1962 Nobel Prize in Literature

Award

1962 Nobel Prize in Literature

John Steinbeck

"for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception."

Date|

* 25 October 1962 (announcement)
* 10 December 1962
(ceremony)

Location| Stockholm, Sweden
Presented by| Swedish Academy
First awarded| 1901
Website| Official website
| <- 1961 · | Nobel Prize in Literature | · 1963 ->

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The 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American author John Steinbeck (1902–1968) "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception."[1]

## Laureate

[edit]

Main article: John Steinbeck

Social conditions of migrants and seasonal workers became a recurring theme in Steinbeck's writings and were particularly evident in Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The latter relates how unemployment and abuse of power forced farmers to migrate from Oklahoma to California. Sympathy with the downtrodden and the poor characterizes his writing. It is expressed with a compassionate sense of humor and a sharp eye for social and economic injustices. His other outstanding works include East of Eden (1952), Tortilla Flat (1935) and The Pearl (1947).[2]

## Deliberations

[edit]

### Nominations

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Steinbeck was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on 11 occasions, the first time in 1943. In 1962, the Nobel committee received two nominations for him.[3] Included in the shortlisted nominees were Steinbeck, Robert Graves, Lawrence Durrell, Jean Anouilh, and Karen Blixen. Steinbeck was awarded eventually, but the four never received the prize.[4]

In total, the Swedish Academy received 86 nominations for 66 writers. Fifteen of the nominees were nominated first-time among them William Heinesen, Pietro Ubaldi, Ronald Syme, Carl Zuckmayer, André Schwarz-Bart, Josep Carner and Eyvind Johnson (awarded in 1974). British novelist E. M. Forster earned the highest number of nominations (4 nominations) followed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Dürrenmatt (3 nominations each). Three of the nominees were women namely Karen Blixen, Gertrud von le Fort and Giulia Scappino Murena.[4]

The authors Antonio Acevedo Hernández, Gerrit Achterberg, Richard Aldington, Jean Amrouche, Georges Bataille, Pierre Benoit, E. E. Cummings, Maria Dermoût, Jean Devanny, Mouloud Feraoun, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Mary Gilmore, Patrick Hamilton, Pierre Hamp, Agnes Henningsen, Robinson Jeffers, Helge Krog, Alda Lara, María Rosa Lida de Malkiel, Arthur Oncken Lovejoy, Francisco Méndez, Patrícia Rehder Galvão (known as Pagu), Vita Sackville-West, Hajime Tanabe, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Sandu Tudor, Mohammad Yamin, and Ouyang Yuqian died in 1962 without having been nominated for the prize. Danish author Karen Blixen and German translator Rudolf Alexander Schröder died weeks before the announcement.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize  No.  | Nominee  | Country  | Genre(s)  | Nominator(s)

|
|
|
|

1  | Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)  |  France | drama, screenplay, translation  | Harry Martinson (1904–1978)
2  | Karen Blixen (1885–1962)  |  Denmark | novel, short story, memoir  | Henry Olsson (1896–1985)
3  | Heinrich Böll (1917–1985)  |  Germany | novel, short story  |

* Duncan Mennie (1909–1998)
* Gustav Korlén (1915–2014)

4  | Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)  |  Argentina | poetry, essays, translation, short story  | Henry Olsson (1896–1985)
5  | Martin Buber (1878–1965)  |  Austria
Israel | philosophy  |

* Michael Landmann (1913–1984)
* Elias Wessén (1889–1981)

6  | Josep Carner (1884–1970)  |  Spain | poetry, drama, translation  | Jean Camp (1891–1968)
7  | Franz Theodor Csokor (1885–1969)  |  Austria | drama, essays, poetry, autobiography  | The Austrian PEN-Club
8  | Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)  |  United Kingdom | novel, short story, poetry, drama, essays  |

* Wolfgang Iser (1926–2007)
* Erich Burck (1901–1994)

9  | Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)  |  Switzerland | drama, novel, short story, essays  |

* Friedrich Sengle (1909–1994)
* Jean-Pierre Schmid (1920–1977)
* Bjarne Ulvestad (1922–2004)

10  | Johan Falkberget (1879–1967)  |  Norway | novel, short story, essays  | Johannes Andreasson Dale (1898–1975)
11  | Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970)  |  United Kingdom | novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism  |

* Kurt Wais (1907–1995)
* Simeon Potter (1898–1976)
* The English PEN-Club
* Alfred King (?)

12  | Max Frisch (1911–1991)  |  Switzerland | novel, drama  |

* Hildebrecht Hommel (1899–1986)
* Johannes Holthusen (1924–1985)

13  | Robert Frost (1874–1963)  |  United States | poetry, drama  | Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963)
14  | Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969)  |  Venezuela | novel, short story  | Rudolf Grossmann (1892–1980)
15  | Robert Graves (1895–1985)  |  United Kingdom | history, novel, poetry, literary criticism, essays  | Harry Martinson (1904–1978)
16  | Graham Greene (1904–1991)  |  United Kingdom | novel, short story, autobiography, essays  |

* Robert Niklaus (1910–2001)
* Frede Løkkegaard (1915–1990)

17  | Jorge Guillén (1893–1984)  |  Spain | poetry, literary criticism  | Georges Poulet (1902–1991)
18  | Leslie Poles Hartley (1895–1972)  |  United Kingdom | novel, short story  | Geoffrey Tillotson (1905–1969)
19  | Manfred Hausmann (1898–1986)  |  Germany | novel, short story, poetry, essays  | Heinrich Dörrie (1911–1983)
20  | William Heinesen (1900–1991)  |  Faroe Islands | poetry, short story, novel  | Christian Matras (1900–1988)
21  | Taha Hussein (1889–1973)  |  Egypt | novel, short story, poetry, translation  |

* Olle Hedberg (1899–1974)
* Henrik Samuel Nyberg (1889–1974)

22  | Roman Jakobson (1896–1982)  |  Russia
United States | essays  | Peter Hartmann (1923–1984)
23  | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)  |  Sweden | novel, short story  | Carl-Eric Thors (1920–1986)
24  | Erich Kästner (1899–1974)  |  Germany | poetry, screenplay, autobiography  |

* Friedrich Sengle (1909–1994)
* Henry Olsson (1896–1985)

25  | Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)  |  Japan | novel, short story  | The Japanese PEN-Club
26  | Humphrey Davy Findley Kitto (1897–1982)  |  United Kingdom | history  | William Beare (1933–2019)
27  | Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981)  |  Yugoslavia
Croatia | poetry, drama, short story, novel, essays  | The Yugoslavian Writers Association
28  | Frank Raymond Leavis (1895–1978)  |  United Kingdom | literary criticism, essays  | Cecil Arthur Hackett (1908–2000)
29  | André Malraux (1901–1976)  |  France | novel, essays, literary criticism  |

* John Martin Cocking (1914–1986)
* Ingvar Andersson (1899–1974)

30  | Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973)  |  France | philosophy, drama  |

* Leo Gabriel (1902–1987)
* Harald Weinrich (1927–2022)

31  | William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)  |  United Kingdom | novel, short story, drama, essays  | Richard Broxton Onians (1899–1986)
32  | Max Mell (1882–1971)  |  Austria | drama, novel, screenplay  | Moritz Enzinger (1891–1975)
33  | Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968)  |  Spain | philology, history  |

* Academia Boliviana de la Lengua
* Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973)

34  | Vilhelm Moberg (1898–1973)  |  Sweden | novel, drama, history  | Gösta Bergman (1894–1984)
35  | Alberto Moravia (1907–1990)  |  Italy | novel, literary criticism, essays, drama  | Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007)
36  | Stratis Myrivilis (1890–1969)  |  Greece | novel, short story  | Writers Association of the Hellenes
37  | Pablo Neruda (1904–1973)  |  Chile | poetry  | The Chilean Authors Society
38  | Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982)  |  Japan | poetry, literary criticism  | Naoshiro Tsuji (1899–1979)
39  | Hans Erich Nossack (1901–1977)  |  Germany | novel, drama  | Josef Math (?)
40  | Seán O'Casey (1880–1964)  |  Ireland | drama, memoir  | Geoffrey Tillotson (1905–1969)
41  | Ezra Pound (1885–1972)  |  United States | poetry, essays  | Karl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)
42  | John Cowper Powys (1872–1963)  |  United Kingdom | philosophy, novel, literary criticism, poetry, essays, short story  | George Wilson Knight (1897–1985)
43  | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975)  |  India | philosophy, essays, law  |

* Arthur John Arberry (1905–1969)
* Nirmal Kumar Sidhanta (1929–2014)

44  | Aksel Sandemose (1899–1965)  |  Denmark
Norway | novel, essays  | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)
45  | Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)  |  France | philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay  |

* Cecil Arthur Hackett (1908–2000)
* Stephen Ullmann (1914–1976)
* Johannes Edfelt (1904–1997)

46  | Giulia Scappino Murena (1902–1967)  |  Italy | poetry  | Alfredo Galletti (1872–1962)
47  | Rudolf Alexander Schröder (1878–1962)  |  Germany | poetry, translation  | Ernst Zinn (1910–1990)
48  | André Schwarz-Bart (1928–2006)  |  France | novel  | Ingerid Dal (1895–1985)
49  | Giorgos Seferis (1900–1971)  |  Greece | poetry, memoir, essays  |

* Constantine Athanasius Trypanis (1909–1993)
* Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)

50  | Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984)  |  Russia | novel  | Henrik Becker (1902–1984)
51  | Ignazio Silone (1900–1978)  |  Italy | novel, short story, essays, drama  | Elias Wessén (1889–1981)
52  | John Steinbeck (1902–1968)  |  United States | novel, short story, screenplay  |

* The Danish PEN-Club
* Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976)

53  | Ronald Syme (1903–1989)  |  New Zealand
United Kingdom | history  | Albrecht Dihle (1923–2020)
54  | Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965)  |  Japan | novel, short story  | Howard Hibbett (1920–2019)
55  | Frank Thiess (1890–1977)  |  Germany | novel  | Helmuth Scheel (1895–1967)
56  | Miguel Torga (1907–1995)  |  Portugal | poetry, short story, novel, drama, autobiography  | Hernâni Antonio Cidade (1887–1975)
57  | Pietro Ubaldi (1886–1972)  |  Italy | philosophy, essays  | Academia Santista de Letras
58  | Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)  |  Norway | poetry, novel  | Sigmund Skard (1903–1995)
59  | Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971)  |  Netherlands | novel, poetry, essays, translation  | The Austrian PEN-Club
60  | Heimito von Doderer (1896–1966)  |  Austria | novel, short story, poetry, essays  |

* Ernst Alker (1895–1972)
* The Austrian PEN-Club

61  | Gertrud von Le Fort (1876–1971)  |  Germany | novel, short story, essays, poetry  | Friedrich von der Leyen (1873–1966)
62  | Arthur David Waley (1889–1966)  |  United Kingdom | translation, essays  | David Hawkes (1923–2009)
63  | Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)  |  United States | drama, novel, short story  | Peter Wapnewski (1922–2012)
64  | Boris Zaytsev (1881–1972)  |  Russia | poetry, drama, novel  | Rostislav Pletnv (1903–1985)
65  | Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977)  |  Germany | drama, screenplay  | Rudolf Stark (1912–1966)
66  | Arnold Zweig (1887–1968)  |  Germany | novel, short story  | Henrik Becker (1902–1984)

### Prize Decision

[edit]

In 2012 (50 years later), the Nobel Prize opened its archives and it was revealed that Steinbeck was a "compromise choice" among a shortlist consisting of Steinbeck, British authors Robert Graves and Lawrence Durrell, French dramatist Jean Anouilh and Danish author Karen Blixen.[5] The declassified documents showed that he was chosen as the best of a bad lot:[5] "There aren't any obvious candidates for the Nobel prize and the prize committee is in an unenviable situation," wrote committee member Henry Olsson.[5] Although the committee believed Steinbeck's best work was behind him by 1962, committee member Anders Österling believed the release of his novel The Winter of Our Discontent showed that "after some signs of slowing down in recent years, [Steinbeck has] regained his position as a social truth-teller [and is an] authentic realist fully equal to his predecessors Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway."[5]

In 2010, Swedish Academy's archives later revealed that Danish writer Karen Blixen was a favorite candidate since 1959 but was missed out because the committee were concerned about showing favoritism to Scandinavian writers.[6] "The Nobel academy was probably afraid to appear provincial," Johannes Riis, literary director at Gyldendals publishing house told Politiken. "And so a mistake was made, because obviously Karen Blixen ought to have received the Nobel prize. Instead, it was a kind of reverse provincialism."[6] Blixen eventually died in September 7, 1962, making her ineligible further for the prize.

## Reactions

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The selection of Steinbeck was heavily criticized, and described as "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in one Swedish newspaper.[5] While there were some positive reactions in America,[7] The New York Times asked why the Nobel committee gave the award to an author whose "limited talent is, in his best books, watered down by tenth-rate philosophising", adding, "we think it interesting that the laurel was not awarded to a writer ... whose significance, influence and sheer body of work had already made a more profound impression on the literature of our age".[5] Steinbeck himself, when asked if he deserved the Nobel on the day of the announcement, replied: "Frankly, no."[5] Today, however, many of Steinbecks works are widely read and considered classics of Western literature.[8]

## References

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1. ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1962 nobelprize.org
2. ^ John Steinbeck nobelprize.org
3. ^ Nomination archive – John Steinbeck nobelprize.org
4. ^ a b Nomination archive – 1962 nobelprize.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g Alison Flood (3 January 2013). "Swedish Academy reopens controversy surrounding Steinbeck's Nobel prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
6. ^ a b Alison Flood (1 February 2010). "'Reverse provincialism' denied Karen Blixen Nobel prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
7. ^ Helmer Lång 100 nobelpris i litteratur Symposion 2001, ISBN 91-7139-537-7 p. 224 (in Swedish)
8. ^ "Who, what, why: Why do children study Of Mice and Men?". BBC News. BBC. March 25, 2011. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2014.

## External links

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* Prize presentation nobelprize.org
* The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 1962 \- NobelPrize.org

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Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature

1901–1920|

* 1901: Sully Prudhomme
* 1902: Theodor Mommsen
* 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
* 1904: Frédéric Mistral / José Echegaray
* 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
* 1906: Giosuè Carducci
* 1907: Rudyard Kipling
* 1908: Rudolf Eucken
* 1909: Selma Lagerlöf
* 1910: Paul Heyse
* 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck
* 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann
* 1913: Rabindranath Tagore
* 1914
* 1915: Romain Rolland
* 1916: Verner von Heidenstam
* 1917: Karl Gjellerup / Henrik Pontoppidan
* 1918
* 1919: Carl Spitteler
* 1920: Knut Hamsun

1921–1940|

* 1921: Anatole France
* 1922: Jacinto Benavente
* 1923: W. B. Yeats
* 1924: Władysław Reymont
* 1925: George Bernard Shaw
* 1926: Grazia Deledda
* 1927: Henri Bergson
* 1928: Sigrid Undset
* 1929: Thomas Mann
* 1930: Sinclair Lewis
* 1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (posthumously)
* 1932: John Galsworthy
* 1933: Ivan Bunin
* 1934: Luigi Pirandello
* 1935
* 1936: Eugene O'Neill
* 1937: Roger Martin du Gard
* 1938: Pearl S. Buck
* 1939: Frans Eemil Sillanpää
* 1940

1941–1960|

* 1941
* 1942
* 1943
* 1944: Johannes V. Jensen
* 1945: Gabriela Mistral
* 1946: Hermann Hesse
* 1947: André Gide
* 1948: T. S. Eliot
* 1949: William Faulkner
* 1950: Bertrand Russell
* 1951: Pär Lagerkvist
* 1952: François Mauriac
* 1953: Winston Churchill
* 1954: Ernest Hemingway
* 1955: Halldór Laxness
* 1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
* 1957: Albert Camus
* 1958: Boris Pasternak
* 1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
* 1960: Saint-John Perse

1961–1980|

* 1961: Ivo Andrić
* 1962: John Steinbeck
* 1963: Giorgos Seferis
* 1964: Jean-Paul Sartre (declined award)
* 1965: Mikhail Sholokhov
* 1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon / Nelly Sachs
* 1967: Miguel Ángel Asturias
* 1968: Yasunari Kawabata
* 1969: Samuel Beckett
* 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
* 1971: Pablo Neruda
* 1972: Heinrich Böll
* 1973: Patrick White
* 1974: Eyvind Johnson / Harry Martinson
* 1975: Eugenio Montale
* 1976: Saul Bellow
* 1977: Vicente Aleixandre
* 1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
* 1979: Odysseas Elytis
* 1980: Czesław Miłosz

1981–2000|

* 1981: Elias Canetti
* 1982: Gabriel García Márquez
* 1983: William Golding
* 1984: Jaroslav Seifert
* 1985: Claude Simon
* 1986: Wole Soyinka
* 1987: Joseph Brodsky
* 1988: Naguib Mahfouz
* 1989: Camilo José Cela
* 1990: Octavio Paz
* 1991: Nadine Gordimer
* 1992: Derek Walcott
* 1993: Toni Morrison
* 1994: Kenzaburō Ōe
* 1995: Seamus Heaney
* 1996: Wisława Szymborska
* 1997: Dario Fo
* 1998: José Saramago
* 1999: Günter Grass
* 2000: Gao Xingjian

2001–2020|

* 2001: V. S. Naipaul
* 2002: Imre Kertész
* 2003: J. M. Coetzee
* 2004: Elfriede Jelinek
* 2005: Harold Pinter
* 2006: Orhan Pamuk
* 2007: Doris Lessing
* 2008: J. M. G. Le Clézio
* 2009: Herta Müller
* 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
* 2011: Tomas Tranströmer
* 2012: Mo Yan
* 2013: Alice Munro
* 2014: Patrick Modiano
* 2015: Svetlana Alexievich
* 2016: Bob Dylan
* 2017: Kazuo Ishiguro
* 2018: Olga Tokarczuk
* 2019: Peter Handke
* 2020: Louise Glück

2021–present|

* 2021: Abdulrazak Gurnah
* 2022: Annie Ernaux
* 2023: Jon Fosse
* 2024: to be announced

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