1935 Nobel Prize in Literature

1935 Nobel Prize in Literature
Date14 November 1935[a] (postponement)
First award1901
WebsiteOfficial website

The 1935 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded after the Swedish Academy decided that no author in the field of literature was a suitable candidate.[2] Hence, the prize money for this year was 1⁄3 allocated to the Main Fund and 2⁄3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.[3]

Deliberations

Nominations

The Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy received 52 nominations for 38 authors like Frans Eemil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939), Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944), Paul Valéry, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Roger Martin du Gard (awarded in 1937) and H. G. Wells.[4]

Fourteen of the nominees were newly recommended for the prize such as Shaul Tchernichovsky, Miguel de Unamuno, Jules Romains, John Masefield, Elise Richter, Edvarts Virza, Víctor Manuel Rendón, Émile Mâle, James Cousins and G. K. Chesterton. There were five women nominees: Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Violet Clifton, Ricarda Huch, Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício and Elise Richter.[4]

The authors Henri Barbusse, Ioan Bianu, Arthur Hoey Davis (known as Steele Rudd), Clarence Day, Ella Loraine Dorsey, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna Katharine Green, Kaitarō Hasegawa, Mary R. P. Hatch, Louise Manning Hodgkins, Winifred Holtby, Panait Istrati, T. E. Lawrence, James Leslie Mitchell (known as Lewis Grassic Gibbon), Violet Paget (known as Vernon Lee), Fernando Pessoa, Lizette Woodworth Reese, George William Russell, Tsubouchi Shōyō, Kurt Tucholsky, William Watson and Stanley G. Weinbaum died in 1935 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 Rufino Blanco Fombona (1874–1944) Venezuela essays, literary criticism Several professors from American universities
2 Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938) Yugoslavia novel, short story Gavro Manojlović (1856–1939)
3 Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) United Kingdom philosophy, theology, essays, literary criticism, novel, short story, poetry Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941)
4 Violet Clifton (1883–1961) United Kingdom biography, essays Nevill Coghill (1899–1980)
5 António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) Portugal poetry
  • Alfredo Carneiro da Cunha (1863–1942)
  • Luís da Cunha Gonçalvez (1875–1956)
6 James Cousins (1873–1956) Ireland
British India		 poetry, drama, essays, literary criticism Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941)
7 Karel Čapek (1890–1938) Czechoslovakia drama, novel, short story, essays, literary criticism
8 Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) Portugal poetry, essays Bento Carqueja (1860–1935)
9 Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spain novel, poetry, philosophy, essays, drama Esteban Madruga Jiménez (1890–1980)
10 Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) France novel, drama, memoir
11 Olav Duun (1876–1939) Norway novel, short story
12 James George Frazer (1854–1941) United Kingdom history, essays, translation Jarl Charpentier (1884–1935)
13 Franz Karl Ginzkey (1871–1963) Austria poetry, short story, essays Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
14 Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) Denmark history, essays, poetry Sven Lönborg (1871–1959)
15 Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) Finland poetry, novel Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
16 Ricarda Huch (1864–1947) Germany history, essays, novel, poetry Ernst Robert Curtius (1886–1956)
17 Johannes V. Jensen (1873–1950) Denmark novel, short story, poetry
  • Vilhelm Andersen (1864–1953)
  • Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen (1881–1977)
  • Hans Brix (1870–1961)
  • Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)
18 Guðmundur Kamban (1888–1945) Iceland novel, drama Bengt Hesselman (1875–1952)
19 Rudolf Kassner (1873–1959) Austria philosophy, essays, translation 6 professors of the University of Zurich
20 Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1878–1962) Austria novel, short story, poetry, drama Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld (1899–1993)
21 Sven Lönborg (1871–1959) Sweden philosophy, history, pedagogy, essays Emil Rodhe (1863–1936)
22 John Masefield (1878–1967) United Kingdom poetry, drama, novel, short story, essays, autobiography Anders Österling (1884–1981)
23 Émile Mâle (1862–1954) France history Emil Rodhe (1863–1936)
24 Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) Soviet Union novel, essays, poetry, drama Sigurd Agrell (1881–1937)
25 Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) United States drama Martin Lamm (1880–1950)
26 Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) Greece poetry, essays
27 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) India philosophy, essays, law Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
28 Víctor Manuel Rendón (1859–1940) Ecuador novel, poetry, drama, biography, essays, translation Celiano Monge Navarrete (1856–1940)
29 Elise Richter (1865–1943) Austria philology
  • Antonin Duraffour (1879–1956)
  • Carlo Tagliavini (1903–1982)
30 Jules Romains (1885–1972) France poetry, drama, screenplay Fredrik Böök (1883–1961)
31 Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) Finland novel, short story, poetry
32 Hermann Stehr (1864–1940) Germany novel, short story, poetry, drama Hermann August Korff (1882–1963)
33 Dezső Szabó (1879–1945) Hungary novel, essays Björn Collinder (1894–1983)
34 Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875–1943) Soviet Union
Mandatory Palestine		 poetry, essays, translation Joseph Klausner (1874–1958)
35 Paul Valéry (1871–1945) France poetry, philosophy, essays, drama
36 Edvarts Virza (1883–1940) Latvia poetry, essays, translation
  • Francis Balodis (1882–1947)
  • Ludis Bērzin̦š (1870–1965)
37 Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) United Kingdom novel, short story, essays, history, biography Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970)
38 Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński (1859–1944) Poland philology, history, translation, essays Several professors at the University of Warsaw

Prize decision

In 1935, considered authors by the Nobel committee included Karel Čapek, Miguel de Unamuno, John Masefield, G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Jarl Hemmer, Johannes V. Jensen, Paul Valéry, Eugene O'Neill and Roger Martin du Gard, but the committee found that no candidate met the criteria for the prize.[5] In their report to the Swedish Academy, Čapek was noted for his "thriving imagination and inventiveness" but dismissed for his "solubility and emptiness in philosophical contemplation", De Unamuno was acknowledged as the greatest Spanish writer alive and that his candidacy should be seriously considered, but was dismissed for his abstract ideas in his literary oeuvres; Masefield was dismissed for his uneven works; Du Gard was praised for his The Thibaults, but the committee decided to wait for its other volumes; Valéry was dismissed for being too obscure, Wells for not having produced anything significant in recent years and Chesterton because of "The high value of much of his preaching and the almost unparalleled critical acumen he possesses have been offset by a heavy burden of feverishly nervous, hasty, and distorted judgments and views."[5]

Committee member Hjalmar Hammarskjöld did not agree with the Nobel committee's conclusion that none of the candidates met the criteria for being awarded the prize and added a divergent opinion: "Since I have not been able to agree to the committee's request, I need not plead any other reason than that the committee in any event seems to me to have set far too strict requirements for competence for the Nobel Prize, requirements so strict that they could not be implemented during the past period, and that their maintenance in the future would certainly make the awarding of the Nobel Prize a rare occurrence." Hammarskjöld proposed that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1935 should be awarded to Miguel de Unamuno, with Jarl Hemmer as his second proposal.[5]

On 14 November 1935 the Swedish Academy decided that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1935 should be reserved to the following year.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ The Swedish Academy decided on 14th November 1935 that this year's Nobel Prize in Literature would be reserved for the following year.[1]
  2. ↑ All eight were professors of history of literature at the University of Prague, Czechoslovakia.
  3. ↑ Three professors of literature and/or history from the University of Athens, Greece.

References

  1. ↑ Svensén, Bo (2001). Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901–1950. Svenska Akademien. ISBN 9789113010076. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  2. ↑ "Why was no Nobel Prize for Literature awarded in 1935?". history.stackexchange.com. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  3. ↑ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1935 nobelprize.org
  4. 1 2 Nomination archive – Literature 1935 nobelprize.org
  5. 1 2 3 4 Svensén, Bo (2001). "1935". Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1920-1950. Svenska Akademien.
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