Nobel Prize in Literature 1956

[Ben Jackson]

44 writers was nominated for this year's Nobel Literature Prize, which was awarded to Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez. Among the writers shortlisted, apart from Jimenez, was Camus, Blixen, Spanish literary critic and philologist Ramon Menedez Pidal and Nikos Kazantzakis.

The Committee was silent over the publication of Camus' work The Fall, which hadn't been translated to Swedish at the time of his shortlist, and Blixen. Blixen's progress was monitored. The Committee's lack of interest in awarded writers in non-fiction sphere played a part in dismissing Pidal, who was hailed in Spanish press as one its key writers of the period. Jimenez, shortlisted the previous year, was awarded the Prize as tribute to great Generation of 1898 Spainsh Poetry (at the time one of its last surviving member). Kazantzakis, at the time, was Greece's most famous writer with works like Zorba the Greek, Last Temptation of Christ, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequal, and was seen, by the Committee as a brilliant way to reward a writer from Hellas. At the end of the day, Jimenez defeated Kazantzakis by two votes.

Jimenez is a fantastic poet no doubt. But I don't know if I can put him above Kazantzakis. The Odyssey and Zorba are fantastic achievements. Soyinka's big fan of Zorba the Greek's movie adaptation starring Anthony Quinn.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Juan Ramon Jimenez was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish Language, constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity." Announced on 25th October, 44 names were suggested.

Some Facts:

First Time Nominees:
Pablo Neruda
Jean Guitton
Martha Bibesco
Francesco Chiesa
Bertolt Brecht
Melpo Axioti
arm and God it
Elizabeth Goudge
Gonzague de Reynold
Jules Superville
Vasco Pratolini
Christopher Fry
Marcel Pagnol
Ernest Junger
Henry Motherlant
Gabriel Marcel
Jorge Luis Borges

Nominations from Academy Members:
Karen Blixen, George M Trevelyan, Eugene Baie--- Nils Ahnlund
Juan Ramon Jimenez--- Harry Martinson
Albert Camus-- Bo Bergman

Nominees that would later become Laureates:
Mikhail Sholokhov
Pablo Neruda
St John Perse
Albert Camus

Nominated Women:
Karen Blixen
Elizabeth Goudge
Marthe Bibesco

Nominations from Former Laureate:
St John Perse-- Roger Martin Du Gard

Books highlighted by Nobel Committee:

Ernest Junger: Gardens and Roses, Storm of Steel, On the Marble Cliffs, Forest Passage, Adventures of the Heart

In the words of Anders Osterling ok Junger's authorship:
"Junger's unseentimental writing's cold, and his authorship ideally far away from humanitarian though characteristic of the Prize)
Juan Ramon Jimenez: Platero and I, Diary of Recently Married Poet, Stones and Sky, Voices of my Song
Ramon Menedez Pidal: Romancero Hispanico, Cantar de mio Cid, Manual Elemental de Gramatica Historica Espanola
Albert Camus: The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague, The Rebel, Caligula and Other Plays, Summer in Algiers
Nikos Kazantzakis: Zorba the Greek, Last Temptations of Christ, The Odyssey
Karen Blixen: Out of Africa, Seven Gothic Tales

Committee Members:
Anders Osterling
Sigfried Siwertz
Hjalmar Gullberg