 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 |
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| Location | Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Presented by | Swedish Academy | |||
| First award | 1901 | |||
| Website | Official website | |||
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The1947Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French authorAndré 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]
André Gide's early works such as the prose poemLes nourritures terrestres ("Fruits of the Earth", 1897) were influenced by Frenchsymbolism. Later notable works includeThe L'Immoraliste ("The Immoralist", 1902),La Porte Étroite ("Strait is the Gate", 1907) andLa Symphonie pastorale ("The Pastoral Symphony", 1919). The autobiographicalSi le grain ne meurt ("If It Die...", 1924) is regarded as one of the great works ofconfessional literature. In 1926, his most complex novelLes faux-monnayeurs ("The Counterfeiters") was published.[4]
André Gide had only been nominated for the prize once before in1946.[5] In 1947, the Nobel committee received 43 nominations for 35 writers includingT. S. Eliot (awarded in1948),Boris Pasternak (awarded in1958),Teixeira de Pascoaes,Jules Romains,Angelos Sikelianos,Carl Sandburg,Georges Duhamel,Ignazio Silone,Benedetto Croce,Ramon Perez de Ayala,Arnulf Øverland,Johan Falkberget andMarie Under. Eleven were nominated first-time such asPär Lagerkvist (awarded in1951),Ernest Hemingway (awarded in1954),Mikhail Sholokov (awarded in1965),Shmuel Yosef Agnon (awarded in1966),Toyohiko Kagawa,Georgios Drossinis,Nikos Kazantzakis,Bernard O'Dowd andAndré Malraux. Most nominations were submitted forHenriette Charasson andCharles-Ferdinand Ramuz with three nominations each. Four were female nominees namely Henriette Charasson,Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício,Maila Talvio andMarie Under.[6]
The authorsJames 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 andAlfred North Whitehead died in 1947 without having been nominated 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 11 | Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) | France | novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism |
|
| 12 | Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) | United StatesUnited 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| 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] |
At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1947,Anders Österling, permanent secretary of theSwedish 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.[7]
For reasons of health, André Gide was unable to be present at the award ceremony. His prize was accepted by the Frenchambassador.[7]
