1955 Nobel Prize in Literature
Halldór Kiljan Laxness
"for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland."
Date
  • 6 October 1955 (announcement)
  • 10 December 1955
    (ceremony)
LocationStockholm, Sweden
Presented bySwedish Academy
First awarded1901
WebsiteOfficial website

The 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Icelandic writer Halldór Kiljan Laxness (1902–1998) "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland."[1] He is the first and only Icelandic recipient of the Nobel prize in all categories. The literary critic Sveinn Hoskuldsson described him, saying:

"His chief literary works belong to the genre... [of] narrative prose fiction. In the history of our literature Laxness is mentioned beside Snorri Sturluson, the author of "Njals saga", and his place in world literature is among writers such as Cervantes, Zola, Tolstoy, and Hamsun... He is the most prolific and skillful essayist in Icelandic literature both old and new..."[2]

Laureate

Halldór Laxness wrote novels, poetry, journalism, essays and plays. The conventional Icelandic saga influenced Laxness, best known for three series of books that are set in Iceland and in some way incorporate social realism and were written in the 1930s. Salka Valka: A Novel of Iceland (1931–1932), a two part series that describes life in an Icelandic fishing village; Sjálfstaett fólk: Hetjusaga ("Independent People: An Epic", 1934–35), a two part series about crofters on the moor; and Heimsljós ("World Light", 1937–1940), a four-part series based on the life of poet Magnus Hjaltason Magnusson. His other famous works include Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír ("The Great Weaver from Kashmir", 1927), Atómstöðin ("The Atom Station", 1948), Brekkukotsannáll ("The Fish Can Sing", 1957), and Kristnihald undir Jökli ("Christianity at Glacier", 1968).[3][4]

Deliberations

Nominations

In total, the Nobel Committee received 59 nominations for 46 writers. 17 of the nominees were newly nominated including Ezra Pound, Edith Sitwell, Adriaan Roland Holst, William Somerset Maugham, Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975), Henri Bosco, Ernst Robert Curtius, Giorgos Seferis (awarded in 1963), Saint-John Perse (awarded in 1960), Carlos Vaz Ferreira, and Giovanni Papini. Three of the nominees were women namely the British critic Edith Sitwell, the Estonian poet Marie Under, and the Danish author Karen Blixen.[5]

The authors James Agee, Ruby Mildred Ayres, Gilbert Cannan, Dale Carnegie, Beatrice Chase, Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, Constance Holme, Hong Shen, Mariano Latorre, Roger Mais, Saadat Hasan Manto, Adrienne Monnier, Robert Riskin, Robert E. Sherwood, Alexandru Teodor Stamatiad, Wallace Stevens, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Augustin Josip Ujević died in 1955 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 Mark Aldanov (1886–1957)  Soviet Union
( Ukraine)
 France		 biography, novel, essays, literary criticism Samson Soloveitchik (1887–1974)
2 Eugène Baie (1874–1964)  Belgium law, essays Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium
3 Julien Benda (1867–1956)  France novel, philosophy, essays, literary criticism Holger Sten (1907–1971)
4 Gottfried Benn (1886–1956)  Germany poetry, essays Bertil Malmberg (1889–1958)
5 Karen Blixen (1885–1962)  Denmark novel, short story, memoir Nils Ahnlund (1889–1957)
6 Henri Bosco (1888–1976)  France novel, short story Raymond Las Vergnas (1902–1994)
7 Arthur Bryant (1899–1985)  United Kingdom history Eric Reginald Vincent (1894–1978)
8 Albert Camus (1913–1960)  France
( Algeria)		 novel, short story, essays, philosophy, drama
9 Hans Carossa (1878–1956)  Germany poetry, autobiography, essays Maurice Le Boucher (1882–1964)
10 Paul Claudel (1868–1955)  France poetry, drama, essays, memoir Erik Hjalmar Linder (1906–1994)
11 Ernst Robert Curtius (1886–1956)  Germany philology, literary criticism Max Vasmer (1886–1962)
12 Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)  France novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism
13 Johan Falkberget (1879–1967)  Norway novel, short story, essays
14 Lion Feuchtwanger (1884–1958)  Germany novel, drama Victor Klemperer (1881–1960)
15 Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970)  United Kingdom novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism Denys Page (1908–1978)
16 Robert Frost (1874–1963)  United States poetry, drama Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–1972)
17 Igor Gouzenko (1919–1982)  Soviet Union
 Canada		 novel, essays
18 Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889–1975)  Iceland novel, short story, poetry
19 Leslie Poles Hartley (1895–1972)  United Kingdom novel, short story, essays Geoffrey Tillotson (1905–1969)
20 Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)  United Kingdom novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophy Geoffrey Bullough (1901–1982)
21 Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958)  Spain poetry, novel Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961)
22 Rudolf Kassner (1873–1959)  Austria philosophy, essays, translation The Austrian PEN-Club
23 Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957)  Greece novel, philosophy, essays, drama, memoir, translation
  • Lorentz Eckhoff (1884–1974)
  • Society of Men of Letters of Greece
24 Halldór Laxness (1902–1998)  Iceland novel, short story, drama, poetry
25 André Malraux (1901–1976)  France novel, essays, literary criticism Gladys Turquet-Milnes (1887–1977)
26 William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)  United Kingdom novel, short story, drama, essays Geoffrey Bullough (1901–1982)
27 Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968)  Spain philology, history
  • Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973)
  • Rudolf Grossmann (1892–1980)
28 Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)  Italy poetry, translation Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)
29 Alberto Moravia (1907–1990)  Italy novel, literary criticism, essays, drama Carlo Dionisotti (1908–1998)
30 Seán O'Casey (1880–1964)  Ireland drama, memoir Una Ellis-Fermor (1894–1958)
31 Giovanni Papini (1881–1956)  Italy essays, novel, short story, poetry, literary criticism, philosophy Henri de Ziégler (1885–1970)
32 Saint-John Perse (1887–1975)  France poetry
33 Ezra Pound (1885–1972)  United States poetry, essays Constantine Athanasius Trypanis (1909–1993)
34 Adriaan Roland Holst (1888–1976)  Netherlands poetry Jan Kamerbeek Jr. (1905–1977)
35 Jules Romains (1885–1972)  France poetry, drama, screenplay Alfred Jolivet (1885–1966)
36 Reinhold Schneider (1903–1958)  Germany poetry, novel, drama, essays Eduard von Jan (1885–1971)
37 Giorgos Seferis (1900–1971)  Greece poetry, memoir, essays Romilly Jenkins (1907–1969)
38 Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984)  Soviet Union novel Sergei Sergeyev-Tsensky (1875–1958)
39 Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)  United Kingdom poetry, essays, memoir Gladys Doidge Willcock (?)
40 Gustav Suits (1883–1956)  Soviet Union
( Estonia)		 poetry, essays William Kleesmann Matthews (1901–1958)
41 George Macauley Trevelyan (1876–1962)  United Kingdom biography, autobiography, essays, history Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
42 Marie Under (1883–1980)  Soviet Union
( Estonia)		 poetry William Kleesmann Matthews (1901–1958)
43 Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888–1970)  Italy poetry, essays, literary criticism
44 Carlos Vaz Ferreira (1872–1958)  Uruguay philosophy, law, essays Academia Nacional de Letras
45 Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)  Norway poetry, novel Sigmund Skard (1903–1995)
46 Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971)  Netherlands novel, poetry, essays, translation Jan Kamerbeek Jr. (1905–1977)

Prize decision

Laxness had been a candidate for the prize since 1948. In 1955 he was shortlisted along with Juan Ramón Jiménez (awarded in 1956) and Ramón Menéndez Pidal. A shared prize between Laxness and his countryman Gunnar Gunnarsson was proposed but rejected by the Nobel committee.[6]

The members of the Swedish Academy were divided in support of the final three candidates. Three rounds of voting were required to decide the laureate. On the first voting Jiménez received the highest number of votes, but not the required majority of the votes. On the third voting Laxness received a majority of the votes, 10 votes, and could be declared the winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature.[6]

Award Ceremony

In the presentation address for the Nobel prize Elias Wessén stated:

"He is an excellent painter of Icelandic scenery and settings. Yet this is not what he has conceived of as his chief mission. 'Compassion is the source of the highest poetry. Compassion with Asta Sollilja on earth,' he says in one of his best books… And a social passion underlies everything Halldór Laxness has written. His personal championship of contemporary social and political questions is always very strong, sometimes so strong that it threatens to hamper the artistic side of his work. His safeguard then is the astringent humour which enables him to see even people he dislikes in a redeeming light, and which also permits him to gaze far down into the labyrinths of the human soul."[7]

References

  1. ↑ Nobel Prize in Literature 1955 nobelprize.org
  2. ↑ Sveinn Hoskuldsson, "Scandinavica", 1972 supplement, pp. 1–2
  3. ↑ Halldór Laxness – Facts nobelprize.org
  4. ↑ Halldór Laxness britannica.com
  5. ↑ Nomination archive – 1955 nobelprize.org
  6. 1 2 Lars Lönnroth (8 January 2006). "Nobelpriset gick till sagornas ö". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).
  7. ↑ "1955 Award ceremony speech". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
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