1926 Nobel Prize in Literature
- November 1927 (announcement)
- 10 December 1927
(ceremony)
← 1925 · | Nobel Prize in Literature | · 1927 → |
The 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Italian author Grazia Deledda "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."[1] She was the second Italian and second female Nobel laureate in literature.[2]
Laureate
Grazia Deledda wrote a large collection of novels, short stories, articles, stage plays, and poems. After the publication of her first novel Fior de Sardegna ("The Flower of Sardinia") in 1891, which was followed by Elias Portolu in 1900, Deledda gained widespread recognition and praise around the world. Due to the old traditions with deep historical roots that formed Deledda's upbringing and the unfortunate outcomes of her family members, she developed a strong sense of destiny. Her works frequently deal with themes like uncontrollable forces, moral quandaries, passion, and human frailty. Among her oeuvres that earned her prominence in literature include Dopo il divorzio ("After the Divorce", 1902), L'edera ("Ivy", 1908), Canne al vento ("Reeds in the Wind", 1913), and La Fuga in Egitto ("The Flight into Egypt", 1925).[3][4]
Deliberations
Nominations
Deledda was not nominated in 1926 but in 1927.[5] She received 18 nominations in total beginning in 1913 with the recommendations of Luigi Luzzatti (1841–1927) and Ferdinando Martini (1840–1928). In 1927, she was nominated by academy member and literary historian Henrik Schück (1855–1947) after which she was eventually awarded.[6]
In total, the Nobel Committee received 37 nominations for 29 authors including George Bernard Shaw (awarded for 1925), Thomas Hardy, Willem Kloos, Rudolf Maria Holzapfel and James George Frazer. Sixteen of the nominees were newly nominated such as Arnold Bennett, Paul Claudel, Avetis Aharonian, Sofía Casanova, Vicente Huidobro, Concha Espina de la Serna (with the highest number of nominations), Edvard Westermarck, Ada Negri, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Karl Kraus, J.-H. Rosny aîné, Johannes Jørgensen and Kostis Palamas. Four of the nominees were women: Sigrid Undset (awarded in 1928), Ada Negri, Concha Espina de la Serna, and Sofía Casanova.[5]
The authors Gertrude Bell, René Boylesve, Ada Cambridge, Javier de Viana, Fran Detela, Lyubov Dostoevskaya, Sarah Doudney, Sigrid Elmblad, Ronald Firbank, Dmitry Furmanov, Juan Silvano Godoi, John Burland Harris-Burland, Rose Hawthorne, Ellen Key, Sidney Lee, Helena Nyblom, Karel Václav Rais, Jean Richepin, Rainer Maria Rilke, Albert Robida, Radu Rosetti, August Sedláček, Ågot Gjems Selmer and Carl Nicolai Starcke died in 1926 without having been nominated for the prize.
No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Avetis Aharonian (1866–1948) | ![]() | essays, short story | Antoine Meillet (1866–1936) |
2 | Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) | ![]() | novel, short story, drama, essays | Gerard De Geer (1858–1943) |
3 | Georg Bonne (1859–1945) | ![]() | essays | Günther Müller (1890–1957) |
4 | Georg Brandes (1842–1927) | ![]() | literary criticism, essays | Harry Fett (1875–1962) |
5 | Sofía Casanova (1861–1958) | ![]() | novel, short story, essays |
|
6 | Paul Claudel (1868–1955) | ![]() | poetry, drama, essays, memoir | René Bazin (1853–1932) |
7 | Concha Espina de la Serna (1869–1955) | ![]() | novel, short story |
|
8 | James George Frazer (1854–1941) | ![]() | history, essays, translation | Martin Persson Nilsson (1874–1967) |
9 | Paul Ernst (1866–1933) | ![]() | novel, short story, drama, essays |
|
10 | Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) | ![]() | novel, short story, poetry, drama | Robert Eugen Zachrisson (1880–1937) |
11 | Ferenc Herczeg (1863–1954) | ![]() | novel, drama, essays | Hungarian Academy of Sciences[b] |
12 | Rudolf Maria Holzapfel (1874–1930) | ![]() | philosophy, essays | Artur Weese (1868–1934) |
13 | Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948) | ![]() | poetry | Enrique Nercasseau Morán (1854–1925) |
14 | Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) | ![]() | novel, short story, poetry | Frederik Poulsen (1876–1950) |
15 | Johannes Jørgensen (1866–1956) | ![]() | novel, poetry, biography |
|
16 | Hans Ernst Kinck (1865–1926) | ![]() | philology, novel, short story, drama, essays | Sten Konow (1867–1948) |
17 | Willem Kloos (1859–1938) | ![]() | poetry, essays, literary criticism | Jacob Prinsen (1866–1935) |
18 | Josip Kosor (1879–1961) | ![]() ( ![]() | novel, poetry, drama | Branislav Petronijević (1875–1954) |
19 | Pyotr Krasnov (1869–1947) | ![]() | essays | Vladimir Andreevich Frantsev (1867–1942) |
20 | Karl Kraus (1874–1936) | ![]() | essays, drama, poetry |
|
21 | Ada Negri (1870–1945) | ![]() | poetry, novel, essays | Michele Scherillo (1860–1930) |
22 | Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) | ![]() | poetry, essays | Simos Menardos (1872–1933) |
23 | Paul Raynal (1885–1971) | ![]() | drama | Tor Hedberg (1862–1931) |
24 | J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856–1940) | ![]() | novel, short story |
|
25 | George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) | ![]() | drama, essays, novel |
|
26 | Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) | ![]() | novel, memoir, essays | Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt (1807–1865) |
27 | Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929) | ![]() | novel, poetry, drama, essays | Walther Brecht (1876–1950) |
28 | Edvard Westermarck (1862–1939) | ![]() | philosophy, essays | Gunnar Landtman (1878–1940) |
29 | Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1855–1931) | ![]() | poetry | University of Montevideo[c] |
Notes
- ^ A large number of nominations were made for Concha Espina; those made by nominators who were confirmed as being eligible are enlisted.
- ^ This nomination, originally made in 1925, was moved to the nominations for 1926 while the Committee awaits a translation of Herczeg's work, Az élet kapuja.
- ^ Nominated through the University president and supported by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, member of the Swedish Academy.
Prize decision
Deledda received her 1926 award one year later, in 1927. The Swedish Academy announced in November 1926 that no Nobel Prize in Literature would be awarded with the following explanation:
"During the selection process in 1926, the Nobel Committee for Literature decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then applied."[1]
References
- ^ a b The Nobel Prize in Literature 1926 nobelprize.org
- ^ Renzo Rendirome (18 December 1927). "Grazia Deledda Wins The Nobel Prize; The Italian Novelist Who Received the Award For Literature Is a Sardinian Woman". The New York Times.
- ^ Grazia Deledda – Facts nobelprize.org
- ^ Grazia Deledda | Nobel Prize, Sardinia, Novels britannica.com
- ^ a b Nomination archive – Literature 1926
- ^ Nomination archive – Grazia Deledda (Madesani) nobelprize.org
External links
- Documentary
- Article by Anders Hallengren
- v
- t
- e
- 1901: Sully Prudhomme
- 1902: Theodor Mommsen
- 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
- 1904: Frédéric Mistral / José Echegaray
- 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
- 1906: Giosuè Carducci
- 1907: Rudyard Kipling
- 1908: Rudolf Eucken
- 1909: Selma Lagerlöf
- 1910: Paul Heyse
- 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck
- 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann
- 1913: Rabindranath Tagore
- 1914
- 1915: Romain Rolland
- 1916: Verner von Heidenstam
- 1917: Karl Gjellerup / Henrik Pontoppidan
- 1918
- 1919: Carl Spitteler
- 1920: Knut Hamsun
- 1921: Anatole France
- 1922: Jacinto Benavente
- 1923: W. B. Yeats
- 1924: Władysław Reymont
- 1925: George Bernard Shaw
- 1926: Grazia Deledda
- 1927: Henri Bergson
- 1928: Sigrid Undset
- 1929: Thomas Mann
- 1930: Sinclair Lewis
- 1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumously)
- 1932: John Galsworthy
- 1933: Ivan Bunin
- 1934: Luigi Pirandello
- 1935
- 1936: Eugene O'Neill
- 1937: Roger Martin du Gard
- 1938: Pearl S. Buck
- 1939: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
- 1940
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- 1942
- 1943
- 1944: Johannes V. Jensen
- 1945: Gabriela Mistral
- 1946: Hermann Hesse
- 1947: André Gide
- 1948: T. S. Eliot
- 1949: William Faulkner
- 1950: Bertrand Russell
- 1951: Pär Lagerkvist
- 1952: François Mauriac
- 1953: Winston Churchill
- 1954: Ernest Hemingway
- 1955: Halldór Laxness
- 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
- 1957: Albert Camus
- 1958: Boris Pasternak
- 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
- 1960: Saint-John Perse
- 1961: Ivo Andrić
- 1962: John Steinbeck
- 1963: Giorgos Seferis
- 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award)
- 1965: Mikhail Sholokhov
- 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs
- 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias
- 1968: Yasunari Kawabata
- 1969: Samuel Beckett
- 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- 1971: Pablo Neruda
- 1972: Heinrich Böll
- 1973: Patrick White
- 1974: Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson
- 1975: Eugenio Montale
- 1976: Saul Bellow
- 1977: Vicente Aleixandre
- 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
- 1979: Odysseas Elytis
- 1980: Czesław Miłosz
- 1981: Elias Canetti
- 1982: Gabriel García Márquez
- 1983: William Golding
- 1984: Jaroslav Seifert
- 1985: Claude Simon
- 1986: Wole Soyinka
- 1987: Joseph Brodsky
- 1988: Naguib Mahfouz
- 1989: Camilo José Cela
- 1990: Octavio Paz
- 1991: Nadine Gordimer
- 1992: Derek Walcott
- 1993: Toni Morrison
- 1994: Kenzaburō Ōe
- 1995: Seamus Heaney
- 1996: Wisława Szymborska
- 1997: Dario Fo
- 1998: José Saramago
- 1999: Günter Grass
- 2000: Gao Xingjian
- 2001: V. S. Naipaul
- 2002: Imre Kertész
- 2003: J. M. Coetzee
- 2004: Elfriede Jelinek
- 2005: Harold Pinter
- 2006: Orhan Pamuk
- 2007: Doris Lessing
- 2008: J. M. G. Le Clézio
- 2009: Herta Müller
- 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
- 2011: Tomas Tranströmer
- 2012: Mo Yan
- 2013: Alice Munro
- 2014: Patrick Modiano
- 2015: Svetlana Alexievich
- 2016: Bob Dylan
- 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
- 2018: Olga Tokarczuk
- 2019: Peter Handke
- 2020: Louise Glück
- 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- 2022: Annie Ernaux
- 2023: Jon Fosse
- 2024: to be announced