List of Nobel laureates in Literature

Horace Engdahl, the former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, announcing that Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) is awarded annually by the Swedish Academy to authors for outstanding contributions in the field of literature. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by a committee that consists of five members elected by the Swedish Academy. The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to Sully Prudhomme of France. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years. In 1901, Prudhomme received 150,782 SEK, which is equivalent to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the prize was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio of France, who was awarded the prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

As of 2009, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 102 laureates. When he received the award in 1958, Russian-born Boris Pasternak was forced to decline it under pressure from the government of the Soviet Union. In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, as he had consistently refused all official honors in the past. Twelve women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, more than any other Nobel Prize with the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize. Among all the years the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded, there have been only four instances in which the award was given to two individuals (1904, 1917, 1966, 1974). There have been seven years in which the Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded (1914, 1918, 1935, 1940–1943).

Laureates

Year	Laureate		Country	Rationale
1901		Sully Prudhomme	France	"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"
1902		Theodor Mommsen	Germany	"the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome"
1903		Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	Norway	"as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit"
1904		Frédéric Mistral	France	"in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist"
		José Echegaray	Spain	"in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama"
1905		Henryk Sienkiewicz	Poland	"because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer"
1906		Giosuè Carducci	Italy	"not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces"
1907		Rudyard Kipling	United Kingdom	"in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author"
1908		Rudolf Christoph Eucken	Germany	"in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life"
1909		Selma Lagerlöf	Sweden	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"
1910		Paul von Heyse	Germany	"as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories"
1911		Maurice Maeterlinck	Belgium	"in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations"
1912		Gerhart Hauptmann	Germany	"primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art"
1913		Rabindranath Tagore	India	"because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West"
1914	Not awarded
1915		Romain Rolland	France	"as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings"
1916		Verner von Heidenstam	Sweden	"in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature"
1917		Karl Adolph Gjellerup	Denmark	"for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals"
		Henrik Pontoppidan	Denmark	"for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark"
1918	Not awarded
1919		Carl Spitteler	Switzerland	"in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring"
1920		Knut Hamsun	Norway	"for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil"
1921		Anatole France	France	"in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament"
1922		Jacinto Benavente	Spain	"for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama"
1923		William Butler Yeats	Ireland	"for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation"
1924		Władysław Reymont	Poland	"for his great national epic, The Peasants"
1925		George Bernard Shaw	Ireland	"for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty"
1926		Grazia Deledda	Italy	"for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general"
1927		Henri Bergson	France	"in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented"
1928		Sigrid Undset	Norway	"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"
1929		Thomas Mann	Germany	"principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature"
1930	File:SinclairLewis1930.jpg	Sinclair Lewis	United States	"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"
1931		Erik Axel Karlfeldt	Sweden	"The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt"
1932		John Galsworthy	United Kingdom	"for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga"
1933		Ivan Bunin	stateless domicile in France	"for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing"
1934		Luigi Pirandello	Italy	"for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
1935	Not awarded
1936	File:Oneill.jpg	Eugene O'Neill	United States	"for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy"
1937		Roger Martin du Gard	France	"for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel cycle Les Thibault"
1938		Pearl S. Buck	United States	"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"
1939		Frans Eemil Sillanpää	Finland	"for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature"
1940	Not awarded
1941	Not awarded
1942	Not awarded
1943	Not awarded
1944		Johannes Vilhelm Jensen	Denmark	"for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style"
1945		Gabriela Mistral	Chile	"for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"
1946		Hermann Hesse	Switzerland	"for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"
1947		André Gide	France	"for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight"
1948		T. S. Eliot	United States / United Kingdom	"for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry"
1949		William Faulkner	United States	"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"
1950	File:Bertrand Russell 1950.jpg	Bertrand Russell	United Kingdom	"in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"
1951		Pär Lagerkvist	Sweden	"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"
1952		François Mauriac	France	"for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"
1953		Winston Churchill	United Kingdom	"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values"
1954		Ernest Hemingway	United States	"for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style"
1955		Halldór Laxness	Iceland	"for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland"
1956	File:Juan Ramón Jiménez.jpg	Juan Ramón Jiménez	Spain	"for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity"
1957		Albert Camus	France	"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times"
1958	File:Boris Pasternak cropped.jpg	Boris Pasternak	Soviet Union	"for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition"
1959		Salvatore Quasimodo	Italy	"for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"
1960		Saint-John Perse	France	"for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"
1961	File:Andric Ivo.jpg	Ivo Andrić	Yugoslavia	"for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"
1962		John Steinbeck	United States	"for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"
1963		Giorgos Seferis	Greece	"for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture"
1964		Jean-Paul Sartre	France	"for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age"
1965	File:Sholokhov-1938.jpg	Mikhail Sholokhov	Soviet Union	"for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people"
1966		Shmuel Yosef Agnon	Israel	"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"
		Nelly Sachs	Germany	"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"
1967		Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala	"for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"
1968		Kawabata Yasunari	Japan	"for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind"
1969	File:Samuel Beckett 01.jpg	Samuel Beckett	Ireland	"for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"
1970		Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Soviet Union	"for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"
1971		Pablo Neruda	Chile	"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"
1972		Heinrich Böll	West Germany	"for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature"
1973		Patrick White	Australia	"for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature"
1974		Eyvind Johnson	Sweden	"for a narrative art, farseeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom"
		Harry Martinson	Sweden	"for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"
1975		Eugenio Montale	Italy	"for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"
1976	File:Saul Bellow, 1990.jpg	Saul Bellow	United States	"for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"
1977		Vicente Aleixandre	Spain	"for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars"
1978		Isaac Bashevis Singer	United States	"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"
1979		Odysseas Elytis	Greece	"for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness"
1980		Czesław Miłosz	Poland	"who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"
1981		Elias Canetti	United Kingdom	"for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"
1982		Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia	"for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts"
1983		William Golding	United Kingdom	"for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today"
1984		Jaroslav Seifert	Czechoslovakia	"for his poetry which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"
1985		Claude Simon	France	"who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"
1986		Wole Soyinka	Nigeria	"who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"
1987		Joseph Brodsky	United States	"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"
1988		Naguib Mahfouz	Egypt	"who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"
1989	File:Portrait Cela.jpg	Camilo José Cela	Spain	"for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability"
1990		Octavio Paz	Mexico	"for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"
1991		Nadine Gordimer	South Africa	"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"
1992		Derek Walcott	Saint Lucia	"for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment"
1993		Toni Morrison	United States	"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"
1994		Ōe Kenzaburō	Japan	"who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today"
1995		Seamus Heaney	Ireland	"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past"
1996		Wisława Szymborska	Poland	"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"
1997		Dario Fo	Italy	"who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"
1998	File:Josesaramago.jpg	José Saramago	Portugal	"who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"
1999		Günter Grass	Germany	"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"
2000		Gao Xingjian	France	"for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama"
2001		V. S. Naipaul	United Kingdom	"for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"
2002		Imre Kertész	Hungary	"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
2003		J. M. Coetzee	South Africa	"who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"
2004		Elfriede Jelinek	Austria	"for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"
2005		Harold Pinter	United Kingdom	"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"
2006		Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"
2007		Doris Lessing	United Kingdom	"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"
2008		J. M. G. Le Clézio	France	"author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"
2009		Herta Müller	Germany	"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"

See Also

• List of Nobel laureates in Literature by age

References

General

• "All Nobel Laureates in Literature". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-16.

Specific

External links

• Official website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Official website of the Nobel Foundation