# 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French author Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) "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".

## Laureate

Roger Martin du Gard was awarded for the then seven-part (a final eight part was later published) novel cycle Les Thibault (1922-1940), that chronicles a family of the bourgeoisie from the turn of the 19th century to World War I. His other work includes the novel Jean Barois (1913) that deals with the conflict between the Roman catholic faith of his childhood and the scientific materialism of his maturity and the impact of the Dreyfus affair on the protagonist, sketches of French country life in Vielle France ("Old France", 1933), a study of the author and his friend André Gide (Notes sur André Gide, 1951), and dramas.

### Les Thibault

The multi-volume roman-fleuve Les Thibault influenced the Nobel Committee in awarding Du Gard the 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature. It follows intricately the fortunes of two brothers, Antoine and Jacques Thibault, from their upbringing in a prosperous Catholic bourgeois family to the end of the First World War. The novel was admired by authors like André Gide, Albert Camus, Clifton Fadiman, and Georg Lukacs. In contrast, Mary McCarthy called it "a work whose learned obtuseness is, so far as I know, unequaled in fiction."

## Deliberations
### Nominations

Roger Martin du Gard had been nominated for the prize five times since 1934. In 1937, the Nobel committee received 62 nominations for 37 writers including Frans Emil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939), Paul Valéry, Paul Claudel, Kostis Palamas, António Correia de Oliveira, Bertel Gripenberg, Karel Capek and Georges Duhamel. Fourteen were newly nominated such as Stijn Streuvels, Jean Giono, Johan Falkberget, Valdemar Rørdam and Albert Verwey. Most nominations were submitted for the Danish author Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944) with seven nominations. There were seven female nominees namely Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício, Ricarda Huch, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Maila Talvio, Maria Jotuni, Cecile Tormay and Sally Salminen.
The authors Lou Andreas-Salomé, J. M. Barrie, Ellis Parker Butler, Aleksey Chapygin, Ralph Connor, Francis de Croisset, Alberto de Oliveira, John Drinkwater, Florence Dugdale, Edward Garnett, Antonio Gramsci, Frances Nimmo Greene, Ivor Gurney, Elizabeth Haldane, Élie Halévy, W. F. Harvey, Ilya Ilf, Attila József, H. P. Lovecraft, Don Marquis, H. C. McNeile, Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj, Rudolf Otto, Mittie Frances Point (known as Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller), Horacio Quiroga, Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Yevgeny Zamyatin died in 1937 without having been nominated for the prize. The Dutch poet Albert Verwey died before the only chance to be rewarded.
Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize :
| No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
| 1 | René Béhaine (1880–1966) | France | novel, short story, essays | Charles Bruneau (1883–1969)Émile Lasbax (1888–1966)François Dumas (1861–1948) |
| 2 | Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938) | Yugoslavia ( Croatia) | novel, short story | Albert Bazala (1877–1947)Gavro Manojlović (1856–1939) |
| 3 | Paul Claudel (1868–1955) | France | poetry, drama, essays, memoir | Peter Hjalmar Rokseth (1891–1945) |
| 4 | António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) | Portugal | poetry | Luís da Cunha Gonçalvez (1875–1956) |
| 5 | Karel Čapek (1890–1938) | Czechoslovakia | drama, novel, short story, essays, literary criticism | Josef Šusta (1874–1945) |
| 6 | Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) | Portugal | poetry, essays | António Baião (1878–1961) |
| 7 | Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) | France | novel, drama, memoir | Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941) |
| 8 | Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) | France | novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941) |
| 9 | Olav Duun (1876–1939) | Norway | novel, short story | Helga Eng (1875–1966) |
| 10 | Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) | Norway | novel, short story, essays | Fredrik Paasche (1886–1943) |
| 11 | Jean Giono (1895–1970) | France | novel, short story, essays, poetry, drama | Léon Wencelius (1900–1971)Marcel Cohen (1884–1974) |
| 12 | Bertel Gripenberg (1878–1947) | Finland Sweden | poetry, drama, essays | Magnus Hammarström (1893–1941) |
| 13 | Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) | Denmark | history, essays, poetry | William Norvin (1878–1940) |
| 14 | Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) | Finland | poetry, novel | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 15 | Ricarda Huch (1864–1947) | Germany | history, essays, novel, poetry | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945)Fritz Strich (1882–1963)27 professors |
| 16 | Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) | Denmark | novel, short story, essays | Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953)Peter Skautrup (1896–1982)Ernst Frandsen (1894–1952)Francis Bull (1887–1974)Jens Thiis (1870–1942)Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen (1881–1977)Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978) |
| 17 | Maria Jotuni (1880–1943) | Finland | drama, novel, short story, essays | Viljo Tarkiainen (1879–1951) |
| 18 | Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) | Germany | philosophy, poetry, essays | Wilhelm Pinder (1878–1947) |
| 19 | Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1878–1962) | Austria | novel, short story, poetry, drama | Heinz Kindermann (1894–1985) |
| 20 | Maurice Magre (1877–1941) | France | novel, poetry, drama | Jules Marsan (1867–1939)Joseph Gheusi (1870–1950) |
| 21 | Bijay Chandra Majumdar (1861–1942) | India | essays | Sen Satyendranath (1909–?) |
| 22 | John Masefield (1878–1967) | United Kingdom | poetry, drama, novel, short story, essays, autobiography | Anders Österling (1884–1981) |
| 23 | Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) | Soviet Union | novel, essays, poetry, drama | Sigurd Agrell (1881–1937) |
| 24 | Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) | Greece | poetry, essays | Nikos Athanasiou Veēs (1882–1958) |
| 25 | Jules Payot (1859–1940) | France | pedagogy, philosophy | Alfred Baudrillart, C.O. (1859–1942) |
| 26 | William Pickard (1889–1973) | United Kingdom | novel, poetry, essays | Arthur Bernard Cook (1868–1952) |
| 27 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) | India | philosophy, essays, law | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 28 | Valdemar Rørdam (1872–1946) | Denmark | poetry, essays | Ejnar Thomsen (1897–1956) |
| 29 | Sally Salminen (1906–1976) | Finland | novel, essays, autobiography | Albert Engström (1869–1940) |
| 30 | Arnold Schering (1877–1941) | Germany | essays | Ilmari Krohn (1867–1960) |
| 31 | Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) | Finland | novel, short story, poetry | 15 Finnish professors and Academy membersJuho Kusti Paasikivi (1870–1956)Yrjö Hirn (1870–1952) |
| 32 | Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969) | Belgium | novel, short story | 5 professors from Belgian Universities64 university lecturers from GermanyLeo Goemans (1869–1955)Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld (1899–1993) |
| 33 | Maila Talvio (1871–1951) | Finland | novel, short story, translation | Ilmari Krohn (1867–1960) |
| 34 | Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875–1943) | Soviet Union Mandatory Palestine | poetry, essays, translation | Joseph Klausner (1874–1958) |
| 35 | Cécile Tormay (1875–1937) | Hungary | novel, short story, essays, translation | Jenö Pintér (1921–1988)János Horváth (1878–1961)Károly Pap (1897–1945)János Hankiss (1893–1959)Fredrik Böök (1883–1961) |
| 36 | Paul Valéry (1871–1945) | France | poetry, philosophy, essays, drama | Gabriel Hanotaux (1853–1944) |
| 37 | Albert Verwey (1865–1937) | Netherlands | poetry, essays, translation | Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck (1887–1954)Cornelis Gerrit Nicolaas de Vooys (1873–1955)Nicolaas Anthony Donkersloot (1902–1965) |