1927 Nobel Prize in Literature

{{main|Henri Bergson}}

Bergson was educated at the Lycée Condorcet and at the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied philosophy.{{cite web|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bergson/|title=Henri Bergson|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=18 May 2004}} He developed his philosophy through a series of publications that were well known for their original perspectives on life as well as their effective application of metaphor, imagery, and analogy. In Essai sur les Données Immédiates de la Conscience ("Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness", 1889), Bergson proposed the idea that consciousness exists on two levels, the first of which can only be attained by intense introspection, and the second of which is an exterior projection of the first. The notion of time that Bergson had previously proposed in his prior writings was expanded upon and used to investigate living things in L'Évolution Créatrice ("Creative Evolution", 1907). His other principal works include Matière et Mémoire ("Matter and Memory", 1896), Le Rire. Essai sur la Signification du Comique ("Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic", 1900) and Les Deux Sources de la Morale et de la Religion ("The Two Sources of Morality and Religion", 1932).{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Bergson|title=Henri Bergson {{!}} French philosopher|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1927/bergson/facts/ Henri Bergson – Facts] nobelprize.org

Bergson was not nominated in 1927 but in 1928[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1927 Nomination archive – Literature 1927] nobelprize.org was awarded for this year. He received a total of ten nominations beginning in 1912 made Scottish author Andrew Lang. In 1928, he received three separate recommendations from members of the French Academy, members of the Academy of Political and Moral Sciences and professors of history of philosophy.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=917 Nomination archive – Henri Bergson] nobelprize.org

In total, the Nobel Committee received 29 nominations in 1927 for authors such as Kostis Palamas, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Thomas Hardy, Guglielmo Ferrero, Rudolf Maria Holzapfel, Olav Duun, Ada Negri and Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944). There were six authors newly nominated namely Cesare Pascarella, Eduard Meyer, Samuel Parsons Scott, Edith Wharton, Édouard Estaunié and Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer. Of the 21 nominees, four were women: Ada Negri, Edith Wharton, Concha Espina de la Serna and Grazia Deledda (awarded for 1926).

The authors Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Bernhard Alexander, Mikhail Artsybashev, Hugo Ball, Kazimir Barantsevich, Margret Holmes Bates, Martin Stanislaus Brennan, Clara Louise Burnham, John Bagnell Bury, Mabel Collins, Roi Cooper Megrue, James Oliver Curwood, Minnie S. Davis, Robert de Flers, Federico De Roberto, Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Osório Duque-Estrada, Georges Eekhoud, Adolfo León Gómez, Ricardo Güiraldes, Lesbia Harford, Hubert Harrison, Fukuda Hideko, Jerome K. Jerome, Kang Youwei, Gaston Leroux, Agnes Maule Machar, Harriet Earhart Monroe, Süleyman Nazif, Jessie Penn-Lewis, Stanisław Przybyszewski, Fyodor Sologub, Borisav Stanković, Stephan G. Stephansson, Mary Webb, Philip Wicksteed died in 1927 without having been nominated for the prize.

{{see also|1926 Nobel Prize in Literature#Prize decision|1928 Nobel Prize in Literature#Prize decision}}

In November 1927, the Swedish Academy announced that the postponed prize for 1926 was awarded to the Italian writer Grazia Deledda, but that no Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 1927 would be awarded with the following explanation: {{blockquote|"During the selection process, the Nobel Committee for Literature decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in Alfred Nobel's will. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then applied."}}

After the deliberations the following year, the Nobel Committee awarded Henri Bergson the prize for 1927 and Sigrid Undset the prize for 1928.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/literature/svensen/index.html The Nobel Prize in Literature: Nominations and Reports 1901–1950] nobelprize.org Maxim Gorky and Kostis Palamas were the main contenders for the 1927 prize, but the Nobel committee were divided between the candidates and, as a compromise, Henri Bergson was the chosen laureate.Helmer Lång Hundra nobelpris i litteratur 1901-2001, Symposion 2001 p.26 Bergson's candidacy had previously been dismissed by the committee as they found it difficult to properly evaluate his work in a field of literature where few other writers were nominated. But in 1928 the committee were convinced that Bergson was a worthy recipient of the prize, noting his major influence on literature and that his work was representative of the "Nobel spirit".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iG5BEAAAQBAJ&dq=undset+nobelkommiten&pg=PT495 |title=Andens olympiska spel. Nobelpriset historia |author=Källstrand, Gustav |year=2021 |publisher=Fri Tanke förlag |isbn=978-91-8020-371-5 |lang=Swedish }}

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• [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1927/ceremony-speech/ Presentation Speech by Per Hallström]

{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}

Category:Henri Bergson

1927

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