# 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature was the third prestigious literary prize based upon Alfred Nobel's will, which awarded to the Norwegian poet and politician Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910) "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." The prize was announced in October 8, 1903 and was given in December 10, 1903 at Stockholm.

## Laureate

Bjørnson was a Norwegian multifaceted literary person who became one of the original members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, where he sat from 1901 to 1906. He wrote poetry, drama and lyrical poetry. He worked for periods as theater director in both Bergen and Oslo, and he was active both politically and as a journalist. In his early works he depicted peasant life in the Norwegian countryside. This national romanticism was also found in his poetry throughout his career, even if he also wrote both realistic and symbolic dramas. Bjørnson's musical version of the poem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" became Norway's national anthem. He is also considered to be one of the four great Norwegian writers, alongside Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland.

## Deliberations
### Nominations

The Swedish Academy received four nominations – two nominations each in 1902 and 1903 – for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson before getting awarded.
In total, the Nobel Committee received 43 nominations for 25 writers in 1903, including repeated nominations for the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (four nominations) and Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (one nomination), and with new nominations for the English writers Algernon Charles Swinburne and Rudyard Kipling (one nominations each). Kipling would later be awarded in 1907. French writer Anatole France and Fredrik Wulff were the first nominators to nominate a collective group of writers purposely for a shared prize. France nominated Tolstoy, Brandes, and Maeterlinck in one nomination, whereas Wulff nominated Paris and Mistral together.
The authors Ada Ellen Bayly, Nicolaas Beets, Eugenio María de Hostos, Girolamo de Rada, Frederic Farrar, George Gissing, William Ernest Henley, Ernest Legouvé, Vicente Fidel López, Evgeny Markov, Mary Anne Sadlier, Joseph Henry Shorthouse, Joseph Skipsey, Carl Snoilsky, Richard Henry Stoddard, Aleksandr Sukhovo-Kobylin, Wilhelm von Polenz, Sydir Vorobkevych, Otto Weininger, Josefina Wettergrund died in 1903 without having been nominated for the prize.
Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize :
| No. | Nominee | Country | Genre(s) | Nominator(s) |
| 1 | Alexander Baumgartner, S.J. (1841–1910) | Switzerland | poetry, history | Knud Karl Krogh-Tonning (1842–1911) |
| 2 | Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910) | Norway | poetry, novel, drama, short story | Werner Söderhjelm (1859–1931)Karl Johan Warburg (1852–1918) |
| 3 | Georg Brandes (1842–1927) | Denmark | literary criticism, essays | Troels Frederik Lund (1840–1921)Harald Høffding (1843–1931)Vilhelm Thomsen (1842–1927)Edvard Holm (1833–1915)Sophus Müller (1846–1934)Marcus Rubin (1854–1923)Ludvig Wimmer (1839–1920)julius Albert Fridericia (1849–1912)Finnur Jónsson (1858–1934)Kristian Erslev (1852–1930)Peter Christian Kålund (1844–1919)Alfred Lehmann (1858–1921)Frants Buhl (1850–1932)Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1854–1928)Kristoffer Nyrop (1858–1931)Otto Jespersen (1860–1943)Martin Clarentius Gertz (1844–1929)Viggo Fausböll (1821–1908)Anatole France (1844–1924) |
| 4 | Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907) | Italy | poetry, literary criticism, biography, essays | Vittorio Puntoni (1859–1926) |
| 5 | François Coppée (1842–1908) | France | poetry, novel, short story, drama | Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907) |
| 6 | Robert Langton Douglas (1864–1951) | Great Britain | history, essays | Thomas Hodgkin (1831–1913) |
| 7 | José Echegaray Eizaguirre (1832–1916) | Spain | drama | Daniel de Cortázar Larrubia (1844–1927) |
| 8 | Iwan Gilkin (1858–1924) | Belgium | poetry | Eugène Goblet d'Alviella (1846–1925)Ernest Discailles (1837–1914)Thomas Joseph Lamy (1827–1907) |
| 9 | Carl Friedrich Glasenapp (1847–1915) | Germany | biography | Aleksandr Nelidov (1838–1910)Gabriel Monod (1844–1912)Antoni Rubió i Lluch (1856–1937)Kuno Fischer (1824–1907)Henry Thode (1857–1920)Adolf Stern (1835–1907)Felix Dahn (1834–1912)Wolfgang Golther (1863–1945)Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927)Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1848–1913)Andreĭ Aleksandrovich Saburov (1837–1916)Nikodim Kondakov (1844–1925)Anatoly Koni (1844–1927)Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia (1858–1915)Pavel Jankovsky (?) |
| 10 | Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) | Norway | drama | Lorentz Dietrichson (1834–1917) |
| 11 | Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) | Great Britain | short story, novel, poetry | Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) |
| 12 | Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) | Belgium | drama, poetry, essays | Anatole France (1844–1924) |
| 13 | Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo (1856–1912) | Spain | history, philosophy, philology, poetry, translation, literary criticism | Francisco Commelerán Gómez (1848–1919)Miguel Mir Noguera (1841–1912) |
| 14 | George Meredith (1828–1909) | Great Britain | novel, poetry | Nobel Prize Committee of the Society of Authors |
| 15 | Frédéric Mistral (1830–1914) | France | poetry, philology | Fredrik Wulff (1845–1930)Carl Wahlund (1846–1913)Per Geijer (1886–1976)Gaston Paris (1839–1903) |
| 16 | Lewis Morris (1833–1907) | Great Britain | poetry, songwriting, essays | Herbert Warren (1853–1930)John Rhys (1840–1915)Thomas Fowler (1832–1904) |
| 17 | Gaspar Núñez de Arce (1832–1903) | Spain | poetry, drama, law | Mariano Catalina Cobo (1842–1913)Juan Valera y Alcalá-Galiano (1824–1905)Enrique de Saavedra Duque de Rivas (1828–1914) |
| 18 | Gaston Paris (1839–1903) | France | history, poetry, essays | Fredrik Wulff (1845–1930) |
| 19 | Paul Sabatier (1858–1928) | France | history, theology, biography | Carl Bildt (1850–1931) |
| 20 | Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) | Russia ( Poland) | novel | Hans Hildebrand (1842–1913) |
| 21 | Albert Sorel (1842–1906) | France | history, essays | Albert Vandal (1853–1910) |
| 22 | Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) | Great Britain | poetry, drama, literary criticism, novel | Nobel Prize Committee of the Society of Authors |
| 23 | Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) | Russia | novel, short story, drama, poetry | Anatole France (1844–1924)Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907)Ludovic Halévy (1837–1908) |
| 24 | Charles Wagner (1852–1918) | France | theology, philosophy | Gabriel Jean Séailles (1852–1922) |

### Prize decisions

In 1903, four writers were shortlisted during the Nobel committee's deliberations: Maurice Maeterlinck, Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Georg Brandes. Brandes was dismissed for his agnosticism while Maeterlinck was dismissed for being "too obscure, literary motifs of such embarrassing and bizarre nature." Ibsen, on the other hand, was regarded as "too old and burn-out." It was then believed by the Academy that awarding Bjørnson on the basis of his character of having agitated for Norway's independence from Sweden would prove vital later on.