1958 Nobel Prize in Literature
{{Infobox award
| name = 20px 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature
| subheader = Boris Pasternak
| awarded_for =
| presenter = Swedish Academy
| year = 1901
| website = {{oweb|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1958/summary/}}
| holder_label = 1957 laureate
| holder =
| image = Boris Pasternak 1959 photo.jpg
| caption = "for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."
| host =
| date = {{plainlist|
- 23 October 1958 (announcement)
- 10 December 1958
(ceremony)
}}
| location = Stockholm
| country = Sweden
| reward =
| year2 =
| network =
| runtime =
| ratings =
| previous = 1957
| main = Nobel Prize in Literature
| next = 1959
}}
The 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the Soviet-Russian author Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) "for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1958/summary/ |title=Nobel Prize in Literature 1958 |publisher=nobelprize.org}} He is the second Russian-language writer to be awarded with such honor.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/10/24/archives/nobel-prize-goes-to-pasternak-russians-zhivago-still-unpublished-in.html|title=Nobel Prize Goes to Pasternak; Russian's 'Zhivago' Still Unpublished in Soviet Union|date=24 October 1958|access-date=10 December 2023|website=The New York Times|author=Werner Wiskari}}
Pasternak first accepted the prize honour, but was then pressured by the Soviet Union authorities to decline the prize. In 1988, Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf.{{Cite web|url=https://lithub.com/when-boris-pasternak-under-fire-from-soviet-authorities-turned-down-a-nobel-prize/ |title=When Boris Pasternak Under Fire From Soviet Authorities Turned Down a Nobel Prize |author= Corinne Segal |date=29 October 2020 |publisher=lithub.com }}
Laureate
{{main|Boris Pasternak}}
Boris Pasternak's modernist-leaning poetry first came to light in the 1910s and 1920s, when he published collections of poems such as Sestra moya—zhizn ("My Sister, Life", 1922) and Vtoroe rozhdenie ("A Second Birth", 1932). He began to emphasize social issues more and use clearer, simpler language in the 1930s. The existential is another theme in Pasternak's writings, covering nature, life, humanity, and love. The renowned 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago, which takes place between the socialist revolution of 1905 and World War II, demonstrates this.[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1958/pasternak/facts/ Boris Pasternak – Facts] nobelprize.org
Deliberations
=Nominations=
Pasternak earned 9 nominations in total. He was first introduced for the Nobel Prize in 1946 by English literary critic Maurice Bowra. In 1958, after receiving three recommendations from Renato Poggioli, Harry Levin and Ernest Simmons, he was eventually awarded thereafter.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=7016 Nomination archive – Boris Pasternak] nobelprize.org
In total, the Nobel Committee for Literature received 70 nominations for 42 authors such as Riccardo Bacchelli, Robert Frost, Graham Greene, André Malraux, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Alberto Moravia, Jean-Paul Sartre (awarded in 1964), Ignazio Silone, John Steinbeck (awarded in 1962), Giuseppe Ungaretti and Thornton Wilder. Seventeen of the nominees were newly nominated namely Ivo Andrić (awarded in 1961), Fernand Baldensperger, Elizabeth Bowen, Maurice Bowra, James Gould Cozzens, John Hersey, Miroslav Krleža, Junzaburō Nishiwaki, John Cowper Powys, Salvatore Quasimodo (awarded in 1959), Rudolf Alexander Schröder, Georges Simenon, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Lionel Trilling, Elio Vittorini, Robert Penn Warren and Tennessee Williams. There were only five women authors nominated: Karen Blixen, Edith Sitwell, Elizabeth Bowen, Gertrud von le Fort and Marie Under.[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1958 Nomination archive – 1958] nobelprize.org
The authors Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, Zoe Akins, Mary Ritter Beard, Til Brugman, James Branch Cabell, Rachel Crothers, Anurupa Debi, Lionel Giles, Feodor Gladkov, Michael Joseph, Henry Kuttner, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Irene Lisboa, Dorothy Macardle, Rose Macaulay, George Edward Moore, George Jean Nathan, Seumas O'Sullivan, Elliot Paul, Máiréad "Peig" Sayers, Robert W. Service, John Collings Squire, Marie Stopes, Ralph Waldo Trine, Ethel Turner, Alfred Weber, and Geoffrey Willans died in 1958 without having been nominated for the award. The French literary scholar Fernand Baldensperger died before the only chance to be rewarded.
| 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
| Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) | {{flag|Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|name=Yugoslavia}} | novel, short story, poetry |
| 2
| Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985) | {{flag|Italy}} | novel, drama, essays | Hans Nilsson-Ehle (1910–1983) |
| 3
| Fernand Baldensperger (1871–1958) | {{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} | essays, literary criticism, poetry | Alan Carey Taylor (1905–1975) |
| 4
| Karen Blixen (1885–1962) | {{flag|Denmark}} | novel, short story, memoir | Elias Wessén (1889–1981) |
| 5
| Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) | {{flag|Ireland}} | novel, short story, essays | Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) |
| 6
| Maurice Bowra (1898–1971) | {{flag|United Kingdom}} | history, essays, literary criticism, poetry | Ernest Ludwig Stahl (1902–1992) |
| 7
| Martin Buber (1878–1965) | {{flag|Austria}} | philosophy | 20px Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) |
| 8
| James Gould Cozzens (1903–1978) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | novel | Gordon S. Haight (1901–1985) |
| 9
| Gonzague de Reynold (1880–1970) | {{flag|Switzerland}} | history, essays, biography, memoir | Pierre-Henri Simon (1903–1972) |
| 10
| Robert Frost (1874–1963) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | poetry, drama | {{unbulleted list|W. Cabell Greet (1901–1972)|Howard Mumford Jones (1892–1980)|Alfred Harbage (1901–1976)|Douglas Bush (1896–1983)|Leon Edel (1907–1997)}} |
| 11
| Graham Greene (1904–1991) | {{flag|United Kingdom}} | novel, short story, autobiography, essays | Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) |
| 12
| John Hersey (1914–1993) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | novel, short story, essays | Helen Rose Hull (1888–1971) |
| 13
| Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) | {{flag|Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|name=Yugoslavia}} | poetry, drama, short story, novel, essays |
| 14
| André Malraux (1901–1976) | {{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} | novel, essays, literary criticism | {{unbulleted list|Louis L. Martz (1913–2001)|Jean Hytier (1899–1983)|Wilbur Merrill Frohock (1908–1984)}} |
| 15
| Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) | {{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}} | philology, history | {{unbulleted list|Alexander A. Parker (1908–1989)|Edward Meryon Wilson (1906–1977)|Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973)|Several professors}} |
| 16
| Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) | {{flag|Italy}} | novel, literary criticism, essays, drama | {{unbulleted list|Stuart Pratt Atkins (1914–2000)|Hans Nilsson-Ehle (1910–1983)}} |
| 17
| Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982) | {{flag|Japan}} | poetry, literary criticism | Naoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979) |
| style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| 18
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| {{flag|Soviet Union}} |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| poetry, novel, translation |style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"| {{unbulleted list|Ernest Simmons (1903–1972)|Harry Levin (1912–1994)|Renato Poggioli (1907–1963)}} |
| 19
| Saint-John Perse (1887–1975) | {{flag|France}} | poetry | {{unbulleted list|20px Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)|Henri Peyre (1901–1988)|Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)|American Academy of Arts and Letters}} |
| 20
| John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) | {{flag|United Kingdom}} | philosophy, novel, literary criticism, poetry, essays, short story | Enid Starkie (1897–1970) |
| 21
| Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968) | {{flag|Italy}} | poetry, translation | {{unbulleted list|Maurice Bowra (1898–1971)|Carlo Bo (1911–2001)|Francesco Flora (1891–1962)}} |
| 22
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) | {{flag|India}} | philosophy, essays, law | Nirmal Kumar Sidhanta (1929–2014) |
| 23
| Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (1889–1959) | {{flag|Mexico}} | philosophy, essays, novel, poetry | Angel del Río (1901–1962) |
| 24
| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | poetry, essays, biography | Henning Larsen (1889–1971) |
| 25
| Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) | {{flag|French Fourth Republic|name=France}} | philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay | Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) |
| 26
| Rudolf Alexander Schröder (1878–1962) | {{flag|West Germany}} | poetry, songwriting, translation | {{unbulleted list|20px Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)|Robert Minder (1902–1980)|Friedrich Märker (1893–1985)|Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts}} |
| 27
| Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984) | {{flag|Soviet Union}} | novel | {{unbulleted list|Johannes Andreasson Dale (1898–1975)|Johannes Edfelt (1904–1997)|Harry Martinson (1904–1978)}} |
| 28
| Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) | {{flag|Italy}} | novel, short story, essays, drama | {{unbulleted list|Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)|Henry Olsson (1896–1985)}} |
| 29
| Georges Simenon (1903–1989) | {{flag|Belgium}} | novel, short story, memoir | {{unbulleted list|Justin O'Brien (1906–1968)|Fernand Desonay (1899–1973)|Belgian Association of Writers}} |
| 30
| Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) | {{flag|United Kingdom}} | poetry, essays, memoir | Walter MacKellar (1927–2016) |
| 31
| John Steinbeck (1902–1968) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | novel, short story, screenplay | Lennox Grey (?) |
| 32
| Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965) | {{flag|Japan}} | novel, short story | Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) |
| 33
| Lionel Trilling (1905–1975) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | essays, literary criticism, short story | Charles Warren Everett (1895–1983) |
| 34
| Marie Under (1883–1980) | {{flag|Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|name=Estonia}} | poetry | William Kleesmann Matthews (1901–1958) |
| 35
| Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888–1970) | {{flag|Italy}} | poetry, essays, literary criticism | Howard R. Marraro (1897–1972) |
| 36
| Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) | {{flag|Norway}} | poetry, novel | Harald Beyer (1891–1960) |
| 37
| Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) | {{flag|Netherlands}} | novel, poetry, essays, translation | Benjamin Hunningher (1903–1991) |
| 38
| Elio Vittorini (1908–1966) | {{flag|Italy}} | novel, short story | Stuart Pratt Atkins (1914–2000) |
| 39
| Gertrud von Le Fort (1876–1971) | {{flag|West Germany}} | novel, short story, essays, poetry | {{unbulleted list|Hermann Kunisch (1901–1991)|Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts}} |
| 40
| Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | novel, poetry, essays, literary criticism | René Wellek (1903–1995) |
| 41
| Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | drama, novel, short story | {{unbulleted list|Jean Boorsch (1906–2008)|Heinz Bluhm (1907–1993)|Frederick Albert Pottle (1897–1987)|Henry D. Hatfield (1875–1962)}} |
| 42
| Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) | {{flag|United States|1912}} | drama, novel, screenplay, short story, poetry | Napier Wilt (1896–1975) |
