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[1] (announcement) 10 December 1947 (ceremony)
Location	Stockholm, Sweden
Presented by	Swedish Academy
First award	1901
Website	Official website
← 1946 · Nobel Prize in Literature · 1948 →

The 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French author André Gide (1869–1951) "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".^[2][3]

Laureate

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.^[4]

Deliberations

Nominations

André Gide had only been nominated for the prize once before in 1946.^[5] 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.^[6]

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	Denis Saurat (1890–1958) Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
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	Eivind Berggrav (1884–1959) Harry Fett (1875–1962)
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	Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) Henri de Ziégler (1885–1970) Albert Béguin (1901–1957)
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]

Prize decision

In 1947, the Nobel committee's recommended candidates for that year's prize were André Gide, Greek author Angelos Sikelianos and American-British T. S. Eliot. A majority of the committee, Anders Österling, Hjalmar Gullberg and Sigfrid Siwertz, advocated a prize to Gide, while committee member Fredrik Böök proposed Sikelianos, with Eliot as his second proposal.^[7]

On 13 November 1947, the Swedish Academy decided that that year's Nobel Prize in Literature should be awarded to 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".^[7]

Award ceremony

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1947, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said:

Behind the strange and incessant shift in perspective that Gide’s work offers to us, in the novels as well as in the essays, in the travel diaries, or in the analyses of contemporary events, we always find the same supple intelligence, the same incorruptible psychology, expressed in a language which, by the most sober means, attains a wholly classic limpidity and the most delicate variety. (...)

Through all the phases of his evolution, Gide has appeared as a true defender of literary integrity, founded on the personality’s right and duty to present all its problems resolutely and honestly. From this point of view, his long and varied activity, stimulated in so many ways, unquestionably represents an idealistic value.^[8]

For reasons of health, André Gide was unable to be present at the award ceremony. His prize was accepted by the French ambassador.^[8]

Notes

References

External links

• Award ceremony speech nobelprize.org
• Banquet speech nobelprize.org