Nobel Prize in Literature 1972

[Marba]

In 1972 Heinrich Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize and now when 50 years have passed the list of nominees for 1972 has been released.

101 writers were suggested. More compared with 91 writers in 1971 and 77 writers in 1970, but fewer than the 104 writers suggested in 1969.

Kaj Schueler from Svenska Dagbladet has visited the archives and written this article (see translation of it in my next post).

The shortlist for the 1972 prize turned out to be:

• Heinrich Böll (awarded this year)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)

Apparently there were discussions during the deliberations if the prize should be shared between Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. The Nobel Committee got united behind Böll, but one member (Artur Lundkvist) said he would have preferred Patrick White.



From the list of suggestions we can also learn the the following:

Nominees who would be awarded in coming years:

• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)
• Eyvind Johnson (awarded in 1974)
• Harry Martinson (awarded in 1974)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Saul Bellow (awarded in 1976)
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Elias Canetti (awarded in 1981)
• William Golding (awarded in 1983)
• Claude Simon (awarded in 1985)
• Elie Wiesel (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986)
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)

Most nominations:

• W.H. Auden, 10 nominations
• Heinrich Böll, 8 nominations
• André Malraux, 6 nominations
• André Chamson, 5 nominations
• Louis Paul Boon, 4 nominations
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 4 nominations
• Günter Grass, 4 nominations
• Patrick White, 4 nominations

Nominees who had been nominated for most years up to this point:

• André Malraux - 23rd year
• Alberto Moravia - 18th year
• Graham Greene - 17th year
• Thornton Wilder - 15th year
• Taha Hussein - 14th year
• Miroslav Krleza - 14th year
• Ezra Pound - 14th year

First-time nominees (27 in total, 2 more than in 1971 and 1970 and 3 fewer than in 1969):

• Said Akl
• Louis Paul Boon
• Anthony Burgess
• Suniti Kumar Chatterji
• Sri Chinmoy
• Austin Clarke
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Jacob Glatstein
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Julien Green
• Joseph Heller
• Ferenc Juhász
• Manbohdan Lal
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Stanislaus Lynch
• Norman Mailer
• Bernard Malamud
• Frederick Manfred
• Veijo Meri
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Pak Dujin
• Alan Paton
• Philip Roth
• Francis Stuart
• Vu Hoàng Chuong
• Aaron Zeitlin

Nominations from members of the Swedish Academy:

• Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (by the Nobel Committee)
• Luis Buñuel (by Lars Forssell)
• Anthony Burgess (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Odysseas Elytis (by Artur Lundkvist)
• William Golding (by the Nobel Committee)
• Nadine Gordimer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Julien Green (by Johannes Edfelt)
• Joseph Heller (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Vladimír Holan (by the Nobel Committee)
• Gyula Illyés (by Lars Gyllensten and Artur Lundkvist)
• Eyvind Johnson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• Ferenc Juhász (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Miroslav Krleza (by the Nobel Committee)
• Siegfried Lenz (by the Nobel Committee)
• Doris Lessing (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Norman Mailer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Bernard Malamud (by Lars Gyllensten)
• Harry Martinson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• V. S. Naipaul (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Philip Roth (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Arno Schmidt (by the Nobel Committee)
• Claude Simon (by the Nobel Committee)
• Yiannis Ritsos - by Per Wästberg, as chairman of Swedish PEN (Wästberg became a member of the SA in 1997 and was chairman of the Nobel Committee 2004-2017)

Nominated women (5 in total, up from 1 in 1971 and 2 in 1970, and on same level as in 1969):

• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Anna Seghers
• Marie Under

Nominations from former laureates:

• Graham Greene (by 1972 laureate Heinrich Böll) - Böll nominated Greene not as a former laureate, but as the president of PEN Germany
• Eyvind Johnson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Harry Martinson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Zaharia Stancu (by 1967 laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias)

Oldest and youngest nominees:

• Compton Mackenzie - 89 years old
• Philip Roth - 39 years old

 

[Benny Profane]

Marba, I thank you so much for this rigorous report about the Prize.
Always in January, I'm sure that there will a thread regarding the Prize from 50 years ago.

I knew you wouldn't disappoint us.

 

[Marba]

For those of you who are interested in reading more about the decision, but are not able to beacuse of the pay-wall, here is a translation of Kaj Schueler's article from Svenska Dagbladet.

The Nobel laureate was believed to support the terrorists.

In 1972, when Heinrich Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, he caused a scandal in Germany. Kaj Schueler reads documents that have been secret for 50 years - and discovers a famous Swede among the proposals.

From a Swedish perspective, the 1972 Nobel discussions were particularly interesting . For the first time, Astrid Lindgren was proposed for the Nobel Prize. The proposals came from three independent German researchers on youth literature. But the Academy took a wait-and-see attitude and took no further action. "The author's worldwide reputation and undeniable talent are not considered reasons enough to immediately recommend the proposal."

On the same occasion, the member and Nobel laureate Pär Lagerkvist proposed that the prize should be awarded to Harry Martinson. The Nobel Committee did not consider itself able to make this proposal, but it must be discussed in the entire Academy, which caused Artur Lundkvist to make a point of principle in his statement.

"It is not only highly respectable but almost inevitable that Mr. Lagerkvist, as a former Swedish Nobel laureate within the Academy, in this way insists on yet another Nobel Prize for an academy colleague. But in its ultimate consequence it involves the prospect of recurring rewards to academy members, and that is something that, in my view, should be avoided. /…/ My opinion is that one should think very carefully before awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to a Swede at all, and that in the current situation there is a special reason why this does not happen."

As we know, it would only take two years before Harry Martinson got to share the prize with Eyvind Johnson. Sharing the prize was also highly topical in 1972. In the discussion in the Nobel Committee, it was proposed that this year's prize should be shared between Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. However, the committee's chairman Karl Ragnar Gierow had objections: "The impression of a halved prize can easily be, as we all know, that neither recipient has earned the whole thing. The recourse can therefore only be resorted to when it is clear, preferably also outside the Academy, that they are both entitled to the award but that one will in practice be excluded, if the other receives it. I'm not really convinced that Grass is now fully comparable to Böll in this regard."

In his statement, Gierow writes that with regard to previous prize winners, "the emphasis has been more on a tactical assessment than on a literary one." He wonders if this is a "good principle or a bad habit" but finds that it is also a passable path this year. But he claims that in 1972 there are "stronger names than those now selected by the committee", i.e. Böll, Grass, Montale and White. "In other words, this is also conditioned by other considerations than the purely literary ones."

He believes that in the last ten years the prize has "been more densly than before [awarded to] outside the regions that are habitually regarded as the main soil of contemporary cultivation. It remains to be seen whether this good has led to a troublesome drought in otherwise natural rainfall areas.”

Gierow believes that English and German literature has been left behind for far too long. According to him, this particularly applies to English literature, while the treatment of German literature has been "rather unkind".

It was finally a unanimous Nobel committee that proposed Heinrich Böll as the 1972 laureate, although Artur Lundkvist would have preferred Patrick White (1973 laureate).

Heinrich Böll was proposed for the Nobel Prize for the first time in 1960 and every year thereafter, with the exception of 1967 and 1971. Already in 1960, an expert opinion was written by the national librarian Uno Willers, which was supplemented in 1962. In his opinion in 1960, the chairman of the Nobel Committee Anders Österling stated that "there are good reasons to pay attention to Böll's continued development; his talent should in any event be the greatest promise of the future in German literature at the present time.”

Once he was awarded the prize, he had thus long been highly topical, but the Nobel Committee had, during the second half of the 60s, taken a wait-and-see attitude, waiting for new works by the author. Therefore, he was not included in the discussion in 1971 - the year before he was awarded. That year, however, his novel "Group Portrait with Lady" was published in Germany and was absolutely decisive for him being considered in 1972.

Böll was one of the few German writers – alongside Wolfgang Borchert – who immediately after 1945 took an interest in the Second World War: lying in the field, the homecoming and the homeland lying in ruins. After all, he himself had participated as a soldier from basically the first to the last day of the Second World War. He examined the past and his own country with critical eyes. Put humanity in a difficult time against complicity. He was a representative of the new and better (West) Germany and he acted so that the country would not deliberately forget the past. It was important, if not crucial, to remember the terrible Nazi years.

So when Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize, he was seen in his home country as a politically controversial writer, a strong critic of post-war West German politics where the state power and the ruling CDU party, according to him, had put the lid on the Nazi past. He himself was an anti-clerical devout Catholic and sympathized with the left wing of social democracy. The controversies became really serious during the years when West Germany was hit by quite extensive left-wing terrorism. In 1972, Böll published an essay in the magazine Der Spiegel with the title "Does Ulrike want mercy or a free lease?", where he argued against what he called the witch-hunt for Ulrike Meinhof and pleaded for a humane treatment of the terrorists. It became a scandal and Böll was accused of supporting terrorism. In the debate, he was called the terrorists' "intellectual accomplice" and on June 1, an extensive house search was carried out in his home, without the authorities being able to demonstrate any association with the terrorists.

Even if it is over the top to portray Heinrich Böll as a completely forgotten author, today not many people read him, neither in Sweden nor in Germany. But even those who are indifferent probably drool over the drivel reading-attractive titles, he had a unique ability to both summarize and provide a forward movement in the book titles. It is almost pleasurable to rabble only Heinrich Böll's titles.

But time has run away from Böll, as a writer and person he found himself in the present during a period when the Nazi past was contemporary. His political involvement as expressed in his novels is today possibly perceived as dated, and his stylistic means, such as the matter-of-fact and satirical narrative, are likely to pass the reader by in the 21st century.

But in 1972, when Böll received the award, he had not yet written his most successful, and in a way still current, novel, "The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum", in which he directs sharp criticism at the German tabloid press. The book also became an acclaimed film directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Thanks so much Marba for the information.

So, for this year, we have just four writers shortlisted, compared to the five we had the previous year. This shows the Academy can go lower than the five shortlisted names that seems compulsory in their articles. Some other year's they can go higher than five, as I observed from the years 1961, 63 and 68.

As usual, Lundkvist went ahead with White, he would succeed though the following year.

I remembered an article on the Nobel Prize by Espmark written in 1999, when he talked about Grass and Boll been on the shortlist for 1972. He did mentioned that Boll was awarded, not because he was considered a Pioneer in German Literature at the time, but because he brought " artistic renewal from literature in ruins and annihilation, " referring to the national ruins of Germany after the second World War. It took them the Academy twenty-seven years before Grass could be awarded are writing the book My Century. By the time, Grass was considered a Pioneer of magic-realism in European Literature and a precursor to writers like Gordimer, Oe, Antnues and Rushdie and Garcia Marquez.

One information is that Grass has best Johannes V Jensen for been the writer that has stayed on the shortlist the longest before winning the Nobel. Jensen was first shortlisted in 1926 before he could win in 1944. Though I think Lessing might be Grass to this one.

Interesting writers nominated for the Nobel this year, and Roth, nominated at such a young age (39)! Fantastic. Also seen Gordimer and Alan Paton (now the fourth and fifth Africans to be nominated after Taha Hussein, Senghor and Al-Hakim), Malamud Mailer (can you guys recommend some of his key works?), Joseph Heller (Catch-22), Lessing, Naipaul, Anthony Burgess, Ferenc Juhasz (Hungarian poet). And of course, the bride of the Nobel, Malraux. Great names to add to my reading rooster.

 

[Ben Jackson]

In 1972 Heinrich Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize and now when 50 years have passed the list of nominees for 1972 has been released.

101 writers were suggested. More compared with 91 writers in 1971 and 77 writers in 1970, but fewer than the 104 writers suggested in 1969.

Kaj Schueler from Svenska Dagbladet has visited the archives and written this article (see translation of it in my next post).

The shortlist for the 1972 prize turned out to be:

• Heinrich Böll (awarded this year)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)

Apparently there were discussions during the deliberations if the prize should be shared between Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. The Nobel Committee got united behind Böll, but one member (Artur Lundkvist) said he would have preferred Patrick White.



From the list of suggestions we can also learn the the following:

Nominees who would be awarded in coming years:

• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)
• Eyvind Johnson (awarded in 1974)
• Harry Martinson (awarded in 1974)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Saul Bellow (awarded in 1976)
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Elias Canetti (awarded in 1981)
• William Golding (awarded in 1983)
• Claude Simon (awarded in 1985)
• Elie Wiesel (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986)
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)

Most nominations:

• W.H. Auden, 10 nominations
• Heinrich Böll, 8 nominations
• André Malraux, 6 nominations
• André Chamson, 5 nominations
• Louis Paul Boon, 4 nominations
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 4 nominations
• Günter Grass, 4 nominations
• Patrick White, 4 nominations

Nominees who had been nominated for most years up to this point:

• André Malraux - 23rd year
• Alberto Moravia - 18th year
• Graham Greene - 17th year
• Thornton Wilder - 15th year
• Taha Hussein - 14th year
• Miroslav Krleza - 14th year
• Ezra Pound - 14th year

First-time nominees (27 in total, 2 more than in 1971 and 1970 and 3 fewer than in 1969):

• Said Akl
• Louis Paul Boon
• Anthony Burgess
• Suniti Kumar Chatterji
• Sri Chinmoy
• Austin Clarke
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Jacob Glatstein
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Julien Green
• Joseph Heller
• Ferenc Juhász
• Manbohdan Lal
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Stanislaus Lynch
• Norman Mailer
• Bernard Malamud
• Frederick Manfred
• Veijo Meri
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Pak Dujin
• Alan Paton
• Philip Roth
• Francis Stuart
• Vu Hoàng Chuong
• Aaron Zeitlin

Nominations from members of the Swedish Academy:

• Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (by the Nobel Committee)
• Luis Buñuel (by Lars Forssell)
• Anthony Burgess (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Odysseas Elytis (by Artur Lundkvist)
• William Golding (by the Nobel Committee)
• Nadine Gordimer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Julien Green (by Johannes Edfelt)
• Joseph Heller (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Vladimír Holan (by the Nobel Committee)
• Gyula Illyés (by Lars Gyllensten and Artur Lundkvist)
• Eyvind Johnson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• Ferenc Juhász (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Miroslav Krleza (by the Nobel Committee)
• Siegfried Lenz (by the Nobel Committee)
• Doris Lessing (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Norman Mailer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Bernard Malamud (by Lars Gyllensten)
• Harry Martinson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• V. S. Naipaul (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Philip Roth (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Arno Schmidt (by the Nobel Committee)
• Claude Simon (by the Nobel Committee)
• Yiannis Ritsos - by Per Wästberg, as chairman of Swedish PEN (Wästberg became a member of the SA in 1997 and was chairman of the Nobel Committee 2004-2017)

Nominated women (5 in total, up from 1 in 1971 and 2 in 1970, and on same level as in 1969):

• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Anna Seghers
• Marie Under

Nominations from former laureates:

• Graham Greene (by 1972 laureate Heinrich Böll) - Böll nominated Greene not as a former laureate, but as the president of PEN Germany
• Eyvind Johnson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Harry Martinson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Zaharia Stancu (by 1967 laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias)

Oldest and youngest nominees:

• Compton Mackenzie - 89 years old
• Philip Roth - 39 years old

One question for you guys: if you were in the Noble Commitee at the time, who would have been your candidate (among those shortlisted)? For me, I could have gone for White, since I haven't read Grass.

 

[Verkhovensky]

Grass (born in 1927) would have been the third youngest laureate if they decided to go with the split prize in this year! At 45, he was older just than Camus and Kipling.

 

[Benny Profane]

Some appointments:

1) The Jorge Amado's nominator is Marcos Almir Madeira (not misspealled "Madeiro"). Madeira was a great critic from Brazil;
2) Another year and Clarice Lispector wasn't nominated. Was she nominated in 1977 (the year of her death)?;
3) It's a big surprise that our dear Artur Lundkvist was a supporter of Jewish North-American Literature nominating some young (at that time) writers such as Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Joseph Heller and Philip Roth. Were they on the short list alongside with Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1978 or Saul Bellow in 1979? This is my doubt about those short lists.

 

[Camillo]

One question - who is Manbohdan Lal? Is it misspelled or something? Can't find anything about him.

 

[Benny Profane]

One question - who is Manbohdan Lal? Is it misspelled or something? Can't find anything about him.

I have the same doubt.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Some appointments:

1) The Jorge Amado's nominator is Marcos Almir Madeira (not misspealled "Madeiro"). Madeira was a great critic from Brazil;
2) Another year and Clarice Lispector wasn't nominated. Was she nominated in 1977 (the year of her death)?;
3) It's a big surprise that our dear Artur Lundkvist was a supporter of Jewish North-American Literature nominating some young (at that time) writers such as Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Joseph Heller and Philip Roth. Were they on the short list alongside with Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1978 or Saul Bellow in 1979? This is my doubt about those short lists.

We might see Lispector around 75/76. As for North American Jewish writers, I think Malamud might have been shortlisted in 1976 and Mailer might have been in 1978. Knit Ahlund, a member of the Committee, mentioned in an interview that he pushed for Mailer and Malamud. I also believe Mailer was huge contender in the 80s.

 

[Benny Profane]

We might see Lispector around 75/76. As for North American Jewish writers, I think Malamud might have been shortlisted in 1976 and Mailer might have been in 1978. Knit Ahlund, a member of the Committee, mentioned in an interview that he pushed for Mailer and Malamud. I also believe Mailer was huge contender in the 80s.

Yep.

I meant 1976 (Bellow) and 1978 (Singer).

 

[alik-vit]

One question - who is Manbohdan Lal? Is it misspelled or something? Can't find anything about him.

I think, our dear friend @kpjayan knows It better, but I think it's this guy:

Bhagwaan Ram Bal Leela : Manbodhan Lal : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Book Source: Digital Library of India Item 2015.378824dc.contributor.author: Manbodhan Laldc.date.accessioned: 2015-09-09T13:55:04Zdc.date.available:...

archive.org

 

[Ben Jackson]

In 1972 Heinrich Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize and now when 50 years have passed the list of nominees for 1972 has been released.

101 writers were suggested. More compared with 91 writers in 1971 and 77 writers in 1970, but fewer than the 104 writers suggested in 1969.

Kaj Schueler from Svenska Dagbladet has visited the archives and written this article (see translation of it in my next post).

The shortlist for the 1972 prize turned out to be:

• Heinrich Böll (awarded this year)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)

Apparently there were discussions during the deliberations if the prize should be shared between Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. The Nobel Committee got united behind Böll, but one member (Artur Lundkvist) said he would have preferred Patrick White.



From the list of suggestions we can also learn the the following:

Nominees who would be awarded in coming years:

• Patrick White (awarded in 1973)
• Eyvind Johnson (awarded in 1974)
• Harry Martinson (awarded in 1974)
• Eugenio Montale (awarded in 1975)
• Saul Bellow (awarded in 1976)
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Elias Canetti (awarded in 1981)
• William Golding (awarded in 1983)
• Claude Simon (awarded in 1985)
• Elie Wiesel (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986)
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Günter Grass (awarded in 1999)
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)

Most nominations:

• W.H. Auden, 10 nominations
• Heinrich Böll, 8 nominations
• André Malraux, 6 nominations
• André Chamson, 5 nominations
• Louis Paul Boon, 4 nominations
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 4 nominations
• Günter Grass, 4 nominations
• Patrick White, 4 nominations

Nominees who had been nominated for most years up to this point:

• André Malraux - 23rd year
• Alberto Moravia - 18th year
• Graham Greene - 17th year
• Thornton Wilder - 15th year
• Taha Hussein - 14th year
• Miroslav Krleza - 14th year
• Ezra Pound - 14th year

First-time nominees (27 in total, 2 more than in 1971 and 1970 and 3 fewer than in 1969):

• Said Akl
• Louis Paul Boon
• Anthony Burgess
• Suniti Kumar Chatterji
• Sri Chinmoy
• Austin Clarke
• Odysseas Elytis (awarded in 1979)
• Jacob Glatstein
• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Julien Green
• Joseph Heller
• Ferenc Juhász
• Manbohdan Lal
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Stanislaus Lynch
• Norman Mailer
• Bernard Malamud
• Frederick Manfred
• Veijo Meri
• V. S. Naipaul (awarded in 2001)
• Pak Dujin
• Alan Paton
• Philip Roth
• Francis Stuart
• Vu Hoàng Chuong
• Aaron Zeitlin

Nominations from members of the Swedish Academy:

• Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (by the Nobel Committee)
• Luis Buñuel (by Lars Forssell)
• Anthony Burgess (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Odysseas Elytis (by Artur Lundkvist)
• William Golding (by the Nobel Committee)
• Nadine Gordimer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Julien Green (by Johannes Edfelt)
• Joseph Heller (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Vladimír Holan (by the Nobel Committee)
• Gyula Illyés (by Lars Gyllensten and Artur Lundkvist)
• Eyvind Johnson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• Ferenc Juhász (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Miroslav Krleza (by the Nobel Committee)
• Siegfried Lenz (by the Nobel Committee)
• Doris Lessing (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Norman Mailer (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Bernard Malamud (by Lars Gyllensten)
• Harry Martinson (by Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded in 1951)
• V. S. Naipaul (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Philip Roth (by Artur Lundkvist)
• Arno Schmidt (by the Nobel Committee)
• Claude Simon (by the Nobel Committee)
• Yiannis Ritsos - by Per Wästberg, as chairman of Swedish PEN (Wästberg became a member of the SA in 1997 and was chairman of the Nobel Committee 2004-2017)

Nominated women (5 in total, up from 1 in 1971 and 2 in 1970, and on same level as in 1969):

• Nadine Gordimer (awarded in 1991)
• Doris Lessing (awarded in 2007)
• Astrid Lindgren
• Anna Seghers
• Marie Under

Nominations from former laureates:

• Graham Greene (by 1972 laureate Heinrich Böll) - Böll nominated Greene not as a former laureate, but as the president of PEN Germany
• Eyvind Johnson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Johnson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Harry Martinson (by 1951 laureate Pär Lagerkvist) - Martinson was at the time of nomination a member of the SA (just as Lagerkvist had been when he was awarded)
• Zaharia Stancu (by 1967 laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias)

Oldest and youngest nominees:

• Compton Mackenzie - 89 years old
• Philip Roth - 39 years old

Talking about splitting the Nobel.

Apart from 1904, 1917, 1966 and 1974, there been failed attempts to split the prize: the discussed split between Grass and Boll was the second time in three years (since Malraux/Beckett debate in 1969). Other times include discussions between Angelos Sikelianos and TS Eliot in 1948, Laxness and Gunnar Ginnarson in 1955, Sholokhov and Akhmatova in 1965, Borges and Asturias in 1967, Gorky/Bunin in 1933, Jakob Knudsen and Karl Gjellerup in 1916, Ibsen and Bjorstjern Bjorson in 1903 and Sienkiewicz and Orzeskowa in 1905. An Academy member disclosed in 1979 that they were plans to split the Prize between Elytis/Ristos, but in the last minute, Elytis got the most votes. Wouldn't be surprised if we see something similar between Antunes and Saramago.

 

[Ben Jackson]

For those of you who are interested in reading more about the decision, but are not able to beacuse of the pay-wall, here is a translation of Kaj Schueler's article from Svenska Dagbladet.

The Nobel laureate was believed to support the terrorists.

In 1972, when Heinrich Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, he caused a scandal in Germany. Kaj Schueler reads documents that have been secret for 50 years - and discovers a famous Swede among the proposals.

From a Swedish perspective, the 1972 Nobel discussions were particularly interesting . For the first time, Astrid Lindgren was proposed for the Nobel Prize. The proposals came from three independent German researchers on youth literature. But the Academy took a wait-and-see attitude and took no further action. "The author's worldwide reputation and undeniable talent are not considered reasons enough to immediately recommend the proposal."

On the same occasion, the member and Nobel laureate Pär Lagerkvist proposed that the prize should be awarded to Harry Martinson. The Nobel Committee did not consider itself able to make this proposal, but it must be discussed in the entire Academy, which caused Artur Lundkvist to make a point of principle in his statement.

"It is not only highly respectable but almost inevitable that Mr. Lagerkvist, as a former Swedish Nobel laureate within the Academy, in this way insists on yet another Nobel Prize for an academy colleague. But in its ultimate consequence it involves the prospect of recurring rewards to academy members, and that is something that, in my view, should be avoided. /…/ My opinion is that one should think very carefully before awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to a Swede at all, and that in the current situation there is a special reason why this does not happen."

As we know, it would only take two years before Harry Martinson got to share the prize with Eyvind Johnson. Sharing the prize was also highly topical in 1972. In the discussion in the Nobel Committee, it was proposed that this year's prize should be shared between Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. However, the committee's chairman Karl Ragnar Gierow had objections: "The impression of a halved prize can easily be, as we all know, that neither recipient has earned the whole thing. The recourse can therefore only be resorted to when it is clear, preferably also outside the Academy, that they are both entitled to the award but that one will in practice be excluded, if the other receives it. I'm not really convinced that Grass is now fully comparable to Böll in this regard."

In his statement, Gierow writes that with regard to previous prize winners, "the emphasis has been more on a tactical assessment than on a literary one." He wonders if this is a "good principle or a bad habit" but finds that it is also a passable path this year. But he claims that in 1972 there are "stronger names than those now selected by the committee", i.e. Böll, Grass, Montale and White. "In other words, this is also conditioned by other considerations than the purely literary ones."

He believes that in the last ten years the prize has "been more densly than before [awarded to] outside the regions that are habitually regarded as the main soil of contemporary cultivation. It remains to be seen whether this good has led to a troublesome drought in otherwise natural rainfall areas.”

Gierow believes that English and German literature has been left behind for far too long. According to him, this particularly applies to English literature, while the treatment of German literature has been "rather unkind".

It was finally a unanimous Nobel committee that proposed Heinrich Böll as the 1972 laureate, although Artur Lundkvist would have preferred Patrick White (1973 laureate).

Heinrich Böll was proposed for the Nobel Prize for the first time in 1960 and every year thereafter, with the exception of 1967 and 1971. Already in 1960, an expert opinion was written by the national librarian Uno Willers, which was supplemented in 1962. In his opinion in 1960, the chairman of the Nobel Committee Anders Österling stated that "there are good reasons to pay attention to Böll's continued development; his talent should in any event be the greatest promise of the future in German literature at the present time.”

Once he was awarded the prize, he had thus long been highly topical, but the Nobel Committee had, during the second half of the 60s, taken a wait-and-see attitude, waiting for new works by the author. Therefore, he was not included in the discussion in 1971 - the year before he was awarded. That year, however, his novel "Group Portrait with Lady" was published in Germany and was absolutely decisive for him being considered in 1972.

Böll was one of the few German writers – alongside Wolfgang Borchert – who immediately after 1945 took an interest in the Second World War: lying in the field, the homecoming and the homeland lying in ruins. After all, he himself had participated as a soldier from basically the first to the last day of the Second World War. He examined the past and his own country with critical eyes. Put humanity in a difficult time against complicity. He was a representative of the new and better (West) Germany and he acted so that the country would not deliberately forget the past. It was important, if not crucial, to remember the terrible Nazi years.

So when Böll was awarded the Nobel Prize, he was seen in his home country as a politically controversial writer, a strong critic of post-war West German politics where the state power and the ruling CDU party, according to him, had put the lid on the Nazi past. He himself was an anti-clerical devout Catholic and sympathized with the left wing of social democracy. The controversies became really serious during the years when West Germany was hit by quite extensive left-wing terrorism. In 1972, Böll published an essay in the magazine Der Spiegel with the title "Does Ulrike want mercy or a free lease?", where he argued against what he called the witch-hunt for Ulrike Meinhof and pleaded for a humane treatment of the terrorists. It became a scandal and Böll was accused of supporting terrorism. In the debate, he was called the terrorists' "intellectual accomplice" and on June 1, an extensive house search was carried out in his home, without the authorities being able to demonstrate any association with the terrorists.

Even if it is over the top to portray Heinrich Böll as a completely forgotten author, today not many people read him, neither in Sweden nor in Germany. But even those who are indifferent probably drool over the drivel reading-attractive titles, he had a unique ability to both summarize and provide a forward movement in the book titles. It is almost pleasurable to rabble only Heinrich Böll's titles.

But time has run away from Böll, as a writer and person he found himself in the present during a period when the Nazi past was contemporary. His political involvement as expressed in his novels is today possibly perceived as dated, and his stylistic means, such as the matter-of-fact and satirical narrative, are likely to pass the reader by in the 21st century.

But in 1972, when Böll received the award, he had not yet written his most successful, and in a way still current, novel, "The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum", in which he directs sharp criticism at the German tabloid press. The book also became an acclaimed film directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta.

I don't really understand Geography, but what does Gierow meant by " drought in otherwise natural rainfall areas?" I understood that by stating "main soil of contemporary cultivation" he meant Europe.

As for under representation of English and German, this is certain true. It took Germany more than 25 years since Hesse for Boll to come in and in turn 27 years before Grass. Before Hesse it was nearly 20 years after Mann before Hesse. In the first 13 years of the Nobel, there were three winners from Germany, but since the turn of this century, there haven't been a German born winner (Herta Muller writes in German but she's from Romania). English born writers (not those that writes in English language), have fared better: Pinter and Lessing won the Nobel this century.

I did remembered Gierow in 1964 complaining of the over-representation of France (then four since 1945), this might have been the reason why there wasn't a French winner in the 70s (there were rumours of De Beavoir, Char, Jean Genet and Yourcenar been candidates that decade).

As for Boll, it was a good decision, I believed. The Clown and Group Portrait with a Lady are fantastic works even though I could chose White over him.

 

[kpjayan]

I think, our dear friend @kpjayan knows It better, but I think it's this guy:

Bhagwaan Ram Bal Leela : Manbodhan Lal : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Book Source: Digital Library of India Item 2015.378824dc.contributor.author: Manbodhan Laldc.date.accessioned: 2015-09-09T13:55:04Zdc.date.available:...

archive.org

Sorry to disappoint you. I haven't heard his name in any of the prominent poets list in Hindi. Apart from the one you listed, there aren't any more of his works available.

Also, the 'Indian' names in the nomination intrigues me. Apart from Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, who in my opinion is one of the biggest names in Bengali Literature , the rest of the names aren't the one I would associate with Nobel.

Suniti Kumar Chatterji - Mostly a linguist. His work on Bengali language and other liguistic studies are well known. But not much for his other writings. He was the chairman of the 'Sahitya Aademy', which probably would have helped.

Sri Chinmoy - A spiritual Leader / Bengali born in India and moved to US. His wiki says he had written about 1300 books of poems !

And of course, the Manbohdan Lal. Even this wiki article does not have any details..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nominees_for_the_Nobel_Prize_in_Literature

 

[hayden]

Thank you Marba— if it weren't for you, I'd still be digging around for this whoknowswhen whoknowswhere—

Now that I've re-read it and analyzed it a smidge, in my opinion, this is one of the most interesting archive releases we've seen.
Between Lessing, Roth, Heller, and Naipaul landing first noms way before I figured they would (by at least a decade) and Grass being on the shortlist 27 years before he won (I mean... that's wild). Astrid Lindgren being nominated is awesome— figured she would have been overlooked. Also excellent to see international representation ballooning this year.

I'm looking forward to having a bit of spare time this weekend to spend diving into the new names I'm not familiar with (giving it a skim, there's at least 12-15 names I've never heard of). If I can find something to read by them, that's another story, but it should still be a fun bit of digging. Healthy handful of poets from all corners of the world by the looks of it.

Sadly, first-time nominee Jacob Glatstein passed away the year prior.

Thanks again Marba. I'm sure I'll be back to post in this thread sometime soon.

EDIT: Am I reading this right? Louis Paul Boon was a pornography writer? Is this a first?

 

[Ben Jackson]

Thank you Marba— if it weren't for you, I'd still be digging around for this whoknowswhen whoknowswhere—

Now that I've re-read it and analyzed it a smidge, in my opinion, this is one of the most interesting archive releases we've seen.
Between Lessing, Roth, Heller, and Naipaul landing first noms way before I figured they would (by at least a decade) and Grass being on the shortlist 27 years before he won (I mean... that's wild). Astrid Lindgren being nominated is awesome— figured she would have been overlooked. Also excellent to see international representation ballooning this year.

I'm looking forward to having a bit of spare time this weekend to spend diving into the new names I'm not familiar with (giving it a skim, there's at least 12-15 names I've never heard of). If I can find something to read by them, that's another story, but it should still be a fun bit of digging. Healthy handful of poets from all corners of the world by the looks of it.

Sadly, first-time nominee Jacob Glatstein passed away the year prior.

Thanks again Marba. I'm sure I'll be back to post in this thread sometime soon.

EDIT: Am I reading this right? Louis Paul Boon was a pornography writer? Is this a first?

Same thing I saw too. Although I believed our friend Tiga has a book or two of Paul Boon, I haven't heard much of Boon till I read his bio on Wikipedia. I don't know much about writers of pornography getting nominated for the Nobel, but I'm aware of Anais Nin, the famous writer of erotica, getting nominated by Christopher Isherwood for Nobel in 1976.

As for the unfamiliar writers, can you list some of them?

 

[hayden]

As for the unfamiliar writers, can you list some of them?

Apart from some quick Googling today, I'd never heard of these new nominees—
Said Akl
Louis Paul Boon
Suniti Kumar Chatterji
Sri Chinmoy
Austin Clarke (?)*
Jacob Glatstein
Julien Green
Ferenc Juhász
Manbohdan Lal
Stanislaus Lynch
Frederick Manfred
Veijo Meri
Pak Dujin
Francis Stuart
Vu Hoàng Chuong
Aaron Zeitlin

*I've also just realized I think I've misunderstood the nomination of Austin Clarke. I'm familiar with Austin Clarke (??/??), but he only had 2 or 3 published works by this time, and based on the nominator I'm going to assume they actually nominated Austin Clarke (??), who until now I've never heard of.

 

[Benny Profane]

From what I've read, The Irish Austin Clarke was a great poet:

The Blackbird Of Derrycairn
by Austin Clarke

Stop, stop and listen for the bough top
Is whistling and the sun is brighter
Than God's own shadow in the cup now!
Forget the hour-bell. Mournful matins
Will sound, Patric, as well at nightfall.

Faintly through mist of broken water
Fionn heard my melody in Norway.
He found the forest track, he brought back
This beak to gild the branch and tell, there,
Why men must welcome in the daylight.

He loved the breeze that warns the black grouse,
The shouts of gillies in the morning
When packs are counted and the swans cloud
Loch Erne, but more than all those voices
My throat rejoicing from the hawthorn.

In little cells behind a cashel,
Patric, no handbell gives a glad sound.
But knowledge is found among the branches.
Listen! That song that shakes my feathers
Will thong the leather of your satchels.


The Lost Heifer
by Austin Clarke

When the black herds of the rain were grazing,
In the gap of the pure cold wind
And the watery hazes of the hazel
Brought her into my mind,
I thought of the last honey by the water
That no hive can find.

Brightness was drenching through the branches
When she wandered again,
Turning sliver out of dark grasses
Where the skylark had lain,
And her voice coming softly over the meadow
Was the mist becoming rain.


The Planters Daughter
by Austin Clarke

When night stirred at sea,
An the fire brought a crowd in
They say that her beauty
Was music in mouth
And few in the candlelight
Thought her too proud,
For the house of the planter
Is known by the trees.

Men that had seen her
Drank deep and were silent,
The women were speaking
Wherever she went --
As a bell that is rung
Or a wonder told shyly
And O she was the Sunday
In every week.

The Awakening of Dermuid
By Austin Clarke (From “The Vengeance of Finn.”)

In the sleepy forest where the bluebells
Smouldered dimly through the night,
Dermuid saw the leaves like glad green waters
At daybreak flowing into light,
And exultant from his love upspringing
Strode with the sun upon the height.

Glittering on the hilltops
He saw the sunlit rain
Drift as around the spindle
A silver-threaded skein,
And the brown mist whitely breaking
Where arrowy torrents reached the plain.

A maddened moon
Leapt in his heart and whirled the crimson tide
Of his blood until it sang aloud of battle
Where the querns of dark death grind,
Till it sang and scorned in pride
Love—the froth-pale blossom of the boglands
That flutters on the waves of the wandering wind.

Flower-quiet in the rush-strewn sheiling
At the dawntime Grainne lay,
While beneath the birch-topped roof the sunlight
Groped upon its way
And stooped above her sleeping white body
With a wasp-yellow ray.

The hot breath of the day awoke her,
And wearied of its heat
She wandered out by the noisy elms
On the cool mossy peat,
Where the shadowed leaves like pecking linnets
Nodded around her feet.

She leaned and saw in the pale-grey waters,
By twisted hazel boughs,
Her lips like heavy drooping poppies
In a rich redness drowse,
Then swallow—lightly touched the ripples
Until her wet lips were
Burning as ripened rowan berries
Through the white winter air.

Lazily she lingered
Gazing so,
As the slender osiers
Where the waters flow,
As green twings of sally
Swaying to and fro.

Sleepy moths fluttered
In her dark eyes,
And her lips grew quieter
Than lullabies.
Swaying with the reedgrass
Over the stream
Lazily she lingered
Cradling a dream.

Austin Clarke Poetry Irish culture and customs - World Cultures European

From the legend of the Claddagh ring to 'drowning the Shamrock' on St. Patrick's Day Irish Culture and Customs is a collection of articles and stories that covers a wide variety of topics drawn from Ireland's rich history and heritage. - World Cultures European

www.irishcultureandcustoms.com

 

[Benny Profane]

Julien Green

Green was a catholic writer who wrote about the catholic apologetics, Psyochology, sexual and cultural education for youth.
I think he isn't your cup of tea.


I read one of his books when I was a catholic child. A great book about Sexuality.