1948 Nobel Prize in Literature
{{Infobox award
| name = 20px 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature
| subheader = Thomas Stearns Eliot
| awarded_for =
| presenter = Swedish Academy
| year = 1901
| website = {{oweb|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/summary/}}
| holder_label = 1948 laureate
| holder =
| image = TS Eliot.jpg
| caption = "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry."
| host =
| date = {{plainlist|
- 4 November 1948 (announcement)
- 10 December 1948
(ceremony)
}}
| location = Stockholm, Sweden
| previous = 1947
| main = Nobel Prize in Literature
| next = 1949
}}
The 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to British-American poet Thomas Stearns Eliot (pen name, T. S. Eliot) (1888–1965) "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry."[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/summary/ The Nobel Prize in literature 1948] nobelprize.org Eliot is the fourth British (born in the United States) recipient of the prize after John Galsworthy in 1932.
Laureate
{{Main article|T.S. Eliot}}
T.S. Eliot was a highly influential poet known for works such as The Waste Land (1922) and Four Quartets (1940). His belief that poetry should aim to represent the complexities of modern civilization made him one of the most daring innovators of 20th century poetry. He also wrote essays and plays such as Murder in the Cathedral (1935).[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/t-s-eliot T.S. Eliot] Poetry Foundation
Deliberations
=Nominations=
T.S. Eliot was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on seven occasions, the first time in 1945. In 1948, three nominations for Eliot were submitted which eventually led to him being awarded the prize.[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/eliot/nominations/ T.S. Eliot nominations] nobelprize.org
In total, the Nobel committee received 45 nominations for 32 writers including André Malraux, Georges Duhamel, Winston Churchill (awarded in 1953), Toyohiko Kagawa, Boris Pasternak (awarded in 1958), Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Sholokov (awarded in 1965), Shmuel Yosef Agnon (awarded in 1966), Angelos Sikelianos, Mark Aldanov, and Arnulf Øverland.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1948 Nomination archive] nobelprize.org Seven of the nominees were nominated first-time among them George Santayana, Zalman Shneur, George Macauley Trevelyan, Halldór Laxness (awarded in 1955), and Riccardo Bacchelli. Three of the nominees were women: Marie Under, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
The 1929 Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann was unconventionally nominated for a second prize by two members of the Swedish Academy.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=6490 Nomination archive – Thomas Mann] nobelprize.org The authors Antonin Artaud, Charles A. Beard, Georges Bernanos, Alice Brown, Wilbur Lucius Cross, Osamu Dazai, André Fontainas, Susan Glaspell, Frederick Philip Grove, Victor Ido, Klara Johanson, Aldo Leopold, Monteiro Lobato, Emil Ludwig, Claude McKay, Thomas Mofolo, Na Hye-sok, Sextil Pușcariu, Antonin Sertillanges, Montague Summers, and Marcelle Tinayre died in 1948 without having been nominated for the prize. Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev died months before the announcement.
| 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
|Mark Aldanov (1886–1957) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |biography, novel, essays, literary criticism |20px Ivan Bunin (1870–1953) |
| 2
|Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1887–1970) |{{flag|Israel}} |novel, short story |Martin Lamm (1880–1950) |
| 3
|Eugène Baie (1874–1964) |{{flag|Belgium}} |law, essays |{{unbulleted list|20px Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)|Académie Royale de Belgique}} |
| 4
|Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985) |{{flag|Italy}} |novel, drama, essays |
| 5
|Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |philosophy, theology |Alf Nyman (1884–1968) |
| 6
|René Béhaine (1880–1966) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story, essays |Maurice Mignon (1882–1962) |
| 7
|Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879–1958) |{{flag|United States|1912}} |novel, short story, pedagogy, essays |David Baumgardt (1890–1963){{efn|group=notes|Dorothy Fisher was also nominated by other, undisclosed nominators.}} |
| 8
|Winston Churchill (1874–1965) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |history, essays, memoir |{{unbulleted list|Birger Nerman (1888–1971)|Oscar Wieselgren (1886–1971)|Einar Löfstedt (1880–1955)|Birger Ekeberg (1880–1968)|Nils Ahnlund (1889–1957)|Harald Hagendahl (1889–1986)}} |
| 9
|Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story |Claude Farrère (1876–1957) |
| 10
|Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) |{{flag|Italy}} |history, philosophy, law |
| 11
|Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877–1952) |{{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} |poetry |João António Mascarenhas Júdice (1898–1957) |
| 12
|Georgios Drossinis (1859–1951) |{{flag|Kingdom of Greece|name=Greece}} |poetry, novel, short story |Geōrgios Oikonomos (1882–1951) |
| 13
|Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism |{{unbulleted list|Georges Lecomte (1867–1958)|Jean-Marie Carré (1887–1958)}} |
| style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|14
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|{{flag|United States|1912}} |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|poetry, essays, drama |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|{{unbulleted list|Justin O'Brien (1906–1968)|Oscar Wieselgren (1886–1971)|Donald Alfred Stauffer (1902–1952)}} |
| 15
|Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) |{{flag|Norway}} |novel, short story, essays |{{unbulleted list|Andreas Hofgaard Winsnes (1889–1972)|20px Sigrid Undset (1882–1949)}} |
| 16
|Franz Hellens (1881–1972) |{{flag|Belgium}} |novel, poetry, literary criticism |Anders Österling (1884–1981) |
| 17
|Toyohiko Kagawa (1888–1960) |{{flag|Japan}} |essays |Sven Hedin (1865–1952) |
| 18
|Rudolf Kassner (1873–1959) |{{flag|Austria}} |philosophy, essays, translation |Theophil Spoerri (1890–1974) |
| 19
|Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) |{{flag|Iceland}} |novel, short story, drama, poetry |{{unbulleted list|Jón Helgason (1899–1986)|Einar Sveinsson (1906–1973)|Sigurður Nordal (1886–1974)}} |
| 20
|André Malraux (1901–1976) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, essays, literary criticism |Justin O'Brien (1906–1968) |
| 21
|Thomas Mann (1875–1955) |{{flag|Allied-occupied Germany|name=Germany}} |novel, short story, essays |{{unbulleted list|Einar Löfstedt (1880–1955)|Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961)}} |
| 22
|Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |philology, history |Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973) |
| 23
|Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894–1958) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |drama, novel, essays, poetry |Otto Funke |
| 24
|Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968) |{{flag|Norway}} |poetry, essays |{{unbulleted list|Sigurd Erixon (1888–1968)|Andreas Hofgaard Winsnes (1889–1972)}} |
| 25
|Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |poetry, novel, translation |Martin Lamm (1880–1950) |
| 26
|Jules Romains (1885–1972) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |poetry, drama, screenplay |Alfred Jolivet (1885–1966) |
| 27
|George Santayana (1863–1952) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |philosophy, essays, poetry, novel |Justin O'Brien (1906–1968) |
| 28
|Zalman Shneour (1887–1959) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |poetry, essays |Joseph Klausner (1874–1958) |
| 29
|Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |novel |Nobel Committee (unspecified) |
| 30
|Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951) |{{flag|Kingdom of Greece|name=Greece}} |poetry, drama |{{unbulleted list|Axel Waldemar Persson (1888–1951)|Elin Wägner (1882–1949)}} |
| 31
|George Macauley Trevelyan (1876–1962) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |biography, autobiography, essays, history |Nils Ahnlund (1889–1957) |
| 32
|Marie Under (1883–1980) |{{flag|Soviet Union}} |poetry |Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
Prize decision
In his 1948 report, Nobel committee chairman Anders Österling mentioned the possibility of a shared prize between T. S. Eliot and the Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos, but immediately rejected the idea referring to it "as where both are considered, it would certainly be considered a disparagement".{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/the-nobel-prize-in-literature-nominations-and-reports-1901-1950/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature: Nominations and reports 1901–1950 |author=Svensén, Bo |publisher=nobelprize.org}}
Award ceremony speech
At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1948, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said of Eliot: {{Quote|His career is remarkable in that, from an extremely exclusive and consciously isolated position, he has gradually come to exercise a very far-reaching influence. At the outset he appeared to address himself to but a small circle of initiates, but this circle slowly widened, without his appearing to will it himself. Thus in Eliot's verse and prose there was quite a special accent, which compelled attention just in our own time, a capacity to cut into the consciousness of our generation with the sharpness of a diamond.[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/ceremony-speech/ Award Ceremony speech 1948] nobelprize.org }}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/ceremony-speech/ Award Ceremony speech] nobelprize.org
- [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/eliot/speech/ Banquet speech] nobelprize.org
- [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1948/eliot/nominations/ T. S. Eliot Nobel Prize nominations] nobelprize.org
- [https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poets/eliot-thomas-stearns Selected poems by T. S. Eliot] Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto
{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}