1971)
23 Halldór Laxness (1902–1998)  Iceland novel, short story, drama, poetry
24 Taha Hussein (1889–1973)  Egypt novel, short story, poetry, translation Academy of the Arabic Language

Reactions

Although several Nordic and Swedish authors had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature before and Lagerkvist himself was a member of the awarding institution the Swedish Academy, the decision to award him was defended as a legitimate choice in the Swedish press by critics Erik Hjalmar Linder and Sten Selander, saying the internationally recognised Lagerkvist undoubtedly deserved the prize. Selander argued that Lagerkvist was a classic modernist in the same class as the two recent laureates William Faulkner and T. S. Eliot.[9]

References

  1. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1951". nobelprize.org.
  2. ^ a b "Par Lagerkvist | Swedish author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  3. ^ Håkan Möller "Pär Lagerkvist, Barabbas and the Nobel Prize for Literature" Journal of World Literature 1 2016, p.515-516
  4. ^ Pär Lagerkvist – Facts nobelprize.org
  5. ^ a b "Nomination Archive - Pär Fabian Lagerkvist". nobelprize.org.
  6. ^ Håkan Möller "Pär Lagerkvist, Barabbas and the Nobel Prize for Literature" Journal of World Literature 1 2016, p.505
  7. ^ Nomination archive – 1951 nobelprize.org
  8. ^ According to the Nobel's nomination archives, the nominator's name is Parnasse from Athens, Greece.
  9. ^ Håkan Möller "Pär Lagerkvist, Barabbas and the Nobel Prize for Literature" Journal of World Literature 1 2016, p.514-515
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