Nobelprisvinnere – Norlis Antikvariat

Year	Recipient	Country	Language	Description
1901	Sully Prudhomme	France	French	“in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect”
1902	Theodor Mommsen	Germany	German	“the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome”
1903	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson	Norway	Norwegian	“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”
1904	Frédéric Mistral	France	Occitan	“in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist”
1904	José Echegaray y Eizaguirre	Spain	Spanish	“in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama”
1905	Henryk Sienkiewicz	Poland	Polish	“because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer”
1906	Giosuè Carducci	Italy	Italian	“not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces”
1907	Rudyard Kipling	Great Britain	English	“in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author”
1908	Rudolf Christoph Eucken	Germany	German	“in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life”
1909	Selma Lagerlöf	Sweden	Swedish	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings”
1910	Paul von Heyse	Germany	German	“as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories”
1911	Maurice Maeterlinck	Belgium	French	“in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers’ own feelings and stimulate their imaginations”
1912	Gerhart Hauptmann	Germany	German	“primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art”
1913	Rabindranath Tagore	India	Bengali	“because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”
1914				No award
1915	Romain Rolland	France	French	“as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”
1916	Verner von Heidenstam	Sweden	Swedish	“in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature”
1917	Karl Adolph Gjellerup	Denmark	Danish	“for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals”
1917	Henrik Pontoppidan	Denmark	Danish	“for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark”
1918				No award
1919	Carl Spitteler	Switzerland	German	“in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring”
1920	Knut Hamsun	Norway	Norwegian	“for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil”
1921	Anatole France	France	French	“in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament”
1922	Jacinto Benavente	Spain	Spanish	“for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama”
1923	William Butler Yeats	Ireland	English	“for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”
1924	Władysław Reymont	Poland	Polish	“for his great national epic, The Peasants”
1925	George Bernard Shaw	Ireland	English	“for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty”
1926	Grazia Deledda	Italy	Italian	“for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general”
1927	Henri Bergson	France	French	“in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented”
1928	Sigrid Undset	Norway	Norwegian	“principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”
1929	Thomas Mann	Germany	German	“principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”
1930	Sinclair Lewis	USA	English	“for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters”
1931	Erik Axel Karlfeldt	Sweden	Swedish	“The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt”
1932	John Galsworthy	Great Britain	English	“for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art” “for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga”
1933	Ivan Bunin	Russia	Russian	“for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing”
1934	Luigi Pirandello	Italy	Italian	“for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art”
1935				No award
1936	Eugene O'Neill	USA	English	“for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”
1937	Roger Martin du Gard	France	French	“for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel-cycle Les Thibault”
1938	Pearl Buck	USA	English	“for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”
1939	Frans Eemil Sillanpää	Finland	Finnish	“for his deep understanding of his country’s peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature”
1940				No award
1941				No award
1942				No award
1943				No award
1944	Johannes V. Jensen	Denmark	Danish	“for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style”
1945	Gabriela Mistral	Chile	Spanish	“for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”
1946	Hermann Hesse	Switzerland	German	“for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style”
1947	André Gide	France	French	“for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight”
1948	T.S. Eliot	Great Britain	English	“for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”
1949	William Faulkner	USA	English	“for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel”
1950	Bertrand Russell	Great Britain	English	“in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”
1951	Pär Lagerkvist	Sweden	Swedish	“for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind”
1952	François Mauriac	France	French	“for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life”
1953	Winston Churchill	Great Britain	English	“for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”
1954	Ernest Hemingway	USA	English	“for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”
1955	Halldór Laxness	Iceland	Icelandic	“for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland”
1956	Juan Ramón Jiménez	Spain	Spanish	“for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity”
1957	Albert Camus	France	French	“for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”
1958	Boris Pasternak	Soviet	Russian	“for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition”
1959	Salvatore Quasimodo	Italy	Italian	“for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times”
1960	Saint-John Perse	France	French	“for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time”
1961	Ivo Andrić	Jugoslavia	Serbo-Croatian	“for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country”
1962	John Steinbeck	USA	English	“for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception”
1963	Giorgos Seferis	Greece	Greek	“for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture”
1964	Jean-Paul Sartre (declined)	France	French	“for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age”
1965	Mikhail Sjolokhov	Soviet	Russian	“for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people”
1966	Shmuel Yosef Agnon	Israel	Hebrew	“for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people”
1966	Nelly Sachs	Sweden	German	“for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength”
1967	Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala	Spanish	“for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America”
1968	Kawabata Yasunari	Japan	Japanese	“for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind”
1969	Samuel Beckett	Ireland	English and French	“for his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”
1970	Aleksandr Solzjenitsyn	Soviet	Russian	“for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”
1971	Pablo Neruda	Chile	Spanish	“for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”
1972	Heinrich Böll	West Germany	German	“for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature”
1973	Patrick White	Australia	English	“for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature”
1974	Eyvind Johnson	Sweden	Swedish	“for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom”
	Sweden	Swedish		“for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos”
1975	Eugenio Montale	Italy	Italian	“for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions”
1976	Saul Bellow	USA	English	“for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work”
1977	Vicente Aleixandre	Spain	Spanish	“for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man’s condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars”
1978	Isaac Bashevis Singer	USA	Yiddish	“for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life”
1979	Odysseas Elytis	Greece	Greek	“for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man’s struggle for freedom and creativeness”
1980	Czesław Miłosz	Poland	Polish	who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts”
1981	Elias Canetti	Bulgaria	German	“for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power”
1982	Gabriel García Márquez	Colombia	Spanish	“for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts”
1983	William Golding	Great Britain	English	“for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today”
1984	Jaroslav Seifert	Czechoslovakia	Czech	“for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man”
1985	Claude Simon	France	French	“who in his novel combines the poet’s and the painter’s creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition”
1986	Wole Soyinka	Nigeria	English	“who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”
1987	Joseph Brodsky	USA	English and russian	“for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”
1988	Naguib Mahfouz	Egypt	Arabic	“who, through works rich in nuance – now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous – has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind”
1989	Camilo José Cela	Spain	Spanish	“for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man’s vulnerability”
1990	Octavio Paz	Mexico	Spanish	“for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity”
1991	Nadine Gordimer	South Africa	English	“who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity”
1992	Derek Walcott	Saint Lucia	English	“for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment”
1993	Toni Morrison	USA	English	“who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”
1994	Ōe Kenzaburō	Japan	Japanese	“who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today”
1995	Seamus Heaney	Ireland	English	“for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”
1996	Wisława Szymborska	Poland	Polish	“for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”
1997	Dario Fo	Italy	Italian	“who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”
1998	José Saramago	Portugal	Portugese	who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality”
1999	Günter Grass	Germany	German	“whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history”
2000	Gao Xingjian	France	Chinese	“for an æuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama”
2001	V.S. Naipaul	Great Britain	English	“for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”
2002	Imre Kertész	Hungary	Hungarian	“for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”
2003	J.M. Coetzee	South Africa	English	“who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”
2004	Elfriede Jelinek	Austria	German	“for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society’s clichés and their subjugating power”
2005	Harold Pinter	Great Britain	English	“who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”
2006	Orhan Pamuk	Turkey	Turkish	“who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”
2007	Doris Lessing	Great Britain	English	“that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”
2008	J.M.G. Le Clézio	France / Mauritius	French	“author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”
2009	Herta Müller	Germany	German	“who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”
2010	Mario Vargas Llosa	Peru /	Spanish	“for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”
2011	Tomas Tranströmer	Sweden	Swedish	“because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”
2012	Mo Yan	China	Chinese	“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”
2013	Alice Munro	Canada	English	“master of the contemporary short story”
2014	Patrick Modiano	France	French	“for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”
2015	Svetlana Aleksijevitsj	Belarus	Russian	“for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”
2016	Bob Dylan	USA	English	“for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”
2017	Kazuo Ishiguro	Great Britain	English	“who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”
2018	Olga Tokarczuk	Poland	Polish	“for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”
2019	Peter Handke	Austria	German	“for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”
2020	Louise Glück	USA	English	«for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal»

Year

Recipient

Country

Language

Description

1901

Sully Prudhomme

France

French

“in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect”

1902

Theodor Mommsen

Germany

German

“the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome”

1903

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Norway

Norwegian

“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”

1904

Frédéric Mistral

France

Occitan

“in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist”

1904

José Echegaray y Eizaguirre

Spain

Spanish

“in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama”

1905

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Poland

Polish

“because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer”

1906

Giosuè Carducci

Italy

Italian

“not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces”

1907

Rudyard Kipling

Great Britain

English

“in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author”

1908

Rudolf Christoph Eucken

Germany

German

“in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life”

1909

Selma Lagerlöf

Sweden

Swedish

"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings”

1910

Paul von Heyse

Germany

German

“as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories”

1911

Maurice Maeterlinck

Belgium

French

“in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers’ own feelings and stimulate their imaginations”

1912

Gerhart Hauptmann

Germany

German

“primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art”

1913

Rabindranath Tagore

India

Bengali

“because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”

1914

No award

1915

Romain Rolland

France

French

“as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”

1916

Verner von Heidenstam

Sweden

Swedish

“in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature”

1917

Karl Adolph Gjellerup

Denmark

Danish

“for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals”

1917

Henrik Pontoppidan

Denmark

Danish

“for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark”

1918

No award

1919

Carl Spitteler

Switzerland

German

“in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring”

1920

Knut Hamsun

Norway

Norwegian

“for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil”

1921

Anatole France

France

French

“in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament”

1922

Jacinto Benavente

Spain

Spanish

“for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama”

1923

William Butler Yeats

Ireland

English

“for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”

1924

Władysław Reymont

Poland

Polish

“for his great national epic, The Peasants”

1925

George Bernard Shaw

Ireland

English

“for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty”

1926

Grazia Deledda

Italy

Italian

“for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general”

1927

Henri Bergson

France

French

“in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented”

1928

Sigrid Undset

Norway

Norwegian

“principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”

1929

Thomas Mann

Germany

German

“principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”

1930

Sinclair Lewis

USA

English

“for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters”

1931

Erik Axel Karlfeldt

Sweden

Swedish

“The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt”

1932

John Galsworthy

Great Britain

English

“for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art” “for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga”

1933

Ivan Bunin

Russia

Russian

“for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing”

1934

Luigi Pirandello

Italy

Italian

“for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art”

1935

No award

1936

Eugene O'Neill

USA

English

“for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”

1937

Roger Martin du Gard

France

French

“for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel-cycle Les Thibault”

1938

Pearl Buck

USA

English

“for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”

1939

Frans Eemil Sillanpää

Finland

Finnish

“for his deep understanding of his country’s peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature”

1940

No award

1941

No award

1942

No award

1943

No award

1944

Johannes V. Jensen

Denmark

Danish

“for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style”

1945

Gabriela Mistral

Chile

Spanish

“for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”

1946

Hermann Hesse

Switzerland

German

“for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style”

1947

André Gide

France

French

“for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight”

1948

T.S. Eliot

Great Britain

English

“for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”

1949

William Faulkner

USA

English

“for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel”

1950

Bertrand Russell

Great Britain

English

“in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”

1951

Pär Lagerkvist

Sweden

Swedish

“for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind”

1952

François Mauriac

France

French

“for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life”

1953

Winston Churchill

Great Britain

English

“for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”

1954

Ernest Hemingway

USA

English

“for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”

1955

Halldór Laxness

Iceland

Icelandic

“for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland”

1956

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Spain

Spanish

“for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity”

1957

Albert Camus

France

French

“for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”

1958

Boris Pasternak

Soviet

Russian

“for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition”

1959

Salvatore Quasimodo

Italy

Italian

“for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times”

1960

Saint-John Perse

France

French

“for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time”

1961

Ivo Andrić

Jugoslavia

Serbo-Croatian

“for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country”

1962

John Steinbeck

USA

English

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

1963

Giorgos Seferis

Greece

Greek

“for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture”

1964

Jean-Paul Sartre (declined)

France

French

“for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age”

1965

Mikhail Sjolokhov

Soviet

Russian

“for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people”

1966

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Israel

Hebrew

“for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people”

1966

Nelly Sachs

Sweden

German

“for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength”

1967

Miguel Ángel Asturias

Guatemala

Spanish

“for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America”

1968

Kawabata Yasunari

Japan

Japanese

“for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind”

1969

Samuel Beckett

Ireland

English and French

“for his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”

1970

Aleksandr Solzjenitsyn

Soviet

Russian

“for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”

1971

Pablo Neruda

Chile

Spanish

“for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”

1972

Heinrich Böll

West Germany

German

“for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature”

1973

Patrick White

Australia

English

“for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature”

1974

Eyvind Johnson

Sweden

Swedish

“for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom”

Sweden

Swedish

“for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos”

1975

Eugenio Montale

Italy

Italian

“for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions”

1976

Saul Bellow

USA

English

“for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work”

1977

Vicente Aleixandre

Spain

Spanish

“for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man’s condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars”

1978

Isaac Bashevis Singer

USA

Yiddish

“for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life”

1979

Odysseas Elytis

Greece

Greek

“for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man’s struggle for freedom and creativeness”

1980

Czesław Miłosz

Poland

Polish

who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts”

1981

Elias Canetti

Bulgaria

German

“for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power”

1982

Gabriel García Márquez

Colombia

Spanish

“for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts”

1983

William Golding

Great Britain

English

“for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today”

1984

Jaroslav Seifert

Czechoslovakia

Czech

“for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man”

1985

Claude Simon

France

French

“who in his novel combines the poet’s and the painter’s creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition”

1986

Wole Soyinka

Nigeria

English

“who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”

1987

Joseph Brodsky

USA

English and russian

“for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”

1988

Naguib Mahfouz

Egypt

Arabic

“who, through works rich in nuance – now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous – has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind”

1989

Camilo José Cela

Spain

Spanish

“for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man’s vulnerability”

1990

Octavio Paz

Mexico

Spanish

“for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity”

1991

Nadine Gordimer

South Africa

English

“who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity”

1992

Derek Walcott

Saint Lucia

English

“for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment”

1993

Toni Morrison

USA

English

“who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”

1994

Ōe Kenzaburō

Japan

Japanese

“who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today”

1995

Seamus Heaney

Ireland

English

“for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”

1996

Wisława Szymborska

Poland

Polish

“for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”

1997

Dario Fo

Italy

Italian

“who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”

1998

José Saramago

Portugal

Portugese

who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality”

1999

Günter Grass

Germany

German

“whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history”

2000

Gao Xingjian

France

Chinese

“for an æuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama”

2001

V.S. Naipaul

Great Britain

English

“for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”

2002

Imre Kertész

Hungary

Hungarian

“for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”

2003

J.M. Coetzee

South Africa

English

“who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”

2004

Elfriede Jelinek

Austria

German

“for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society’s clichés and their subjugating power”

2005

Harold Pinter

Great Britain

English

“who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”

2006

Orhan Pamuk

Turkey

Turkish

“who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”

2007

Doris Lessing

Great Britain

English

“that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”

2008

J.M.G. Le Clézio

France / Mauritius

French

“author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization”

2009

Herta Müller

Germany

German

“who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”

2010

Mario Vargas Llosa

Peru /

Spanish

“for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”

2011

Tomas Tranströmer

Sweden

Swedish

“because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”

2012

Mo Yan

China

Chinese

“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”

2013

Alice Munro

Canada

English

“master of the contemporary short story”

2014

Patrick Modiano

France

French

“for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”

2015

Svetlana Aleksijevitsj

Belarus

Russian

“for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”

2016

Bob Dylan

USA

English

“for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”

2017

Kazuo Ishiguro

Great Britain

English

“who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”

2018

Olga Tokarczuk

Poland

Polish

“for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”

2019

Peter Handke

Austria

German

“for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”

2020

Louise Glück

USA

English

«for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal»

Nobel Prize winners

A list of every winner of the Nobel prize of literature since the first award in 1901

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