1947 Nobel Prize in Literature

1947 Nobel Prize in Literature
André Gide
"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"
Date
  • 13 November 1947 (announcement)
  • 10 December 1947
    (ceremony)
LocationStockholm, Sweden
Presented bySwedish Academy
First awarded1901
WebsiteOfficial website
← 1946 · Nobel Prize in Literature · 1948 →

The 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French author André Gide "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".[1][2]

Laureate

Main article: André Gide

André Gide's early works such as the prose poem Les nourritures terrestres ("Fruits of the Earth", 1897) were influenced by French symbolism. Later notable works include The L'Immoraliste ("The Immoralist", 1902), La Porte Étroite ("Strait is the Gate", 1907) and La Symphonie pastorale ("The Pastoral Symphony", 1919). The autobiographical Si le grain ne meurt ("If It Die...", 1924) is regarded as one of the great works of confessional literature. In 1926, his most complex novel Les faux-monnayeurs ("The Counterfeiters") was published.[3]

Deliberations

Nominations

André Gide had only been nominated for the prize once before in 1946.[4] In 1947, the Nobel committee received 43 nominations for 35 writers including T. S. Eliot (awarded in 1948), Boris Pasternak (awarded in 1958), Teixeira de Pascoaes, Jules Romains, Angelos Sikelianos, Carl Sandburg, Georges Duhamel, Ignazio Silone, Benedetto Croce, Ramon Perez de Ayala, Arnulf Øverland, Johan Falkberget and Marie Under. Eleven were nominated first-time such as Pär Lagerkvist (awarded in 1951), Ernest Hemingway (awarded in 1954), Mikhail Sholokov (awarded in 1965), Shmuel Yosef Agnon (awarded in 1966), Toyohiko Kagawa, Georgios Drossinis, Nikos Kazantzakis, Bernard O'Dowd and André Malraux. Most nominations were submitted for Henriette Charasson and Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz with three nominations each. Four were female nominees namely Henriette Charasson, Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício, Maila Talvio and Marie Under.[5]

The authors James Agate, Marie Belloc Lowndes, J. D. Beresford, Tristan Bernard, Jean-Richard Bloch, Svend Borberg, Wolfgang Borchert, Margaret Cameron, Emilio Carrere, Willa Cather, Sigurd Christiansen, Winston Churchill, Morris Raphael Cohen, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Max Dessoir, Léon-Paul Fargue, Joaquín Gallegos Lara, Edith Maud Hull, Richard Le Gallienne, William Le Queux, Gurli Linder, Hugh Lofting, Manuel Machado, Arthur Machen, Emma Orczy, Nicholas Roerich, Margaret Marshall Saunders, Balys Sruoga, Flora Thompson, E. C. Vivian, Swami Vipulananda and Alfred North Whitehead died in 1947 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 Mark Aldanov (1886–1957)  Soviet Union
( Ukraine)
 France 		biography, novel, essays, literary criticism Ivan Bunin (1870–1953)
2 Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1887–1970)  Mandatory Palestine novel, short story Hugo Bergmann (1883–1975)
3 Sholem Asch (1880–1957)  Poland
 United States 		novel, short story, drama, essays Walter Arthur Berendsohn (1884–1984)
4 Eugène Baie (1874–1964)  Belgium law, essays Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)
5 Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948)  Soviet Union
( Ukraine) 		philosophy, theology Alf Nyman (1884–1968)
6 Henriette Charasson (1884–1972)  France poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography
  • Serge Barrault (1887–1976)
  • Pierre Fernessole (1879–1965)
  • Pierre Moreau (1895–1972)
7 Benedetto Croce (1866–1952)  Italy history, philosophy, law Bernardino Barbadoro (1889–1961)
8 Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947)  Portugal poetry, essays António Baião (1878–1961)
9 Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877–1952)  Portugal poetry João António Mascarenhas Júdice (1898–1957)
10 Georgios Drossinis (1859–1951)  Greece poetry, novel, short story
  • Geōrgios Oikonomos (1882–1951)
  • Phaidōn Koukoules (1881–1956)
  • Iōannēs Kalitsounakēs (1878–1966)[a]
11 Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)  France novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism
12 Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)  United States
 United Kingdom 		poetry, essays, drama Gustaf Hellström (1882–1953)
13 Johan Falkberget (1879–1967)  Norway novel, short story, essays
14 André Gide (1869–1951)  France novel, short story, poetry, drama, memoir, essays Lorentz Eckhoff (1884–1974)
15 Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)  United States novel, short story, screenplay Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961)
16 Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1960)  Japan essays Knut Westman (1881–1967)
17 Horace Kallen (1882–1974)  United States philosophy, essays Louise Rosenblatt (1904–2005)
18 Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957)  Greece novel, philosophy, essays, drama, memoir, translation Nikos Athanasiou Veēs (1882–1958)[b]
19 Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974)  Sweden poetry, novel, short story, drama Henrik Schück (1855–1947)
20 André Malraux (1901–1976)  France novel, essays, literary criticism Henri Peyre (1901–1988)
21 Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894–1958)  United Kingdom drama, novel, essays, poetry Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970)
22 Bernard O'Dowd (1866–1953)  Australia poetry, essays
  • Ian Ramsay Maxwell (1901–1979)
  • Several other professors from Australia and New Zealand
23 Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968)  Norway poetry, essays Harry Fett (1875–1962)
24 Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)  Soviet Union poetry, novel, translation Maurice Bowra (1898–1971)
25 Branislav Petronijević (1875–1954)  Yugoslavia
( Serbia) 		philosophy Vladeta Popović (1894–1951)
26 Ramón Pérez de Ayala (1880–1962)  Spain novel, poetry, literary criticism Edgar Allison Peers (1891–1952)
27 Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947)   Switzerland novel, poetry, short story
28 Jules Romains (1885–1972)  France poetry, drama, screenplay
  • Holger Sten (1907–1971)
  • Lorentz Eckhoff (1884–1974)
29 Carl Sandburg (1878–1967)  United States poetry, essays, biography Einar Tegen (1884–1965)
30 Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984)  Soviet Union novel Henry Olsson (1896–1985)
31 Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951)  Greece poetry, drama Nikos Athanasiou Veēs (1882–1958)[b]
32 Ignazio Silone (1900–1978)  Italy novel, short story, essays, drama Fredrik Böök (1883–1961)
33 Maila Talvio (1871–1951)  Finland novel, short story, translation Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (1885–1962)
34 Marie Under (1883–1980)  Soviet Union
( Estonia) 		poetry Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
35 Gregorios Xenopoulos (1867–1951)  Greece novel, drama, essays, literary criticism Iōannēs Kalitsounakēs (1878–1966)[a]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Several other members of the Academy of Athens joined in the nomination.
  2. ^ a b Veēs suggests that the Prize be possibly shared by Sikelianos and Kazantzakis.

References

  1. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1947". nobelprize.org.
  2. ^ "Gide Gets Nobel Literature Prize". New York Times. 14 November 1947.
  3. ^ "André Gide". britannica.com.
  4. ^ "Nomination archive - André Gide". nobelprize.org.
  5. ^ "Nomination archive – 1947". nobelprize.org. April 2020.