A Very Brief History of the Nobel Prize in Literature
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, who gives out the Nobel Prizes. He's kind of handsome, right? Got that "silver fox" thing going on.
When the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature is announced next month, he or she will join a club more exclusive than just about any other in the world. You know those clubs at Ivy League schools, with names like “The Scone and Pudding Society,” where it’s a bunch of white guys who dress in costumes and make up silly songs and photograph each other naked? And how, you know, the members are, against all odds, actually proud of being in it? Instead of feeling kind of dirty and ashamed? Even more exclusive than that.
One thing’s for sure: Of all the 105 women and men who have won this prestigious award, none of them will ever be forgotten. Except for most of them. After the jump, we take a look at some of the past winners, and how they changed…the very world itself. Except for the ones who didn’t. Which, like I said, is a lot of them.
1901: René François Armand (Sully) Prudhomme (France). The first writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, this poet earned his nickname after successfully crash-landing an airplane (then called “aeroplane”) on the Hudson River, an achievement that was especially impressive since the airplane wasn’t invented until 1903. Years later, his great-grandson would delight America with his enthusiastic demonstrations of how to cook blackened redfish and boudin.
1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (Norway). Surprise! It took them two years to give this to a Scandinavian. Some have said Scandinavians have an unfair advantage in the Nobels, an accusation that wasn’t helped by the 2004 decision to award the chemistry Nobel to an IKEA chair.
1907: Rudyard Kipling (United Kingdom). The first English-language author to win the Nobel, Kipling dedicated his victory to “all the savage wogs” who made the award possible. Then he shot an elephant and a Boer. It remains the most exciting ceremony in Nobel history.
1920: Knut Hamsun (Norway). Hey, another Scandinavian! Isaac Bashevis Singer once said that “the whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.” Hamsun was a Quisling who gave his Nobel Prize to Goebbels and called Hitler a “warrior for mankind.” (That is true.) That’s all I have to say about this because my head hurts now.
1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Sweden). The first and only dead writer to win the Nobel, but hey, Scandinavian!
1947: André Gide (France). Not only the first openly gay person to win the literature Nobel, but the first openly gay person to ever write a book. Seriously. There has never been another gay author. Ever.
1948: T. S. Eliot (United Kingdom). After this award, no one ever accused the Swedish Academy of being “secretly run by a Jewish cabal” ever again.
1957: Albert Camus (France). The Academy was going through a phase that year, you know? Nine Inch Nails. Clove cigarettes. They’re kind of embarrassed about it now.
1974: Eyvind Johnson (Sweden) and Harry Martinson (Sweden). The Academy got a lot of flak for giving the literature Nobel to these two members of the Swedish Academy instead of Vladimir Nabokov, who was also nominated. But history bears them out: everyone still has Johnson/Martinson fever, and who still reads Nabokov? Oh…oh, I see. Wow. I’m beginning to think this whole Nobel thing isn’t really on the level, especially when you consider that the very next year, the award was given to
1975: A lingonberry (Sweden).
1993: Toni Morrison (United States). America reacted to this pick the same way it reacts to most literary news: with generalized apathy and a suddenly-realized hunger for “cheez” curls. Three years after Morrison won, Oprah Winfrey selected Song of Solomon as the second pick for her book club, and Morrison’s books finally moved out of the “Black Interest” sections at Barnes & Noble stores. Well, some of them. Not Texas.
1997: Dario Fo (Italy). Possibly the most inexplicable Nobel pick ever – even more so than the Academy’s decision to jointly award the 1984 Peace Prize to the Ku Klux Klan and a car bomb. Interestingly, according to a poll conducted years later, this decision was derided by 94% of people who had never read Fo’s work, and 97% of people who had.
So who will be the next Scandinavian – I mean, writer – to win? Could it be…you? (Reread that last sentence while imaging a movie of me embedded in this post, and right after I say “be,” I turn toward the camera and point at you. Cool, right? I couldn’t figure out how to do that in WordPress. I thought there’d be like a button for that. I’m more used to Movable Type.)
I, too, was suspicious after the announcement of the 1974 prize, but they totally redeemed themselves in ’75.
I, too, was suspicious after the announcement of the 1974 prize, but they totally redeemed themselves in ’75.
He looks like the child of Cheney and Rumsfeld.
He looks like the child of Cheney and Rumsfeld.
I think he looks like the child of Frazier and Palpatine.
I think he looks like the child of Frazier and Palpatine.
Forgive me–that should be ‘Frasier’, the television psychologist, not ‘Frazier’, author of the Golden Bough.
Forgive me–that should be ‘Frasier’, the television psychologist, not ‘Frazier’, author of the Golden Bough.
I mean, ‘Frazer’.
I mean, ‘Frazer’.
“Nine Inch Nails. Clove cigarettes.”
ew/true
“Nine Inch Nails. Clove cigarettes.”
ew/true
i’m glad you people finally decided to slip on sum big-people pants! this was very informative, going to discuss it on my next show.
we’ll also be giving away coupons for a free double down to everyone in america! the grilled chicken deal (http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090430-tows-kfc-coupon-download) was so successful we’re busting out the big gunzzZ
i’m glad you people finally decided to slip on sum big-people pants! this was very informative, going to discuss it on my next show.
we’ll also be giving away coupons for a free double down to everyone in america! the grilled chicken deal (http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090430-tows-kfc-coupon-download) was so successful we’re busting out the big gunzzZ
i like the one about eliot it was funny. also, sartre will be remembered and he won it, although he refused it.
i like the one about eliot it was funny. also, sartre will be remembered and he won it, although he refused it.
Well, Camus, Eliot, Gide, Kipling are actually great writers. As well as Mann, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Pasternak, Faulkner, Grass, Coetzee and a lot of other Nobel Prize laureates.
And it is important to remember that Nobel Peace Prize (as well as the rest of Nobel Prizes except the Literature one) isn’t given by the Swedish Academy. Peace Prize isn’t even given by the Swedes!
Well, Camus, Eliot, Gide, Kipling are actually great writers. As well as Mann, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Pasternak, Faulkner, Grass, Coetzee and a lot of other Nobel Prize laureates.
And it is important to remember that Nobel Peace Prize (as well as the rest of Nobel Prizes except the Literature one) isn’t given by the Swedish Academy. Peace Prize isn’t even given by the Swedes!
I’m still so glad Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson got a Nobel.
Their little known book ‘Lolita’ is my favourite.
I’m still so glad Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson got a Nobel.
Their little known book ‘Lolita’ is my favourite.
So you guys seem terribly pleased to be ignorant of famous authors from other countries. If you don’t know them, perhaps you should check them out. It is strange how the Nobel Prize brings out all this Swede-bashing and barely concealed xenophobia.
Johannes
So you guys seem terribly pleased to be ignorant of famous authors from other countries. If you don’t know them, perhaps you should check them out. It is strange how the Nobel Prize brings out all this Swede-bashing and barely concealed xenophobia.
Johannes
come on dog, most of these picks were mocked in europe as well.
come on dog, most of these picks were mocked in europe as well.
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Hey I’m not going to defend any award. I just think it’s weird that anybody would be proud to not have read Harry Martinsson (or any other major author from another country). I don’t know who “Europe” is, but the same holds true for him/her.
Johannes
Hey I’m not going to defend any award. I just think it’s weird that anybody would be proud to not have read Harry Martinsson (or any other major author from another country). I don’t know who “Europe” is, but the same holds true for him/her.
Johannes
So famous you even spelled his name wrong.
So famous you even spelled his name wrong.
Um. I’d rather watch a Lukas Moodysson film than bash a Swede.
I’d make a joke about almost any author of any nationality who’d got picked over Nabokov for a Nobel, I expect. I like Nabokov a lot.
Um. I’d rather watch a Lukas Moodysson film than bash a Swede.
I’d make a joke about almost any author of any nationality who’d got picked over Nabokov for a Nobel, I expect. I like Nabokov a lot.
a hole in my heart is a great film
a hole in my heart is a great film
i actually haven’t seen that one. i didn’t hear great things about it. i think that and mammut are the two i’m yet to see. lilya, fucking amal, and together are all great.
and container.
except no-one else ever likes container. i loved it.
i actually haven’t seen that one. i didn’t hear great things about it. i think that and mammut are the two i’m yet to see. lilya, fucking amal, and together are all great.
and container.
except no-one else ever likes container. i loved it.
yes. so is fucking åmål. the title got ruined in the US as “Show Me Love.” Actually, I think all of his movies are great. I haven’t seen “Mammoth” yet, but look forward to it. His poetry isn’t bad either.
yes. so is fucking åmål. the title got ruined in the US as “Show Me Love.” Actually, I think all of his movies are great. I haven’t seen “Mammoth” yet, but look forward to it. His poetry isn’t bad either.
i always wondered about his poetry. (i haven’t read any.) his characters are always so sensitively observed i wondered how that’d transfer to another medium.
i always wondered about his poetry. (i haven’t read any.) his characters are always so sensitively observed i wondered how that’d transfer to another medium.
Mammoth is just terrible. Like “Lost in Translation” with a vague, lame critique of globalism. I was really disappointed, especially considering his recent turn (Hole in My Heart).
I like his poetry OK. Most of it was written when he was very very young, when he was part of the “Malmö Group,” which kind of mixed Romanticism, populism and performance. His later book of poetry, What Am I Doing Here, seems almost like a blue print for Mammoth, but better probably. I’m not sure any of it has been translated.
Johannes
Mammoth is just terrible. Like “Lost in Translation” with a vague, lame critique of globalism. I was really disappointed, especially considering his recent turn (Hole in My Heart).
I like his poetry OK. Most of it was written when he was very very young, when he was part of the “Malmö Group,” which kind of mixed Romanticism, populism and performance. His later book of poetry, What Am I Doing Here, seems almost like a blue print for Mammoth, but better probably. I’m not sure any of it has been translated.
Johannes
Too bad about Mammoth. I dug A Hole in My Heart a lot. Thorsten Flinck is such a weirdo.
Too bad about Mammoth. I dug A Hole in My Heart a lot. Thorsten Flinck is such a weirdo.
OK, I just translated a tiny piece from Moodysson’s long poem what am i doing here over at my blog.
J
OK, I just translated a tiny piece from Moodysson’s long poem what am i doing here over at my blog.
J
i read that ‘mammoth’ was him aiming for more accessible, less dark and dystopian. i got the impression he wasn’t so into the direction he’d been taking on the last few films previous to it. (which strikes me as a shame. i like that his film-making sometimes takes risks.)
will be curious to watch it.
i read that ‘mammoth’ was him aiming for more accessible, less dark and dystopian. i got the impression he wasn’t so into the direction he’d been taking on the last few films previous to it. (which strikes me as a shame. i like that his film-making sometimes takes risks.)
will be curious to watch it.
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[…] uh, really? This is worse than that time in 1997 that Dario Fo won, an egregious event that I just read about last week and have been outraged by ever since. Politics? Art? Europeans intimidated by our raw American […]
[…] NobelPrize.org offers a complete list of past winners, and for some interesting commentary HTMLGIANT also offers a funny and brief history of the winners. Scanning through these lists I recognized […]