List of Nobel laureates in Literature
Laureates

List of Nobel laureates in Literature

Section Title: Laureates
Table Section Text: None

Year	Picture	Laureate	Country	Language(s)	Citation	Genre(s)

1901	-	Sully Prudhomme	France	French	"in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect"	poetry, essay

1902	-	Theodor Mommsen	Germany	German	"the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome"	history, law

1903	-	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	Norway	Norwegian	"as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit"	poetry, novel, drama

1904	-	Frédéric Mistral	France	Provençal	"in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist"	poetry, philology

-	José Echegaray	Spain	Spanish	"in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama"	drama

1905	-	Henryk Sienkiewicz	Poland	Polish	"because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer"	novel

1906	-	Giosuè Carducci	Italy	Italian	"not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces"	poetry

1907	-	Rudyard Kipling	United Kingdom	English	"in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration that characterize the creations of this world-famous author"	novel, short story, poetry

1908	-	Rudolf Christoph Eucken	Germany	German	"in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life"	philosophy

1909	-	Selma Lagerlöf	Sweden	Swedish	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"	novel, short story

1910	-	Paul von Heyse	Germany	German	"as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories"	poetry, drama, novel, short story

1911	-	Maurice Maeterlinck	Belgium	French	"in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations"	drama, poetry, essay

1912	-	Gerhart Hauptmann	Germany	German	"primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art"	drama, novel

1913	-	Rabindranath Tagore	India	Bengali and English	"because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West"	poetry, novel, drama, short story, music, essay, philosophy, literary criticism, translation

1914	Not awarded

1915	-	Romain Rolland	France	French	"as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings"	novel

1916	-	Verner von Heidenstam	Sweden	Swedish	"in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature"	poetry, novel

1917	-	Karl Adolph Gjellerup	Denmark	Danish	"for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals"	poetry

-	Henrik Pontoppidan	Denmark	Danish	"for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark"	novel

1918	Not awarded

1919	-	Carl Spitteler	Switzerland	German	"in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring"	poetry

1920	Knut Hamsun.jpeg	Knut Hamsun	Norway	Norwegian	"for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil"	novel

1921	-	Anatole France	France	French	"in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament"	novel, poetry

1922	-	Jacinto Benavente	Spain	Spanish	"for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama"	drama

1923	-	William Butler Yeats	Ireland	English	"for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation"	poetry

1924	-	Władysław Reymont	Poland	Polish	"for his great national epic, The Peasants"	novel

1925	-	George Bernard Shaw	Ireland	English	"for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty"	drama, literary criticism

1926	-	Grazia Deledda	Italy	Italian	"for her idealistically inspired writings, which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general"	poetry, novel

1927	-	Henri Bergson	France	French	"in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented"	philosophy

1928	-	Sigrid Undset	Norway (Born in Denmark)	Norwegian	"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"	novel

1929	-	Thomas Mann	Germany	German	"principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature"	novel, short story, essay

1930	-	Sinclair Lewis	United States	English	"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters"	novel, short story, drama

1931	-	Erik Axel Karlfeldt	Sweden	Swedish	"The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt"	poetry

1932	-	John Galsworthy	United Kingdom	English	"for his distinguished art of narration, which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga"	novel

1933	-	Ivan Bunin	France (Born in Russian Empire)	Russian	"for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing"	short story, poetry, novel

1934	-	Luigi Pirandello	Italy	Italian	"for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"	drama, novel, short story

1935	Not awarded

1936	-	Eugene O'Neill	United States	English	"for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy"	drama

1937	-	Roger Martin du Gard	France	French	"for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel cycle Les Thibault"	novel

1938	-	Pearl S. Buck	United States	English	"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"	novel, biography

1939	-	Frans Eemil Sillanpää	Finland	Finnish	"for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature"	novel

1940	Not awarded

1941	Not awarded

1942	Not awarded

1943	Not awarded

1944	-	Johannes Vilhelm Jensen	Denmark	Danish	"for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style"	novel, short story

1945	-	Gabriela Mistral	Chile	Spanish	"for her lyric poetry, which inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world"	poetry

1946	-	Hermann Hesse	Switzerland (Born in Germany)	German	"for his inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"	novel, poetry

1947	-	André Gide	France	French	"for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight"	novel, essay

1948	-	T. S. Eliot	United Kingdom (Born in the United States)	English	"for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry"	poetry

1949	-	William Faulkner	United States	English	"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"	novel, short story

1950	-	Bertrand Russell	United Kingdom	English	"in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"	philosophy

1951	-	Pär Lagerkvist	Sweden	Swedish	"for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind"	poetry, novel, short story, drama

1952	-	François Mauriac	France	French	"for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life"	novel, short story

1953	-	Winston Churchill	United Kingdom	English	"for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values"	history, essay, memoirs

1954	-	Ernest Hemingway	United States	English	"for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style"	novel, short story, screenplay

1955	-	Halldór Laxness	Iceland	Icelandic	"for his vivid epic power, which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland"	novel, short story, drama, poetry

1956	JRJimenez.JPG	Juan Ramón Jiménez	Spain	Spanish	"for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity"	poetry

1957	-	Albert Camus	France (Born in French Algeria)	French	"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times"	novel, short story, drama, philosophy, essay

1958	-	Boris Pasternak	Soviet Union	Russian	"for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition"	novel, poetry, translation

1959	-	Salvatore Quasimodo	Italy	Italian	"for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"	poetry

1960	-	Saint-John Perse	France (Born in Guadeloupe)	French	"for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry, which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"	poetry

1961	-	Ivo Andrić	Yugoslavia (Born in Austria-Hungary)	Serbo-Croatian	"for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"	novel, short story

1962	JohnSteinbeck crop.JPG	John Steinbeck	United States	English	"for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception"	novel, short story, screenplay

1963	-	Giorgos Seferis	Greece (Born in the Ottoman Empire)	Greek	"for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture"	poetry, essay, memoirs

1964	Jean-Paul Sartre FP.JPG	Jean-Paul Sartre	France	French	"for his work, which rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age"	novel, short story, philosophy, drama, literary criticism, screenplay

1965	-	Mikhail Sholokhov	Soviet Union	Russian	"for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people"	novel

1966	-	Shmuel Yosef Agnon	Israel (Born in Austria-Hungary)	Hebrew	"for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people"	novel, short story

-	Nelly Sachs	Sweden (Born in Germany)	German	"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"	poetry, drama

1967	MiguelAngelAsturias.JPG	Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala	Spanish	"for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America"	novel, poetry

1968	-	Yasunari Kawabata	Japan	Japanese	"for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind"	novel, short story

1969	-	Samuel Beckett	Ireland	English and French	"for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"	novel, drama, poetry

1970	-	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Soviet Union	Russian	"for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature"	novel

1971	-	Pablo Neruda	Chile	Spanish	"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams"	poetry

1972	-	Heinrich Böll	West Germany	German	"for his writing, which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature"	novel, short story

1973	-	Patrick White	Australia (Born in the United Kingdom)	English	"for an epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent into literature"	novel, short story, drama

1974	Eyvind.JPG	Eyvind Johnson	Sweden	Swedish	"for a narrative art, farseeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom"	novel

-	Harry Martinson	Sweden	Swedish	"for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos"	poetry, novel, drama

1975	-	Eugenio Montale	Italy	Italian	"for his distinctive poetry, which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"	poetry

1976	-	Saul Bellow	United States (Born in Canada)	English	"for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work"	novel, short story

1977	-	Vicente Aleixandre	Spain	Spanish	"for a creative poetic writing, which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars"	poetry

1978	-	Isaac Bashevis Singer	United States Poland	Yiddish	"for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life"	novel, short story, memoirs

1979	-	Odysseas Elytis	Greece	Greek	"for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness"	poetry, essay

1980	-	Czesław Miłosz	Poland	Polish	"who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts"	poetry, essay

1981	-	Elias Canetti	United Kingdom (Born in Bulgaria)	German	"for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power"	novel, drama, memoirs, essay

1982	-	Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia	Spanish	"for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts"	novel, short story, screenplay

1983	-	William Golding	United Kingdom	English	"for his novels, which with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today"	novel, poetry, drama

1984	-	Jaroslav Seifert	Czechoslovakia (Born in Austria-Hungary)	Czech	"for his poetry, which endowed with freshness, and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man"	poetry

1985	-	Claude Simon	France (Born in French Madagascar)	French	"who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition"	novel

1986	-	Wole Soyinka	Nigeria	English	"who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence"	drama, novel, poetry

1987	-	Joseph Brodsky	United States (Born in the Soviet Union)	Russian and English	"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity"	poetry, essay

1988	-	Naguib Mahfouz	Egypt	Arabic	"who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"	novel

1989	-	Camilo José Cela	Spain	Spanish	"for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability"	novel, short story

1990	-	Octavio Paz	Mexico	Spanish	"for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity"	poetry, essay

1991	Nadine Gordimer 01.JPG	Nadine Gordimer	South Africa	English	"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"	novel, short story, essay

1992	-	Derek Walcott	Saint Lucia	English	"for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment"	poetry, drama

1993	-	Toni Morrison	United States	English	"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"	novel

1994	-	Kenzaburō Ōe	Japan	Japanese	"who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today"	novel, short story

1995	-	Seamus Heaney	Ireland (Born in Northern Ireland)	English	"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past"	poetry

1996	-	Wisława Szymborska	Poland	Polish	"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality"	poetry

1997	-	Dario Fo	Italy	Italian	"who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"	drama

1998	-	José Saramago	Portugal	Portuguese	"who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality"	novel, drama, poetry

1999	-	Günter Grass	Germany	German	"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history"	novel, drama, poetry

2000	-	Gao Xingjian	France (since 1998) China (1940–1998)	Chinese	"for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama"	novel, drama, literary criticism

2001	-	V. S. Naipaul	United Kingdom (Born in Trinidad & Tobago)	English	"for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"	novel, essay

2002	Imre Kertész (1929-) Hungarian writer II. by Csaba Segesvári.JPG	Imre Kertész	Hungary	Hungarian	"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"	novel

2003	J.M. Coetzee.JPG	J. M. Coetzee	Australia South Africa	English	"who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"	novel, essay, translation

2004	-	Elfriede Jelinek	Austria	German	"for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power"	novel, drama

2005	-	Harold Pinter	United Kingdom	English	"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"	drama, screenplay

2006	-	Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	Turkish	"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"	novel, screenplay, essay

2007	-	Doris Lessing	United Kingdom Zimbabwe (Born in Iran)	English	"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"	novel, drama, poetry, short story, memoirs

2008	-	J. M. G. Le Clézio	France Mauritius	French	"author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"	novel, short story, essay, translation

2009	-	Herta Müller	Germany (Born in Romania)	German	"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"	novel, poetry

2010	-	Mario Vargas Llosa	Peru Spain	Spanish	"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"	novel, short story, essay, drama, memoirs

2011	-	Tomas Tranströmer	Sweden	Swedish	"because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality"	poetry, translation

2012	-	Mo Yan	China	Chinese	"who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"	novel, short story

2013	-	Alice Munro	Canada	English	"master of the contemporary short story"	short story

2014	-	Patrick Modiano	France	French	"for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation"	novel

2015	-	Svetlana Alexievich	Belarus (Born in the Soviet Union)	Russian	"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"	history, essay

2016	-	Bob Dylan	United States	English	"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"	poetry, songwriting

2017	-	Kazuo Ishiguro	United Kingdom (born in Japan)	English	"who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world"	novel

2018	Postponed until 2019

Sentence(s)

The Forsyte Saga earned John Galsworthy the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.

final_sentence: The Forsyte Saga earned John Galsworthy the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.