# 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French poet Saint-John Perse (1887–1975) "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time"

## Laureate

Sain-John Perse, pseudonym for Alexis Leger, was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, where his family owned two plantations: a coffee and a sugar plantation. His family went back to France in 1899 and settled in Pau. In 1911, he published his first poetry collection Éloges and Other Poems which was almost completely ignored at the time, and one of the few writers who paid it any attention was Marcel Proust, who praised him as a creative young poet, but afterwards, in 1912, he started earning steady success with the help of Valery Larbaud and André Gide. His poetry, admired especially by literary circles, has been compared to that of Arthur Rimbaud. In 1914, he joined the French diplomatic service and spent many years abroad in various countries. While working as a consul in China, he wrote Anabase ("Anabasis", 1924), an epic poem that puzzled many critics. In 1940, he began a long exile in the U.S. in Washington, D.C. wherein much of his poetry has a profoundly personal tone, as in Exil (1942; "Exile"), Vents (1946; "Winds") and Amers (1957; "Seamarks").

## Deliberations
### Nominations

Saint-John Perse was nominated for the prize 15 times, including one nomination by 1937 Nobel laureate Roger Martin du Gard in 1956 and three nominations by the 1948 Nobel Prize laureate T. S. Eliot in 1955, 1958 and 1960.
In total, the Nobel committee received 70 nominations including nominations for 58 authors, including Ivo Andric (awarded in 1961), John Steinbeck (awarded in 1962), Jean-Paul Sartre (awarded in 1964), Robert Frost, André Malraux, Romulo Gallegos, Aldous Huxley, Louis Aragon, Johan Falkberget, Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Alberto Moravia, Ignazio Silone, Ezra Pound, Julien Gracq, E. M. Forster, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Junichiro Tanizaki, Miguel Torga and Tarjei Vesaas. Fourteen of the nominees were newly nominated namely Heinrich Böll (awarded in 1972), Wesley LaViolette, Aquilino Ribeiro, Marie Noël, Jean Price-Mars, James Thurber, Franz Theodor Csokor, Stratis Myrivilis, Elias Venezis, Aksel Sandemose, John Boyton Priestley and René Char. There were only four women nominated namely Maria Dąbrowska, Marie Noël, Juana de Ibarbourou and Karen Blixen.
The authors Sibilla Aleramo, Vicki Baum, Ya'akov Cahan, Ralph Chubb, Hjalmar Dahl, Harold Lenoir Davis, Leonora Eyles, Paul Fort, Ethel Voynich, Ferdynand Goetel, Sigurd Hoel, Zora Neale Hurston, Raïssa Maritain, Elsie J. Oxenham, Pierre Reverdy, Nevil Shute, Tetsuro Watsuji and Richard Wright died in 1960 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 | Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) | Yugoslavia | novel, short story, poetry | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)Harry Martinson (1904–1978)Association of Writers of Yugoslavia |
| 2 | Louis Aragon (1897–1982) | France | novel, short story, poetry, essays | Henry Olsson (1896–1985) |
| 3 | Werner Bergengruen (1892–1964) | West Germany | novel, short story, poetry | Wolfgang Stammler (1886–1965) |
| 4 | Karen Blixen (1885–1962) | Denmark | novel, short story, memoir | Günther Jungbluth (1912–1976) |
| 5 | Heinrich Böll (1917–1985) | West Germany | novel, short story | Gustav Korlén (1915–2014) |
| 6 | René Char (1907–1988) | France | poetry | Georges Blin (1917–2005) |
| 7 | Franz Theodor Csokor (1885–1969) | Austria | drama, essays, poetry, autobiography | The Austrian PEN-Club |
| 8 | Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965) | Poland | novel, short story, essays, drama, literary criticism | The Polish PEN-Club |
| 9 | Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972) | France | essays, novel, drama | Henri Morier (1910–2004) |
| 10 | Gonzague de Reynold (1880–1970) | Switzerland | history, essays, biography, memoir | Swiss Writers Association |
| 11 | Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) | Norway | novel, short story, essays | Johannes Andreasson Dale (1898–1975)Harald Bayer (1891–1960)Hans Heiberg (1904–1978)Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) |
| 12 | Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) | United Kingdom | novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 13 | Robert Frost (1874–1963) | United States | poetry, drama | Walter Havighurst (1901–1994)Nils Erik Enkvist (1925–2009)Hans Galinsky (1909–1991) |
| 14 | Christopher Fry (1907–2005) | United Kingdom | poetry, drama, screenplay | Arthur Henkel (1915–2005) |
| 15 | Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969) | Venezuela | novel, short story | Several South American proposersThe Brazilian PEN-Club |
| 16 | Armand Godoy (1880–1964) | Cuba France | poetry, translation | Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876–1973) |
| 17 | Julien Gracq (1910–2007) | France | novel, poetry, drama, literary criticism | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 18 | Robert Graves (1895–1985) | United Kingdom | history, novel, poetry, literary criticism, essays | Johannes Edfelt (1904–1997)Johannes Andreasson Dale (1898–1975) |
| 19 | Graham Greene (1904–1991) | United Kingdom | novel, short story, autobiography, essays | Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) |
| 20 | Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889–1975) | Iceland | novel, short story, poetry | Stellan Arvidson (1902–1997) |
| 21 | Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) | West Germany | philosophy, essays | Paul Böckmann (1899–1987) |
| 22 | Taha Hussein (1889–1973) | Egypt | novel, short story, poetry, translation | Olle Hedberg (1899–1974) |
| 23 | Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) | United Kingdom | novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophy | R. Fricker (?) |
| 24 | Juana de Ibarbourou (1892–1979) | Uruguay | poetry, essays | Academia Cubana de la Lengua |
| 25 | Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) | West Germany Switzerland | philosophy | Hermann Kasack (1896–1966)Erich Kästner (1899–1974) |
| 26 | Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) | Yugoslavia | poetry, drama, short story, novel, essays | Association of Writers of Yugoslavia |
| 27 | Wesley LaViolette (1894–1978) | United States | poetry, essays | Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (1909–1992) |
| 28 | Wilhelm Lehmann (1882–1968) | Venezuela West Germany | novel, short story, poetry, essays | Friedrich Sengle (1909–1994) |
| 29 | André Malraux (1901–1976) | France | novel, essays, literary criticism | Claude Digeon (1920–2008) |
| 30 | Max Mell (1882–1971) | Austria | drama, novel, screenplay | Otto Höfler (1901–1987)Rudolf Jagoditsch (1892–1976) |
| 31 | Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) | Spain | philology, history | Academia Argentina de LetrasJules Horrent (1920–1981)Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973) |
| 32 | Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) | Italy | novel, literary criticism, essays, drama | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 33 | Stratis Myrivilis (1890–1969) | Greece | novel, short story | The Greek Authors' Union |
| 34 | Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982) | Japan | poetry, literary criticism | Naoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979) |
| 35 | Marie Noël (1883–1967) | France | poetry, autobiography | Maurice Bémol (1900–1961) |
| 36 | Saint-John Perse (1887–1975) | France | poetry | Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 37 | Ezra Pound (1885–1972) | United States | poetry, essays | Ingvar Andersson (1899–1974) |
| 38 | Jean Price-Mars (1876–1969) | Haiti | essays, philosophy | Henri Daniel-Rops (1901–1965)Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) |
| 39 | John Boynton Priestley (1894–1984) | United Kingdom | novel, drama, screenplay, literary criticism, essays | G. Wilson Knight (1897–1985) |
| 40 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) | India | philosophy, essays, law | Nirmal Kumar Sidhanta (1929–2014) |
| 41 | Aquilino Ribeiro (1885–1963) | Portugal | novel, short story, biography, literary criticism, memoir, translation | Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores |
| 42 | Mario Roques (1875–1961) | Peru France | history, philology, essays | Ida-Marie Frandon (1907–1997) |
| 43 | Aksel Sandemose (1899–1965) | Denmark Norway | novel, essays | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 44 | Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) | France | philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay | Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) |
| 45 | Rudolf Alexander Schröder (1878–1962) | West Germany | poetry, songwriting, translation | Erich Kästner (1899–1974) |
| 46 | Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) | Italy | novel, short story, essays, drama | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) |
| 47 | John Steinbeck (1902–1968) | United States | novel, short story, screenplay | Henry Olsson (1896–1985) |
| 48 | Jules Supervielle (1884–1960) | France Uruguay | poetry, novel, short story | Jean Fabre (1904–1974) |
| 49 | Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965) | Japan | novel, short story | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 50 | Herman Teirlinck (1879–1967) | Belgium | novel, poetry, essays, drama | Theodor Frings (1886–1968) |
| 51 | James Thurber (1894–1961) | United States | essays, short story, drama | Robert Henry Elias (1914–2008)Arthur Mizener (1907–1988)Stephen Emerson Whicher (1915–1961) |
| 52 | Miguel Torga (1907–1995) | Portugal | poetry, short story, novel, drama, autobiography | Several professorsÉmile Planchard (1905–1990) |
| 53 | George Macauley Trevelyan (1876–1962) | United Kingdom | biography, autobiography, essays, history | Harry Martinson (1904–1978) |
| 54 | Elias Venezis (1904–1973) | Greece | novel, short story | Stylianos Kapsomenos (1907–1978)Nikolaos Andriōtēs (1906–1976)Emmanuel Kriaras (1906–2014)The Greek Authors' Union |
| 55 | Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) | Norway | poetry, novel | Sigmund Skard (1903–1995) |
| 56 | Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) | Netherlands | novel, poetry, essays, translation | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 57 | Heimito von Doderer (1896–1966) | Austria | novel, short story, poetry, essays | Ernst Alker (1895–1972) |
| 58 | Karl Heinrich Waggerl (1897–1973) | Austria | novel, short story, poetry, essays | Friedrich Wild (1888–1966) |

## Award ceremony

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1960, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said:
   One can only admire the integrity of his poetic attitude, the lofty insistence with which he perseveres in the only mode of expression that allows him to realize his intentions, an exclusive but always pertinent form. The inexhaustible luxuriance of the picturesque style of his rhapsodies is intellectually demanding and may weary the reader of whom the poet demands such efforts of concentration. He takes his metaphors from all disciplines, from all eras, from all mythologies, from all regions; his cycles of poems call to mind those great sea shells from which a cosmic music seems to emanate. This expansive imagination is his strength. Exile, separation – evocations whose voiceless murmur gives his poetry its general tonality; and through the double theme of man’s strength and helplessness a heroic appeal can be perceived, an appeal which is perhaps expressed more distinctly than before in the poet’s latest work, Chronique (Chronicle), 1960, filled with a breath of grandeur, in which the poet recapitulates everything, at the end of the day, while making veiled allusions to the present state of the world. And he even makes a prophetic appeal to Europe to have it consider this fateful moment, this turning point in the course of history. The poem ends with these words: “Great age, here we are. Take measure of the heart of man”.