# 1943 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1943 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded due to the ongoing World War II. Instead, the prize money was allocated with 1/3 to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section. This was the seventh occasion in Nobel history that the prize was not conferred.

## Nominations

Despite no author(s) being awarded for the 1941 prize due to the ongoing second world war, a number of literary critics, societies and academics continued sending nominations to the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy, hoping that their nominated candidate may be considered for the prize. In total, the academy received 21 nominations for 20 writers.
Five of the nominees were newly nominated namely Sri Aurobindo, John Steinbeck (awarded in 1962), Franz Werfel, Elisaveta Bagryana, and Franz Hellens. The highest number of nominations – two nominations – was for the Danish author Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, who was awarded in 1944. Four of the nominees were women namely Gabriela Mistral (awarded in 1945), Elisaveta Bagryana, Henriette Charasson, and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício.
The authors Carlos Arniches, Stephen Vincent Benét, Laurence Binyon, Pieter Cornelis Boutens, Robin George Collingwood, Virgilio Dávila, Jovan Dučić, Louis Esson, Nordahl Grieg, Radclyffe Hall, Georg Hermann, Ida Lee, Guido Mazzoni, Arthur Mee, Beatrix Potter, Susan Stebbing, Helene Stöcker, Annie S. Swan, Frida Uhl, Else Ury, Beatrice Webb, and Simone Weil died in 1943 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 | Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) | India | philosophy, poetry, essays | Francis Younghusband (1863–1942) |
| 2 | Elisaveta Bagryana (1893–1991) | Bulgaria | poetry, translation | Stefan Mladenov (1880–1963) |
| 3 | Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) | Soviet Union ( Ukraine) | philosophy, theology | Alf Nyman (1884–1968) |
| 4 | René Béhaine (1880–1966) | France | novel, short story, essays | Maurice Mignon (1882–1962) |
| 5 | Edmund Blunden (1896–1974) | United Kingdom | poetry, essays, biography | Heinrich Wolfgang Donner (1904-1980) |
| 6 | Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) | France | poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography | Pierre Fernessole (1879–1965) |
| 7 | Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) | Portugal | poetry, essays | António Baião (1878–1961) |
| 8 | Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877–1952) | Portugal | poetry | João António Mascarenhas Júdice (1898–1957) |
| 9 | Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) | France | novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 10 | Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) | Denmark | history, essays, poetry | Sven Lönborg (1871–1959) |
| 11 | Franz Hellens (1881–1972) | Belgium | novel, poetry, literary criticism | Gustave Charlier (1885–1959) |
| 12 | Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) | Netherlands | history | Willem van Eysinga (1878–1961) |
| 13 | Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) | Denmark | novel, short story, essays | Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953) |
| 14 | Enrique Larreta (1875–1961) | Argentina | history, essays, drama, novel | Anders Österling (1884–1981) |
| 15 | Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957) | Chile | poetry | Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) |
| 16 | Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894–1958) | United Kingdom | drama, novel, essays, poetry | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 17 | Carlos María Ocantos (1860–1949) | Argentina | novel, short story, essays | Salvador Bermúdez de Castro (1863–1945) |
| 18 | John Steinbeck (1902–1968) | United States | novel, short story, screenplay | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) |
| 19 | Paul Valéry (1871–1945) | France | poetry, philosophy, essays, drama | Ernst Bendz (1880–1966) |
| 20 | Franz Werfel (1890–1945) | Czechoslovakia | novel, short story, drama, poetry | Anders Österling (1884–1981) |