1936 Nobel Prize in Literature
{{Infobox award
| name = 20px 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature
| subheader = Eugene O'Neill
| awarded_for =
| presenter = Swedish Academy
| year = 1901
| website = {{oweb|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/summary/}}
| holder_label = 1936 laureate
| holder =
| image = Eugene O'Neill 1936.jpg
| caption = "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy"
| host =
| date = {{plainlist|
- 12 November 1937 (announcement)
- 10 December 1937
(ceremony)
}}
| location = Stockholm, Sweden
| previous = 1935
| main = Nobel Prize in Literature
| next = 1937
}}
The 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy". He is the second American to become a literature laureate after Sinclair Lewis in 1930 and the only American playwright awarded the prize.
Laureate
{{Main|Eugene O'Neill}}
Influenced by the realist playwrights Chekhov, Strindberg and Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill is regarded as the foremost American dramatist of the 20th century. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society who struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times, first for Beyond the Horizon (1920), his debut play, followed by Anna Christie in 1922 and Strange Interlude in 1928. Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and the posthumous Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as two masterpieces in a long string of plays.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-ONeill/Period-of-the-major-works |title=Eugene O'Neill |publisher=britannica.com}}[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/oneill/facts/ Eugene O'Neill – Facts] nobelprize.org
File:Ah Wilderness poster.jpg is O'Neill's only well-known comedy.]]
Deliberations
=Nominations=
Eugene O'Neill was nominated for the prize three times (1934, 1935, and 1936.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=6935 |title=Nomination archive - Eugene O'Neill |date=21 May 2024 |publisher=nobelprize.org }}
In 1936 the Nobel committee received 47 nominations for 27 writers including Paul Valéry, António Correia de Oliveira, Miguel Unamuno, Kostis Palamas, Olav Duun, Jarl Hemmer, Karel Capek, Benedetto Croce, Roger Martin du Gard (awarded in 1937) and Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944). Ten were newly nominated such as Georges Duhamel, Ludwig Klages, Sigmund Freud, Cécile Tormay, Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti and Arvid Mörne. Most nominations were submitted for the Finnish author Frans Emil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939) with five nominations, including two nominations suggesting a shared prize with Jarl Hemmer and Arvid Mörne respectively. Only two women were nominated namely Cécile Tormay Tormay and Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1936 |title=Nomination archive - Literature 1936 |date=April 2020 |publisher=nobelprize.org }}
The authors Juliette Adam, Jacques Bainville, Mateiu Caragiale, James Churchward, Eugène Dabit, Adolf de Herz, Teresa de la Parra, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Stefan Grabiński, Federico García Lorca, A. E. Housman, M. R. James, Kitty Lee Jenner, Dezső Kosztolányi, Mikhail Kuzmin, Mourning Dove, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Kristína Royová, Moritz Schlick, Jan Jacob Slauerhoff, Oswald Spengler, Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (known as Premchand), Heinrich Rickert, Ferdinand Tönnies, Lidia Veselitskaya and Zhou Shuren (known as Lu Xun) died in 1936 without having been nominated for the prize.
| class="sortable wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+ class="nowrap" | Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize |
|
! scope="col" | No. ! scope="col" | Nominee ! scope="col" | Country ! scope="col" | Genre(s) ! scope="col" | Nominator(s) |
| 1
| Hari Mohan Banerjee (d. 1960) | {{flag|British Raj|name=India}} | essays | Devadatta R. Bhandarkar (1875–1950) |
| 2
| António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) | {{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} | poetry | Luís da Cunha Gonçalvez (1875–1956) |
| 3
| Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) | {{flag|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|name=Italy}} | history, philosophy, law | Julius von Schlosser (1866–1938) |
| 4
| Karel Čapek (1890–1938) | {{flag|Czechoslovakia}} | drama, novel, short story, essays, literary criticism | several professors{{efn|group=notes|Several professors of history and history of literature from the Prague, Czech Republic.}} |
| 5
| Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) | {{flag|Spanish Republic|name=Spain}} | novel, poetry, philosophy, essays, drama | {{unbulleted list|Manuel García Blanco (1902–1966){{efn|group=notes|Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was nominated by J. Ramos Loscertales, F. Maldonado, J. Camón Aznar and M. Garcia Blanco, with approval from 6 other professors, all from Salamanca University.}}|José Camón Aznar (1898–1979)|Francisco Maldonado de Guevara (1891–1985)|José María Ramos Loscertales (1890–1956)}} |
| 6
| Asis Domet (1890–1943) | {{flag|Mandatory Palestine}} | essays, translation | G. E. Khoury (?) |
| 7
| Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) | {{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}} | novel, drama, memoir | Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941) |
| 8
| Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) | {{flag|France}} | novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 9
| Olav Duun (1876–1939) | {{flag|Norway}} | novel, short story | {{unbulleted list|Helga Eng (1875–1966)|Jens Thiis (1870–1942)|Torstein Høverstad (1880–1959)}} |
| 10
| Alfred Edward Evershed (1870–1941) | {{flag|Australia}} | essays, pedagogy | Elias Edward Miller (1878–1937) |
| 11
| Hans Fallada (1893–1947) | {{flag|Nazi Germany|name=Germany}} | novel, short story | Martin Lamm (1880–1950) |
| 12
| Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) | {{flag|Federal State of Austria|name=Austria}} | essays | 20px Romain Rolland (1866–944) |
| 13
| Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) | {{flag|Finland}} | poetry, novel | {{unbulleted list|Sigurd Erixon (1888–1968)|Gunnar Landtman (1878–1940){{efn|name=gunnar}}|Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)}} |
| 14
| Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) | {{flag|Denmark}} | novel, short story, essays | {{unbulleted list|Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen (1881–1977)|Frithiof Brandt (1892–1968)|Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)|Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953)}} |
| 15
| Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) | {{flag|Nazi Germany|name=Germany}} | philosophy, poetry, essays | Wilhelm Pinder (1878–1947) |
| 16
| Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1878–1962) | {{flag|Federal State of Austria|name=Austria}} | novel, short story, poetry, drama | Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld (1899–1993) |
| 17
| Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) | {{flag|Soviet Union}} | novel, essays, poetry, drama | Sigurd Agrell (1881–1937) |
| 18
| Arvid Mörne (1876–1946) | {{flag|Finland}} | poetry, drama, novel, essays | Gunnar Landtman (1878–1940){{efn|group=notes|name=gunnar|G. Landtman suggested the Nobel Committee to award F. Sillanpää alone. His second suggestion, to share the prize with Sillanpää, was J. Hemmer or A. Mörne.}} |
| style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| 19
| style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) | style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| {{flag|United States|1912}} | style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| drama | style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| Henrik Schück (1855–1947) |
| 20
| Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) | {{flag|Kingdom of Greece|name=Greece}} | poetry, essays | {{unbulleted list|Harry Fett (1875–1962)|Sofia Antoniadou (?)}} |
| 21
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) | {{flag|British Raj|name=India}} | philosophy, essays, law | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 22
| Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) | {{flag|Finland}} | novel, short story, poetry | {{unbulleted list|Yrjö Hirn (1870–1952)|Rafael Erich (1879–1946)|Björn Collinder (1894–1983)|Sigurd Erixon (1888–1968)|Gunnar Landtman (1878–1940){{efn|name=gunnar}}}} |
| 23
| Hermann Stehr (1864–1940) | {{flag|Nazi Germany|name=Germany}} | novel, short story, poetry, drama | Hermann August Korff (1882–1963) |
| 24
| Cécile Tormay (1875–1937) | {{flag|Kingdom of Hungary|name=Hungary}} | novel, short story, essays, translation | {{unbulleted list|Jenö Pintér (1921–1988)|János Horváth (1878–1961)|Károly Pap (1897–1945)|János Hankiss (1893–1959)}} |
| 25
| Paul Valéry (1871–1945) | {{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}} | poetry, philosophy, essays, drama | {{unbulleted list|3 members of the Belgian Academy|Viggo Brøndal (1887–1942)|Jean-Jacques Salverda de Grave (1863–1947){{efn|name=grave}}|Joseph Bidez (1867–1945){{efn|group=notes|name=grave|Valéry was nominated jointly by J. Bidez and J. Salverda de Grave, both member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences}}}} |
| 26
| Edvarts Virza (1883–1940) | {{flag|Latvia}} | poetry, essays, translation | {{unbulleted list|Francis Balodis (1882–1947){{efn|group=notes|name=virza|E. Virza was nominated by L. Bērziņš and F. Balodis}}|Ludis Bērziņš (1870–1965){{efn|name=virza}}}} |
| 27
| Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti (1871–1955) | {{flag|Federal State of Austria|name=Austria}} | novel, poetry, essays | {{unbulleted list|Moriz Enzinger (1891–1975){{efn|group=notes|name=moriz|E. von Handel-Mazzetti was jointly nominated by J. Nadler and M. Enzinger}}|Josef Nadler (1884–1963){{efn|name=moriz}}}} |
Reactions
The choice of Eugene O'Neill was generally well received. "No one in the postwar years has done more to stir interest in drama throughout the world than Mr. O'Neill!", The Guardian said. The Ceylon Daily News said that O'Neill was "our most modern dramatist in that he alone has succeeded in breasting back across that ocean of 2,000 years and more which roll between our time and the ancient Greek." The earlier Irish Nobel prize laureates George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats both said that they were pleased that O'Neill was awarded the prize. "I have the greatest admiration for his work", Yeats said. A negative reaction appeared in the communist newspaper The Daily Worker, lamenting that O'Neill had become "increasingly safe and conservative...O'Neill, who started out as a dramatist of the working class, has completed his middle period as the dramatist of a sick middle class."{{cite book|title=O'Neill: Son and Artist |author=Sheaffer, Louis |publisher=Cooper Square Press 2002 |year=1973 |page=459-460 }}
Banquet speech
Because of the state of his health, Eugene O'Neill was unable to travel to Stockholm to receive the prize. But he delivered a speech that was read by the American chargé d'affaires at the banquet in Stockholm City Hall. In the speech, O'Neill paid tribute to the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg and the great influence Strindberg had on his work.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/oneill/speech/ |title=Banquet speech |publisher=nobelprize.org }}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/ceremony-speech/ Award ceremony speech] by Per Hallström
- [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1936/oneill/speech/ Banquet speech] by Eugene O'Neill
{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}