1952 Nobel Prize in Literature
{{Infobox award
| name = 20px The 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature
| subheader = François Mauriac
| awarded_for =
| presenter = Swedish Academy
| year = 1901
| website = {{oweb|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1952/summary/}}
| holder_label = 1952 laureate
| holder =
| image = Mauriac Harcourt 1945 2.jpg
| caption = "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life."
| host =
| date = {{plainlist|
- 6 November 1952 (announcement)
- 10 December 1952
(ceremony)
}}
| location = Stockholm, Sweden
| previous = 1951
| main = Nobel Prize in Literature
| next = 1953
}}
The 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French Catholic writer François Mauriac (1885–1970) "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life."[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1952/summary/ Nobel Prize in Literature 1952] nobelprize.org He is the eight French author to receive the prize after the novelist André Gide in 1947.
Laureate
{{main|François Mauriac}}
François Mauriac made his breakthrough with the poetry book Les Mains jointes ("Clasped Hands", 1909), but went on to become as a dramatist and novelist. His works are frequently set in and around Bordeaux, France, and investigate human nature through the lens of Catholicism. The characters struggle with money, self-righteousness, and guilt. As a result, Mauriac has been portrayed as a misanthrope at times, but he replied to this criticism by stating that the repeated messages in his writings about divine mercy and compassion were designed to inspire hope and confidence. His most well-known works include La Chair et le Sang ("Flesh and Blood", 1920), Le Désert de l'amour ("The Desert of Love", 1925), Thérèse Desqueyroux (1927), Le Nœud de vipères ("Vipers' Tangle", 1932).[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1952/mauriac/facts/ François Mauriac – Facts] nobelprize.org[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Mauriac François Mauriac] britannica.com
Deliberations
=Nominations=
In total, the Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee received 57 nominations for 40 writers. Fourteen of the nominees were newly nominated such as Paul Vialar, Juan Ramón Jiménez (awarded in 1956), Walter de la Mare, Julien Benda, Salvador de Madariaga, Albert Schweitzer (awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize), Werner Bergengruen, and Van Wyck Brooks. Only one female author was nominate: Spanish author Concha Espina de la Serna.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1952 Nomination archive – 1952] nobelprize.org The English actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin was purportedly nominated in 1952, but is not included in the archives.{{cite web|url=https://todayinclh.com/?event=charlie-chaplin-sails-for-england-visa-revoked|title=Charlie Chaplin Sails for England – Visa Revoked|date=17 September 1952|access-date=2 January 2024|website=Today in Civil History Liberties}}
The authors August Alle, Mariano Azuela, Ioan Alecu Bassarabescu, Margaret Wise Brown, Paul Bujor, Romain Coolus, Annie Sophie Cory, Norman Douglas, Paul Éluard, Jeffery Farnol, Gilbert Frankau, Cicely Hamilton, Aaro Hellaakoski, Masao Kume, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya (known as Teffi), Harold John Massingham, Charles Maurras, Ferenc Molnár, Maria Montessori, Pedro Prado, Josephine Tey, Lodewijk van Deyssel, Louis Verneuil, Clara Viebig, and Roger Vitrac died in 1952 without having been nominated for the prize. The Belgian writer Charles Plisnier 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
|Louis Artus (1870–1960) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |drama, novel, literary criticism, essays |{{unbulleted list|André Maurois (1885–1967)|Louis Madelin (1871–1956)}} |
| 3
|Julien Benda (1867–1956) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, philosophy, essays, literary criticism |Hans Peter Sørensen (1886–1962) |
| 4
|Werner Bergengruen (1892–1964) |{{flag|West Germany}} |novel, short story, poetry |Hans Neumann (1903–1990) |
| 5
|Jacobus Cornelis Bloem (1887–1966) |{{flag|Netherlands}} |poetry, essays |The Dutch PEN-Club |
| 6
|Van Wyck Brooks (1886–1963) |{{flag|United States|1912}} |literary criticism, biography, history, essays |{{unbulleted list|Paul Manship (1885–1966)|20px Pearl Buck (1892–1973)}} |
| 7
|Albert Camus (1913–1960) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story, essays, philosophy, drama |Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961) |
| 8
|Hans Carossa (1878–1956) |{{flag|West Germany}} |poetry, autobiography, essays |Hans Heinrich Borcherdt (1887–1964) |
| 9
|Winston Churchill (1874–1965) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |history, essays, memoir |{{unbulleted list|Asta Kihlbom (1892–1984)|Birger Nerman (1888–1971)|Gustaf Hellström (1882–1953)}} |
| 10
|Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) |{{flag|Italy}} |history, philosophy, law |{{unbulleted list|Accademia dei Lincei|Harry Martinson (1904–1978)}} |
| 11
|Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |novel, short story, poetry, literary criticism, essays |Harry Martinson (1904–1978) |
| 12
|Salvador de Madariaga (1886–1978) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |essays, history, law, novel |Sigurd Erixon (1888–1968) |
| 13
|Concha Espina de la Serna (1869–1955) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |novel, short story |{{unbulleted list|Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando|José María Pemán (1897–1981)|Gerardo Diego (1896–1987)|Jacinto Benavente (1866–1954)}} |
| 14
|José Maria Ferreira de Castro (1898–1978) |{{flag|Estado Novo (Portugal)|name=Portugal}} |novel |João de Barros (1881–1960) |
| 15
|Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism |The English PEN-Club |
| 16
|Robert Frost (1874–1963) |{{flag|United States|1912}} |poetry, drama |Edwin Harrison Cady (1917–2003) |
| 17
|Manuel Gálvez (1882–1962) |{{flag|Argentina}} |novel, poetry, drama, essays, history, biography |Sociedad Argentina de Escritores |
| 18
|Jean Giono (1895–1970) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story, essays, poetry, drama |
| 19
|Enrique González Martínez (1871–1952) |{{flag|Mexico}} |poetry |
| 20
|Graham Greene (1904–1991) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |novel, short story, autobiography, essays |Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961) |
| 21
|Taha Hussein (1889–1973) |{{flag|Kingdom of Egypt|name=Egypt}} |novel, short story, poetry, translation |Karl Vilhelm Zetterstéen (1866–1953) |
| 22
|Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |poetry, novel |Maurice Bowra (1898–1971) |
| 23
|Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) |{{flag|Kingdom of Greece|name=Greece}} |novel, philosophy, essays, drama, memoir, translation |
| 24
|Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) |{{flag|Iceland}} |novel, short story, drama, poetry |{{unbulleted list|Einar Sveinsson (1906–1973)|Jón Helgason (1899–1986)|Sigurður Nordal (1886–1974)}} |
| 25
|André Malraux (1901–1976) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, essays, literary criticism |Jean-Marie Carré (1887–1958) |
| style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|26
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|François Mauriac (1885–1970) |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|novel, short story |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|{{unbulleted list|Oscar Wieselgren (1886–1971)|Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland (1884–1965)}} |
| 27
|Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) |{{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} |philology, history |{{unbulleted list|100 institutions and individuals|Academia Argentina de Letras|Academia Chilena de la Lengua|Royal Spanish Academy}} |
| 28
|Charles Plisnier (1896–1952) |{{flag|Belgium}} |novel, short story, poetry, essays |{{unbulleted list|Association des Écrivains Belges|Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique}} |
| 29
|Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) |{{flag|India}} |philosophy, essays, law |The Indian PEN-Club |
| 30
|Henriette Roland Holst (1869–1952) |{{flag|Netherlands}} |poetry, essays, biography |The Dutch PEN-Club |
| 31
|Jules Romains (1885–1972) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |poetry, drama, screenplay |{{unbulleted list|Maurice Gravier (1912–1992)|Alfred Jolivet (1885–1966)}} |
| 32
|Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) |{{flag|United States|1912}} |poetry, essays, biography |Axel Boëthius (1889–1969) |
| 33
|Jean Schlumberger (1877–1968) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |poetry, essays |International Centre of the PEN Club |
| 34
|Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |philosophy, theology, essays |Nils Ahnlund (1889–1957) |
| 35
|Zalman Shneour (1887–1959) |{{flag|Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|name=Belarus}} |poetry, essays |{{unbulleted list|Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai (1886–1973)|Joseph Klausner (1874–1958)}} |
| 36
|Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) |{{flag|Norway}} |poetry, novel |Olav Midttun (1883–1972) |
| 37
|Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) |{{flag|Netherlands}} |novel, poetry, essays, translation |The Dutch PEN-Club |
| 38
|Paul Vialar (1898–1996) |{{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} |novel, short story, essays, drama |
| 39
|Mika Waltari (1908–1979) |{{flag|Finland}} |short story, novel, poetry, drama, essays, screenplay |Aarne Anttila (1892–1952) |
| 40
|John Dover Wilson (1881–1969) |{{flag|United Kingdom}} |essays, literary criticism |Charles Jasper Sisson (1885–1966) |
Reactions
The choice of Mauriac was well received: "the choice of the Royal Swedish Academy will be generally applauded", Émile Henriot of the Académie française stated in Le Monde. "The writer who is today the object of this consecration, which is equivalent to access to a sort of international and ideal Academy, is worthy of this flattering and appreciable distinction. It comes to reward a very fine literary talent, recognized among us even by those who do not agree on all points with the beliefs, the choices, the enmities of Mr. François Mauriac; and similarly recognized as representative and universally valid beyond our borders."{{cite web|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1952/11/07/m-francois-mauriac-prix-nobel-de-litterature_2001766_1819218.html |title=M. FRANÇOIS MAURIAC PRIX NOBEL DE LITTÉRATURE |author=Émile Henriot |date=7 November 1952 |publisher=Le Monde |lang=French}}
Award ceremony speech
At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1952, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, praised the artistic qualities of Mauriac's work and said:
{{Quote|for everywhere, in the whole series of Mauriac’s novels, are found unforgettable scenes, dialogues, and situations, so mysteriously and so cruelly revealing. The repetition of the same themes could create a certain monotony, but his acute analyses and sure touch awaken the same admiration with each new encounter. Mauriac remains unequalled in conciseness and expressive force of language; his prose can in a few suggestive lines shed light on the most complex and difficult things. His most remarkable works are characterized by a purity of logic and classic economy of expression that recall the tragedies of Racine. (...) Faithful to the truth which he has made his, he strives to describe his characters in such a way that, seeing themselves as they are, they would be stricken with repentance and the desire to become, if not better, at least a little less evil. His novels can be compared to narrow but deep wells at the bottom of which a mysterious water is seen glistening in the darkness.{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1952/ceremony-speech/ |title=Award ceremony speech |publisher=nobelprize.org }} }}
References
{{Reflist}}