1914 Nobel Prize in Literature explained

1914 Nobel Prize in Literature
Presenter:Swedish Academy
Year:1901
Holder Label:1914 laureate
Holder:none
Location:Stockholm, Sweden
Previous:1913
Main:Nobel Prize in Literature
Next:1915

The 1914 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded when the committee's deliberations were upset by the beginning of World War I (1914–1918).[1] Thus, the prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.[2] This was the first occasion in Nobel history that the prize was not conferred.

Nominations

Despite no author(s) being awarded for the 1914 prize, numerous literary critics, societies and academics still sent nominations to the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy. In total, the academy received 26 nominations for 24 writers.[3]

Seven of the nominees were nominated first-time including Willem Kloos, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Vilhelm Grønbech, René Bazin, and Josef Svatopluk Machar. The highest number of nominations – two nominations each – were for Harald Høffding, Ángel Guimerá Jorge, and Carl Spitteler (awarded in 1919). Two Italian female writers were nominated Dora Melegari and Grazia Deledda (awarded in 1926).[3]

The authors Delmira Agustini, Dimitrie Anghel, Jakub Arbes, Robert Hugh Benson, Robert Jones Burdette, Nikolai Chayev, Mariana Cox Méndez, Alessandro d'Ancona, Danske Dandridge, Mircea Demetriade, Augusto dos Anjos, Edith Maude Eaton, Henri-Alban Fournier (known as Alain-Fournier), Jules Lemaître, Theodor Lipps, Isabella Fyvie Mayo, Christian Morgenstern, Charles Sanders Peirce, Charles Péguy, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Brandon Thomas, Georg Trakl, Bertha von Suttner (who won the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize), Theodore Watts-Dunton, and Peyo Yavorov died in 1914 without having been nominated for the prize.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize
scope=col No.scope=col Nomineescope=col Countryscope=col Genre(s)scope=col Nominator(s)
1Juhani Aho (1861–1921)
( Finland)
novel, short storyErik Axel Karlfeldt (1864–1931)
2René Bazin (1853–1932)novelPierre Loti (1850–1923)
3Henri Bergson (1859–1941)philosophyVitalis Norström (1856–1916)
4Paul Bourget (1852–1935) novel, short story, literary criticism, essays René Bazin (1853–1932)
5Grazia Deledda (1871–1936)novel, short story, essaysCarl Bildt (1850–1931)
6Jean-Henri Fabre (1823–1915)short story, essays, poetryJohan Vising (1855–1942)
7Émile Faguet (1847–1916)literary criticism, essaysHarald Hjärne (1848–1922)
8Salvatore Farina (1846–1918)novel, short storymembers of the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere
9Adolf Frey (1855–1920) Switzerlandbiography, history, essaysWilhelm Oechsli (1851–1919)
10Karl Adolph Gjellerup (1857–1919) Denmarkpoetry, drama, novel
11Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) Denmarkhistory, essays, poetryHarald Hjärne (1848–1922)
12Ángel Guimerá Jorge (1845–1924) drama, poetry
13Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)novel, short story, poetry, dramamembers of the Royal Society of Literature
14Harald Høffding (1843–1931) philosophy, theology
15Willem Kloos (1859–1938)poetry, essays, literary criticism
16Josef Svatopluk Machar (1864–1942)
poetry, essays, novel
17Dora Melegari (1849–1924) Switzerland
novel, short story, essays, literary criticismLouis Duchesne (1843–1922)
18Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) novel, essays, poetry, dramaNestor Kotlyarevsky (1863–1925)
19Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) novel, short story, drama, essays
20Edmond Picard (1836–1924) Belgiumdrama, law, essays Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)
21Antonio Serra Morant (1866–1936)essaysEloy Señán Alonso (1858–1923)
22Carl Spitteler (1845–1924) Switzerlandpoetry, essays
23Ernst von der Recke (1848–1933) Denmarkpoetry, drama11 professors from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
24William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) poetry, drama, essaysGeorge Noble Plunkett (1851–1948)

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Nobel literature row: usually it takes a world war to disrupt the prize. The Conversation. 4 May 2018. 21 May 2021.
  2. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1914/summary/ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1914
  3. https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1914 Nomination archive – 1914