 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature | |
|---|---|
| Gabriela Mistral | |
 "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" | |
| Date |
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| Location | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Presented by | Swedish Academy |
| First award | 1901 |
| Website | Official website |
The1945Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Chilean poetGabriela Mistral (1889–1957) "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."[2][3] She is thefifth female and firstLatin American recipient of the literature prize.[4][5]
Lucila Godoy Alcayaga borrowed the pseudonym, Gabriela Mistral, from her favorite poets,Gabriele D'Annunzio andFrédéric Mistral. Her poetry is distinguished by intense emotion and straightforward language, having been influenced also by themodernist movement. Affection, deceit, sorrow, nature, travel, and love for children are some of their major themes. Mistral's first prominent poetry collection wasDesolación ("Despair"), published in 1922.Ternura ("Tenderness"), published in 1924, containsnursery rhymes andlullabies for children whereasTala ("Harvesting", 1938) makes use of strange imagery andfree verse. She was well-known for writingop-eds for major Chilean newspapers such asEl Coquimbo: Diario Radical andLa Voz de Elqui. In her country, she became the first female to be awarded theNational Prize for Literature.[5][6]
Mistral received eight nominations beginning in1940. For 1945, she was nominated by the newly inducted Swedish Academy memberElin Wägner (1882–1949) by which she was eventually awarded.[7] In total, theNobel Committee received 27 nominations for 22 writers. Five of the nominees were nominated first-time:Thomas Stearns Eliot (awarded in1948),Yiorgos Theotokas,Edward Morgan Forster, andMarie Under. There were five female nominees namelyElisaveta Bagryana,Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício,Gabriela Mistral,Henriette Charasson andMarie Under.[8] The nominations of the Armando Alvares Pedroso, Henriette Charasson,Teixeira de Pascoaes andEnrique Larreta were declared invalid by the Nobel Committee.[1]
The French poetPaul Valéry was nominated for the tenth, eleventh and twelfth time by three members of theSwedish Academy. It is believed that the Academy intended to award Valéry the prize in 1945, but he died in July.[9]
The authorsMaurice Baring,Ursula Bethell,Robert Brasillach,Dietrich Bonhoeffer,Ernst Cassirer,Mário de Andrade,Margaret Deland,Lucie Delarue-Mardrus,Robert Desnos,Jelena Dimitrijević,Pierre Drieu La Rochelle,Maurice Donnay,Alfred Douglas,E. R. Eddison,Ioan Constantin Filitti,Zinaida Gippius,Ellen Glasgow,Josef Hora,Else Lasker-Schüler,Régis Messac,Arthur Morrison,Otto Neurath,Kitaro Nishida,Charles Gilman Norris,Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska,Alexander Roda Roda,Felix Salten,Lurana W. Sheldon,Antal Szerb,Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy,Charles Williams died in 1945 without having been nominated for the prize. The Dutch historianJohan Huizinga and Austrian-Bohemian authorFranz Werfel died months before the announcement.
| No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Armando Alvares Pedroso (1907–1990) |  Cuba | biography, essays | unnamed[a] |
| 2 | Elisaveta Bagryana (1893–1991) |  Bulgaria | poetry, translation | Stefan Mladenov (1880–1963)[b] |
| 3 | Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) |  Soviet Union(  Ukraine) | philosophy, theology | Alf Nyman (1884–1968) |
| 4 | Edmund Blunden (1896–1974) |  United Kingdom | poetry, essays, biography | Heinrich Wolfgang Donner (1904-1980) |
| 5 | Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) |  France | poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography | unnamed[a] |
| 6 | Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) |  Portugal | poetry, essays | António Baião (1878–1961) |
| 7 | Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877–1952) | Portugal | poetry | unnamed[a] |
| 8 | Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) | France | novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 9 | Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) |  United StatesUnited Kingdom | poetry, essays, drama | Anders Österling (1884–1981) |
| 10 | Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) |  Norway | novel, short story, essays | Eugenia Kielland (1878–1969) |
| 11 | Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) | United Kingdom | novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism | Greta Hedin (1889–1949) |
| 12 | Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) |  Netherlands | history |
|
| 13 | Enrique Larreta (1875–1961) |  Argentina | history, essays, drama, novel | unnamed[a] |
| 14 | Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957) |  Chile | poetry | Elin Wägner (1882–1949) |
| 15 | Arvid Mörne (1876–1946) |  Finland | poetry, drama, novel, essays | Gustav Suits (1883–1956) |
| 16 | Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947) |  Switzerland | novel, poetry, short story | Marcel Raymond (1897–1981)[c] |
| 17 | Jules Romains (1885–1972) | France | poetry, drama, screenplay | Holger Sten (1907–1971) |
| 18 | John Steinbeck (1902–1968) | United States | novel, short story, screenplay | Gustaf Munthe (1896–1962) |
| 19 | Yiorgos Theotokas (1906–1966) |  Greece | novel, short story, drama, essays | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 20 | Marie Under (1883–1980) | Soviet Union (  Estonia) | poetry | Ants Oras (1900–1982) |
| 21 | Paul Valéry (1871–1945) | France | poetry, philosophy, essays, drama |
|
| 22 | Franz Werfel (1890–1945) |  Czechoslovakia | novel, short story, drama, poetry |
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Gabriela Mistral had been proposed by the Nobel committee of theSwedish Academy in 1940 and 1942 and again in 1945, when she was awarded the prize.[10]
In 1945, Gabriela Mistral was shortlisted along withJohn Steinbeck (awarded in1962), the French authorJules Romains and the Swiss writerCharles-Ferdinand Ramuz.[11] The Swedish poet and Academy memberHjalmar Gullberg's acclaimed translations of Mistral's poetry was a crucial factor for the Academy to award Mistral the prize.[12]
