1959 Nobel Prize in Literature
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Salvatore Quasimodo | |
![]() "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times." | |
Date |
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Location | Stockholm,Sweden |
Presented by | Swedish Academy |
First awarded | 1901 |
Website | Official website |
The1959Nobel Prize in Literaturewas awarded to the Italian poetSalvatore Quasimodo(1901–1968) "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"[1]He is the fourth Italian recipient of the said prize.[2]
Laureate[edit]
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian poet, critic and translator. He published his first poetry inNuovo giornale letterario( "New Literary Journal" ), which he created in 1917. His first collection of poems,Acque e terre( "Waters and Lands" ), appeared in 1930, and beginning in 1938, he devoted himself entirely to writing. The two schools of poetry that are typically used to categorize his work arehermeticandpost-hermetic.World War IIcaused a shift in the poet's style. Hermetic poetry rejected the use of words as a means of verbal coercion and believed that words have a subjective meaning that is determined more by their sound than by their actual meaning.[3]Along withGiuseppe UngarettiandEugenio Montale,he was one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century.[3][4]
Nominations[edit]
Salvatore Quasimodo was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature twice, in 1958 (by 3 different nominators), and in 1959.[5]
In total, theNobel committteereceived 83 nominations for 56 authors, including nominations forSaint-John Perse(awarded in1960),Ivo Andric(awarded in1961),John Steinbeck(awarded in1962),Jean-Paul Sartre(awarded in1964),Karen Blixen,André Malraux,Romulo Gallegos,Carl Sandburg,Graham Greene,Aldous Huxley,John Cowper Powys,Alberto Moravia,Ignazio Silone,Ezra Pound,E. M. Forster,Ramón Menéndez Pidal,Martin Buber,William Somerset Maugham,Thornton WilderandTarjei Vesaas.Twenty of the nominees were new recommendations, includingErnest Claes,Osbert Sitwell,Sacheverell Sitwell,Martin Heidegger,Juana de Ibarbourou,Heimito von Doderer,María Raquel Adler,Miguel Torga,Arnold Zweig,Étienne Gilson,Louis Aragon,Anna Seghers,Frank Raymond Leavis,Max FrischandJulien Gracq.Most nominations, seven, were submitted for the Polish authorMaria Dabrowska.There were women nominated namely:Elizabeth Goudge,Maria Dabrowska, Juana de Ibarbourou, Karen Blixen, Anna Seghers,Edith Sitwell,Gertrud von le Fortand María Raquel Adler.[6]
The authorsMaxwell Anderson,Emil František Burian,Raymond Chandler,G. D. H. Cole,Laxmi Prasad Devkota,Laurence Housman,Hans Henny Jahnn,Edwin Muir,Luis Palés Matos,Benjamin Péret,Marta Rădulescu,Alfred Schütz,Galaktion Tabidze,José Vasconcelos,Boris Vian,Arthur Henry Ward(known asSax Rohmer) andPercy F. Westermandied in 1959 without having been nominated for the prize.
No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | María Raquel Adler(c. 1900–1974) | ![]() |
poetry, essays | Consejo del Escritor |
2 | Stefan Andres(1906–1970) | ![]() |
novel, short story | Josef Quint (1898–1976) |
3 | Ivo Andrić(1892–1975) | ![]() |
novel, short story, poetry |
|
4 | Louis Aragon(1897–1982) | ![]() |
novel, short story, poetry, essays |
|
5 | Werner Bergengruen(1892–1964) | ![]() |
novel, short story, poetry | Josef Quint (1898–1976) |
6 | Karen Blixen(1885–1962) | ![]() |
novel, short story, memoir | Hjalmar Gullberg(1898–1961) |
7 | Martin Buber(1878–1965) | ![]() ![]() |
philosophy | Simon Halkin(1899–1987) |
8 | Ernest Claes(1885–1968) | ![]() |
novel, short story, drama | W. F. Mainland (?) |
9 | Maria Dąbrowska(1889–1965) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, drama, literary criticism |
|
10 | Gonzague de Reynold(1880–1970) | ![]() |
history, essays, biography, memoir |
|
11 | Edward Morgan Forster(1879–1970) | ![]() |
novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism |
|
12 | Max Frisch(1911–1991) | ![]() |
novel, drama | Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
13 | Christopher Fry(1907–2005) | ![]() |
poetry, drama, screenplay | Werner Kohlschmidt (1904–1983) |
14 | Rómulo Gallegos(1884–1969) | ![]() |
novel, short story |
|
15 | Étienne Gilson(1884–1978) | ![]() |
philosophy | Fritz Schalk (1902–1980) |
16 | Jean Giono(1895–1970) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, poetry, drama | Henrik Cornell (1890–1981) |
17 | Julien Gracq(1910–2007) | ![]() |
novel, poetry, drama, literary criticism | André Lebois (1915–1978) |
18 | Graham Greene(1904–1991) | ![]() |
novel, short story, autobiography, essays |
|
19 | Elizabeth Goudge(1900–1984) | ![]() |
novel, short story, biography, autobiography | Edmond Privat(1889–1962) |
20 | Martin Heidegger(1889–1976) | ![]() |
philosophy, essays | Josef Quint (1898–1976) |
21 | Hans Egon Holthusen(1913–1997) | ![]() |
poetry, literary criticism, essays | Helmut Viebrock (1912–1997) |
22 | Aldous Huxley(1894–1963) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophy |
|
23 | Juana de Ibarbourou(1892–1979) | ![]() |
poetry, essays |
|
24 | Rudolf Kassner(1873–1959) | ![]() |
philosophy, essays, translation |
|
25 | Miroslav Krleža(1893–1981) | ![]() ![]() |
poetry, drama, short story, novel, essays | Association of Writers of Yugoslavia |
26 | Frank Raymond Leavis(1895–1978) | ![]() |
literary criticism, essays | Cecil Arthur Hackett (1908–2000) |
27 | André Malraux(1901–1976) | ![]() |
novel, essays, literary criticism |
|
28 | William Somerset Maugham(1874–1965) | ![]() |
novel, short story, drama, essays | Robert Niklaus (1910–2001) |
29 | Charles Mauron(1899–1966) | ![]() |
essays, literary criticism, translation | Charles Rostaing(1904–1999) |
30 | Ramón Menéndez Pidal(1869–1968) | ![]() |
philology, history |
|
31 | Alberto Moravia(1907–1990) | ![]() |
novel, literary criticism, essays, drama | Hjalmar Gullberg(1898–1961) |
32 | Seán O'Casey(1880–1964) | ![]() |
drama, memoir | Geoffrey Tillotson(1905–1969) |
33 | Marcel Pagnol(1895–1974) | ![]() |
novel, memoir, drama, screenplay | Marcel Clavel (1894–1976) |
34 | Jan Parandowski(1895–1978) | ![]() |
essays, translation | Ananiasz Zajączkowski (1903–1970) |
35 | Saint-John Perse(1887–1975) | ![]() |
poetry |
|
36 | Ezra Pound(1885–1972) | ![]() |
poetry, essays | Johannes Edfelt(1904–1997) |
37 | John Cowper Powys(1872–1963) | ![]() |
philosophy, novel, literary criticism, poetry, essays, short story | G. Wilson Knight(1897–1985) |
38 | Vasco Pratolini(1931–1991) | ![]() |
novel, short story | Paul Renucci (1915–1976) |
39 | Salvatore Quasimodo(1901–1968) | ![]() |
poetry, translation | Carlo Bo(1911–2001) |
40 | Mario Roques(1875–1961) | ![]() ![]() |
history, philology, essays | Ida-Marie Frandon (1907–1997) |
41 | Sochi Raut Roy(1916–2004) | ![]() |
poetry, novel, short story | Radhakamal Mukerjee(1889–1968) |
42 | Carl Sandburg(1878–1967) | ![]() |
poetry, essays, biography | Roger Asselineau (1915–2002) |
43 | Jean-Paul Sartre(1905–1980) | ![]() |
philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay |
|
44 | Jean Schlumberger(1877–1968) | ![]() |
poetry, essays | Pierre Legouis (1891–1973) |
45 | Anna Seghers(1900–1983) | ![]() |
novel, short story | Erich Kühne (1917–2016) |
46 | Ignazio Silone(1900–1978) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, drama | Hjalmar Gullberg(1898–1961) |
47 | Edith Sitwell(1887–1964) | ![]() |
poetry, essays, memoir | Alexander Gillies (1907–1982) |
48 | Osbert Sitwell(1892–1969) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, autobiography | |
49 | Sacheverell Sitwell(1897–1988) | ![]() |
poetry, essays | |
50 | John Steinbeck(1902–1968) | ![]() |
novel, short story, screenplay | Eugène Vinaver(1899–1979) |
51 | Miguel Torga(1907–1995) | ![]() |
poetry, short story, novel, drama, autobiography | Jean-Baptiste Aquarone (1903–1989) |
52 | Tarjei Vesaas(1897–1970) | ![]() |
poetry, novel |
|
53 | Heimito von Doderer(1896–1966) | ![]() |
novel, short story, poetry, essays | Hans Neumann (1903–1990) |
54 | Gertrud von Le Fort(1876–1971) | ![]() |
novel, short story, essays, poetry | Friedrich von der Leyen(1873–1966) |
55 | Thornton Wilder(1897–1975) | ![]() |
drama, novel, short story | Josef Quint (1898–1976) |
56 | Arnold Zweig(1887–1968) | ![]() |
novel, short story | Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
Prize decision[edit]
The Nobel committee was almost unanimous to propose that the Danish authorKaren Blixenshould be awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature. But committee memberEyvind Johnson(who himself fifteen years later accepted the1974 Nobel Prize in Literature) opposed a prize to Blixen arguing that Scandinavians were overrepresentated among the Nobel laureates in literature. Johnson instead proposed an Italian laureate, Salvatore Quasimodo being his main candidate, followed byAlberto MoraviaandIgnazio Silone.Unconventionally, the members of theSwedish Academydid not follow the Nobel committees recommendation to award Blixen, but was convinced about Quasimodo's candidacy and surprisingly awarded him the prize.[7]
References[edit]
- ^The Nobel Prize in Literature 1960nobelprize.org
- ^"Italian Poet Wins Nobel Writing Prize".The New York Times.22 October 1959.
- ^ab"Salvatore Quasimodo".britannica.
- ^C. M. Bowra (15 November 1959)."Quasimodo Literary Appreciation of a Prize Winner; Quasimodo: Prize Winner".The New York Times.
- ^"Nomination archive Salvatore Qouasimodo".nobelprize.org.
- ^"Nomination archive 1959".nobelprize.org.
- ^Espmark, Kjell (1 January 2010)."Spelet bakom Blixens förlorade Nobelpris"(in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet.