1903 Nobel Prize in Literature
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
"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."
Date
  • 8 October 1903 (announcement)
  • 10 December 1903
    (ceremony)
LocationStockholm, Sweden
Presented bySwedish Academy
First awarded1901
WebsiteOfficial website

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 08, 1903 and was given in December 10, 1903 at Stockholm.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4] 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,[5] whereas Wulff nominated Paris and Mistral together.[6]

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
3 Georg Brandes (1842–1927)  Denmark literary criticism, essays
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
9 Carl Friedrich Glasenapp (1847–1915)  Germany biography
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
16 Lewis Morris (1833–1907)  Great Britain poetry, songwriting, essays
17 Gaspar Núñez de Arce (1832–1903)  Spain poetry, drama, law
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
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.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1903 nobelprize.org
  2. ↑ The Norwegian Nobel Committee Since 1901 nobelprize.org
  3. ↑ Grøndahl, Carl Henrik; Tjomsland, Nina (1978). The Literary masters of Norway: with samples of their works. Tanum-Norli. ISBN 978-82-518-0727-2.
  4. ↑ Nomination archive – 1903 nobelprize.org
  5. ↑ Nomination archive nobelprize.org
  6. ↑ Nomination archive nobelprize.org
  7. ↑ Gustav Källstrand Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia, Fri Tanke 2021
  8. ↑ Helmer Lång, Hundra nobelpris i litteratur 1901-2001, Symposion 2001, p.26 (in Swedish)
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