1941 Nobel Prize in Literature
"in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction".
LocationStockholm, Sweden
Presented bySwedish Academy
First awarded1901
1941 laureatenone
WebsiteOfficial website
← 1940 · Nobel Prize in Literature · 1942 →

The 1941 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded due to the ongoing World War II that started in September 1, 1939.[1] 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.[2] This was the fifth 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 15 writers.[3]

Three of the nominees were nominated first-time namely Manoel Wanderley, Ruth Comfort Young, and Branislav Petronijević. The highest number of the nominations – three 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), Henriette Charasson, Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício, and Ruth Comfort Young.[3]

The authors Alexander Afinogenov, Sherwood Anderson, Oskar Baum, Mihály Babits, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, Karin Boye, Robert Byron, José de la Cuadra, Penelope Delta, William Arthur Dunkerley, James Joyce, Émile Nelligan, Banjo Paterson, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Norberto Romualdez, Hasegawa Shigure, Gertrude Eileen Trevelyan, Marina Tsvetaeva, Evelyn Underhill, Elizabeth von Arnim, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Virginia Woolf, and May Ziadeh died in 1941 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 René Béhaine (1880–1966)  France novel, short story, essays François Dumas (1861–1948)
2 Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)  United Kingdom poetry, essays, biography Heinrich Wolfgang Donner (1904-1980)
3 Henriette Charasson (1884–1972)  France poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography Jacques Chevalier (1882–1962)
4 Paul Claudel (1868–1955)  France poetry, drama, essays, memoir Peter Hjalmar Rokseth (1891–1945)
5 Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947)  Portugal poetry, essays António Baião (1878–1961)
6 Vilhelm Ekelund (1880–1949)  Sweden poetry, essays
7 Johan Falkberget (1879–1967)  Norway novel, short story, essays Richard Beck (1897–1980)
8 Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948)  Denmark history, essays, poetry Sven Lönborg (1871–1959)
9 Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)  Netherlands history
10 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950)  Denmark novel, short story, essays
  • Vilhelm Cederschiöld (1882–1959)
  • Frederik Poulsen (1876–1950)
  • Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)
11 Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957)  Chile poetry Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
12 Branislav Petronijević (1875–1954)  Serbia philosophy
  • Vladeta Popović (1894–1951)
  • Marko Car (1859–1953)
13 Felix Timmermans (1886–1947)  Belgium novel, short story, drama, poetry, essays Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
14 Manoel Wanderley (?)
(probably Manuel Bandeira (1886–1968)) 		 Brazil poetry, literary criticism, essays, translation Francisco de Aquino Correa, S.D.B. (1885–1956)
15 Ruth Comfort Young (1882–1954)  United States drama, screenplay, novel, short story, poetry
  • Benjamin Biesel (1890–1979)
  • Victor Bennett (?)

References

  1. ^ "Nobel literature row: usually it takes a world war to disrupt the prize". The Conversation. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  2. ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1941 nobelprize.org
  3. ^ a b Nomination archive – 1941 nobelprize.org
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