1940 Nobel Prize in Literature
{{Infobox award
| name = 20px 1940 Nobel Prize in Literature
| year = 1901
| website = {{official website|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1940/summary/}}
| image = Nobel Prize.png
| previous = 1939
| main = Nobel Prize in Literature
| next = 1941
}}
The 1940 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded because the Nobel committee's deliberations were upset by the start of World War II on September 1, 1939.{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/nobel-literature-row-usually-it-takes-a-world-war-to-disrupt-the-prize-96146|title=Nobel literature row: usually it takes a world war to disrupt the prize|website=The Conversation|date=4 May 2018|access-date=21 May 2021}} Instead, the prize money was allocated with 1/3 to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1940/summary/ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1940] nobelprize.org This was the fourth occasion in Nobel history that the prize was not conferred.
Nominations
The Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy received 26 nominations for 19 writers.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1940 Nomination archive – 1940] nobelprize.org
Seven of the nominees were nominated first-time such as Carl Sandburg, Gabriela Mistral (awarded in 1945), Lin Yutang, Bert Bailey, and Edmund Blunden. The highest number of the nominations – three nominations – was for the French writer Henriette Charasson. Three of the nominees were women, namely Gabriela Mistral, Henriette Charasson, and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício.
The authors Isaak Babel, Walter Benjamin, E. F. Benson, Marie Bregendahl, John Buchan, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Tomás Carrasquilla, Charley Chase, Lucio D'Ambra, William Henry Davies, Mary Bathurst Deane, Charles Edgar du Perron, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hamlin Garland, Emma Goldman, Anton Hansen (known as A. H. Tammsaare), Thomas Little Heath, Nicolae Iorga, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, Jan Lorentowicz, Edwin Markham, Hendrik Marsman, Ricardo Miró, Eileen Power, Ameen Rihani, T. O'Conor Sloane, Santōka Taneda, Menno ter Braak, Leon Trotsky, Nathanael West, and Humbert Wolfe died in 1940 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
|Albert Edward Bailey (1868–1953) |{{flag|Australia}} |drama, screenplay |Georges Rency (1875–1951) |
| 2
|Edmund Blunden (1896–1974) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |poetry, essays, biography |Heinrich Wolfgang Donner (1904-1980) |
| 3
|Gösta Carlberg (1909–1973) |{{flag|Sweden}} |novel, poetry, short story, essays |Einar Tegen (1884–1965) |
| 4
|Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) |{{flag|Vichy France|name=France}} |poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography |{{unbulleted list|Pierre Moreau (1895–1972)|Serge Barrault (1887–1976)|Jacques Chevalier (1882–1962)}} |
| 5
|António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) |{{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} |poetry |António Mendes Correia (1888–1960) |
| 6
|Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) |{{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} |poetry, essays |António Baião (1878–1961) |
| 7
|Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) |{{flag|Vichy France|name=France}} |novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism |Anders Österling (1884–1981) |
| 8
|Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) |{{flag|Norway}} |novel, short story, essays |{{unbulleted list|Eivind Berggrav (1884–1959)|Fredrik Paasche (1886–1943)}} |
| 9
|Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) |{{flag|Denmark}} |history, essays, poetry |Sven Lönborg (1871–1959) |
| 10
|Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) |{{flag|Netherlands}} |history |{{unbulleted list|Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)|5 members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences}} |
| 11
|Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) |{{flag|Denmark}} |novel, short story, essays |{{unbulleted list|Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953)|Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)}} |
| 12
|Lin Yutang (1895–1976) |{{flag|Republic of China (1912–1949)|name=China}} |novel, philosophy, essays, translation |{{unbulleted list|Sven Hedin (1865–1952)|20px Pearl Buck (1892–1973)}} |
| 13
|Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957) |{{flag|Chile}} |poetry |{{unbulleted list|Yolando Pino Saavedra (1901–1992)|Luís Galdames Galdames (1881–1941)}} |
| 14
|Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) |{{flag|Kingdom of Greece|name=Greece}} |poetry, essays |Iōannēs Kalitsounakēs (1878–1966) |
| 15
|Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) |{{flag|United States|1912}} |poetry, essays, biography |20px Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) |
| 16
|Alfonso Strafile (1872–?) |{{flag|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|name=Italy}} |essays |Domenico Vittorini (1892–1958) |
| 17
|Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969) |{{flag|Belgium}} |novel, short story |Fredrik Böök (1883–1961) |
| 18
|Felix Timmermans (1886–1947) |{{flag|Belgium}} |novel, short story, drama, poetry, essays |Paul Sobry (1895–1954) |
| 19
|Paul Valéry (1871–1945) |{{flag|Vichy France|name=France}} |poetry, philosophy, essays, drama |Rolf Lagerborg (1874–1959) |
