1957 Nobel Prize in Literature explained

1957 Nobel Prize in Literature
Subheader:	Albert Camus
Presenter:	Swedish Academy
Year:	1901
Holder Label:	1957 laureate
Date:	17 October 1957 (announcement) 10 December 1957 (ceremony)
Location:	Stockholm
Country:	Sweden
Previous:	1956
Main:	Nobel Prize in Literature
Next:	1958

The 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the French writer Albert Camus (1913–1960) "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times."^[1] He is the ninth French author to become a recipient of the prize after Catholic novelist François Mauriac in 1952, and the fourth philosopher after British analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1950.

Aged 44 when he received the prize, Camus is the second youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after only Rudyard Kipling (41).^[2]

Laureate

See main article: article and Albert Camus. Camus made his debut as a writer in 1937, but his breakthrough came with the novel L’étranger ("The Stranger"), published in 1942. It concerns the absurdity of life, a theme he returns to in other books, including his philosophical work Le mythe de Sisyphe ("The Myth of Sisyphus", 1942). He also worked as a journalist and playwright with Caligula (1944), which received praises from theatre critics. Because of his friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus was labeled an existentialist, but he preferred not to be linked with any ideology. His other successful novels include La peste ("The Plague", 1947), La chute ("The Fall", 1956), and an unfinished autobiography, Le Premier homme ("The First Man"), was published posthumously.^[3] ^[4]

Deliberations

Nominations

Albert Camus was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature on 11 occasions, the first time in 1949. He was nominated once in 1957 by a French professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature from the Caen University, which he was awarded afterwards.^[5]

In total, the Nobel committee received 66 nominations for 49 writers including Nikos Kazantzakis, E. M. Forster, Alberto Moravia, Georges Duhamel, Jules Romains, Ezra Pound, Saint-John Perse (awarded in 1960), Carlo Levi, Boris Pasternak (awarded in 1958) and Robert Frost.^[6] 12 of the nominees were nominated first-time among them Jean-Paul Sartre (awarded in 1964), Lennox Robinson, Jan Parandowski, Samuel Beckett (awarded in 1969), Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, André Chamson, Väinö Linna and Carlo Levi. The nominee with the highest number of nominations – 4 nominations – was for André Malraux. Four of the nominees were women namely Gertrud von Le Fort, Karen Blixen, Henriette Charasson, and Maria Dąbrowska.

The authors Nurullah Ataç, Erich Auerbach, Arturo Barea, Ernst Bertram, Roy Campbell, Joyce Cary, José Lins do Rego, Alfred Döblin, Claude Farrère, Peter Freuchen, Rose Fyleman, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Sacha Guitry, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Eric Alfred Knudsen, Barbu Lăzăreanu, Wyndham Lewis, Malcolm Lowry, Mait Metsanurk, Christopher Morley, Gilbert Murray, Ralph Barton Perry, Clemente Rebora, Aleksey Remizov, Umberto Saba, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa died in 1957 without having been nominated for the prize. French poet Valery Larbaud died before the only chance to be rewarded.

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)		biography, novel, essays, literary criticism	Samson Soloveitchik (1887–1974)
2	Riccardo Bacchelli (1891–1985)	Italy	novel, drama, essays
3	Knuth Becker (1891–1974)	Denmark	poetry, novel	Sven Clausen (1893–1961)
4	Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)	Ireland	novel, drama, poetry	Robert-Léon Wagner (1905–1982)
5	Karen Blixen (1885–1962)	Denmark	novel, short story, memoir
6	Albert Camus (1913–1960)		novel, short story, essays, philosophy, drama	Sylvère Monod (1921–2006)
7	André Chamson (1900–1983)		novel, essays	Jean-Baptiste Fort (?)
8	Henriette Charasson (1884–1972)		poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography	Serge Barrault (1887–1976)
9	Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965)		novel, short story, essays, drama, literary criticism	Charles Hyatt (1931–2007)
10	Gonzague de Reynold (1880–1970)	Switzerland	history, essays, biography, memoir	Pierre-Henri Simon (1903–1972)
11	Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972)		essays, novel, drama	Eugène Napoleon Tigerstedt (1907–1979)
12	Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)		novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism	André Plassart (1889–1978)
13	Mircea Eliade (1907–1986)	United States	history, philosophy, essays, autobiography, novel, short story	Ernest Koliqi (1903–1975)
14	Johan Falkberget (1879–1967)	Norway	novel, short story, essays	Norwegian Authors' Union
15	Lion Feuchtwanger (1884–1958)	Germany	novel, drama	Viktor Klemperer (1881–1960)
16	Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970)	United Kingdom	novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism
17	Robert Frost (1874–1963)	United States	poetry, drama	The American PEN-Club
18	Jean Giono (1895–1970)		novel, short story, essays, poetry, drama	Robert-Léon Wagner (1905–1982)
19	Armand Godoy (1880–1964)		poetry, translation
20	Hu Shih (1891–1962)	China	essays, philosophy, history, poetry, pedagogy	The Chinese PEN-Club
21	Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980)		poetry, essays, drama, translation, short story, novel	Charles Hyatt (1931–2007)
22	Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957)		novel, philosophy, essays, drama, memoir, translation
23	Valery Larbaud (1881–1957)		novel, poetry, literary criticism	Pierre Costil (1901–1968)
24	Carlo Levi (1902–1975)	Italy	memoir, novel, short story	Mario Praz (1896–1892)
25	Väinö Linna (1920–1992)	Finland	novel	Rolf Lagerborg (1874–1959)
26	André Malraux (1901–1976)		novel, essays, literary criticism
27	Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973)		philosophy, drama	Charles Dédéyan (1910–2003)
28	Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968)		philology, history
29	Alberto Moravia (1907–1990)	Italy	novel, literary criticism, essays, drama	Gennaro Perrotta (1900–1962)
30	Seán O'Casey (1880–1964)	Ireland	drama, memoir	Oscar Cargill (1898–1972)
31	Jan Parandowski (1895–1978)		essays, translation	Charles Hyatt (1931–2007)
32	Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)		poetry, novel, translation	Harry Martinson (1904–1978)
33	Saint-John Perse (1887–1975)		poetry	Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)
34	Ezra Pound (1885–1972)	United States	poetry, essays	Ingvar Andersson (1899–1974)
35	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)	India	philosophy, essays, law
36	Lennox Robinson (1886–1958)	Ireland	drama, poetry	The Irish PEN-Club
37	Jules Romains (1885–1972)		poetry, drama, screenplay
38	Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)		philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay	Jacques Scherer (1912–1997)
39	Zalman Shneour (1887–1959)	United States	poetry, essays	Simon Rawidowicz (1897–1957)
40	Ignazio Silone (1900–1978)	Italy	novel, short story, essays, drama	Gennaro Perrotta (1900–1962)
41	Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969)	Belgium	novel, short story
42	Jules Supervielle (1884–1960)	Uruguay	poetry, novel, short story	Maurice Le Boucher (1882–1964)
43	Herman Teirlinck (1879–1967)	Belgium	novel, poetry, essays, drama
44	Frank Thiess (1890–1977)	Germany	novel	Kasimir Edschmid (1890–1966)
45	Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889–1975)	United Kingdom	history, philosophy	Claude Backvis (1910–1998)
46	George Macauley Trevelyan (1876–1962)	United Kingdom	biography, autobiography, essays, history	Elias Wessén (1889–1981)
47	Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)	Norway	poetry, novel	Sigmund Skard (1903–1995)
48	Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971)	Netherlands	novel, poetry, essays, translation	The Belgian PEN-Club
49	Gertrud von Le Fort (1876–1971)	Germany	novel, short story, essays, poetry	Poetry Department of the Prussian Academy of Arts