1955 Nobel Prize in Literature

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." 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..."

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 The Great Weaver from Kashmir ("Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír", 1927), Atómstöðin ("The Atom Station", 1948), Brekkukotsannáll ("The Fish Can Sing", 1957), and Kristnihald undir Jökli ("Christianity at Glacier", 1968).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

References

External links

• Award Ceremony speech nobelprize.org
• The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 1955 nobelprize.org

1. Nobel Prize in Literature
2. List of Nobel laureates in Literature
3. 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature
4. 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature
5. 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature
6. 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature
7. 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature
8. 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature
9. 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature
10. 1901 Nobel Prize in Literature
11. List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature
12. 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature
13. 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature
14. 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature
15. 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature
16. 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature
17. List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates
18. Nobel Prize controversies
19. 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature
20. 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature