| 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature | |
| Subheader: | Luigi Pirandello |
| Presenter: | Swedish Academy |
| Year: | 1901 |
| Holder Label: | 1934 laureate |
| Date: |
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| Location: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Previous: | 1933 |
| Main: | Nobel Prize in Literature |
| Next: | 1935 |
The 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Italian dramatist Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art".[1] He is the third Italian recipient of the said prize.[2]
See main article: Luigi Pirandello. Luigi Pirandello was an Italian playwright, prose writer and poet. Pirandello wrote more than 100 short stories, 40 plays and seven novels, including The Late Mattia Pascal (1904). Regarded as a major figure in 20th-century theatre, his plays explore psychology, the ego and identity issues and paved the way for absurd theatre in the 1950s. Pirandello's first major play Right You Are (if You Think You Are) (1917) explored his lifelong subject of the relativity of truth. In the experimental metaplay Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) Pirandello contrasted art and life. It was followed by the tragedy Henry IV (1922). Other plays include Each in His Own Way (1924) and Tonight We Improvise (1930).[3] [4]
Luigi Pirandello had not been nominated for the prize before 1934, making it one of the rare occasions when an author have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year they were first nominated.[5] He was nominated only by 1909 Nobel laureate in Physics Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), who serves as the President of Arts Class at the Royal Academy of Italy.[6]
Other nominated authors in 1934 included António Correia de Oliveira, Eugene O'Neill (awarded in 1936), Roger Martin du Gard (awarded in 1937), Frans Eemil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939), Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944), Karel Capek, Kostis Palamas, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Francisco García Calderón, Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício, Olav Duun and Upton Sinclair.[7]
The authors Mary Hunter Austin, Hermann Bahr, Safvet-beg Bašagić, Andrei Bely, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Gheorghe Bogdan-Duică, Edward Bullough, Roger Fry, John Gray, Thomas Anstey Guthrie, Julian Hawthorne, Naitō Konan, Gustave Lanson, Julia Lopes de Almeida, Ferenc Móra, Erich Mühsam, Arthur Wing Pinero, Thorne Smith, Jakob Wassermann, Brand Whitlock and Paul Zarifopol died in 1934 without having been nominated for the prize.
| scope=col | No. | scope=col | Nominee | scope=col | Country | scope=col | Genre(s) | scope=col | Nominator(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) | poetry | ||||||||
| Francisco García Calderón Rey (1883–1953) |  Peru | drama, essays, philosophy | |||||||
| Ventura García Calderón (1886–1959) | Peru | novel, short story, drama, poetry, essays | |||||||
| Bertel Gripenberg (1878–1947) |  Finland Sweden | poetry, drama, essays | Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940) | ||||||
| Ole Hallesby (1879–1961) |  Norway | theology, essays | Olai Skulerud (1881–1963) | ||||||
| Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) | Finland | poetry, novel | Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940) | ||||||
| Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) |  Denmark | novel, short story, poetry | Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen (1881–1977) | ||||||
| Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1878–1962) |  Austria | novel, short story, poetry, drama | members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences | ||||||
| Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) | Finland | novel, short story, poetry | |||||||
| Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) |  United States | novel, short story, drama, autobiography, essays | |||||||
| Ewald Sundberg (1886–1967) | Norway | essays | Olai Skulerud (1881–1963) |
At the award ceremony on 10 December 1934, Per Hallström, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said: