1966 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was divided equally between Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1887–1970) "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people" and Nelly Sachs (1891–1970) "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966 nobelprize.org

It is one of four occasions (the others being 1904, 1917, and 1974) when the Nobel Prize in Literature has been shared between two individuals.Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature nobelprize.org

Laureates

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Agnon was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. His works deal with the conflict of Jewish tradition and language and the modern world. His first works were published when he was a teenager and he immediately gained a reputation. His breakthrough novel was Hakhnāsat kallāh ("The Bridal Cannopy", 1931). After World War II, under the impact of the holocaust, Agnon wrote Ir Umeloah ("A City in its Fullness", 1973), which is a collection of folktales, legends, and chronicles portraying his birth town, Buczacz.S.Y. Agnon Britannica.comShmuel Agnon – Facts nobelprize.org

Nelly Sachs

Nelly Sachs was a German poet and dramatist whose works deal with the dark fate of the Jewish people in the 20th century. She borrows subjects for her poetry from the Jewish beliefs and mysticism, but her authorship is also strongly colored by Nazi persecution of the Jews, with the horrors of the death camps as its ultimate expression. Sachs' poetry combines echoes from the poetry of ancient religious texts with modernist language. Besides poetry, her writings also include a couple of plays.Nelly Sachs Britannica.comNelly Sachs – Facts nobelprize.org Her best-known collections include In den Wohnungen des Todes ("In the Houses of Death", 1947), Sternverdunkelung ("Eclipse of Stars", 1949), and Flucht und Verwandlung ("Flight and Metamorphosis", 1959).

Deliberations Nominations In 1966, the Nobel committee for literature received 99 nominations for 72 writers including Jean Anouilh, Louis Aragon, W. H. Auden, Samuel Beckett (awarded in 1969), Jorge Luis Borges, Heinrich Böll (awarded in 1972), Alejo Carpentier, René Char, Lawrence Durrell, E. M. Forster, Max Frisch, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Jorge Guillén, Yasunari Kawabata (awarded in 1968), André Malraux, Harry Martinson (awarded in 1974), Alberto Moravia, Vladimir Nabokov, Pablo Neruda (awarded in 1971), Ezra Pound, Mika Waltari, Tarjei Vesaas and Simon Vestdijk. Ten of the nominees were nominated first-time, among them Pierre-Henri Simon, Witold Gombrowicz, Arnold Wesker, Carlo Emilio Gadda and Günter Grass (awarded in 1999). Three of the nominees were women: Anna Achmatova, Katherine Anne Porter and Nelly Sachs.Nomination archive 1966 nobelprize.org

The authors Margery Allingham, Hans Christian Branner, Dimitar Dimov, Helga Eng, Svend Fleuron, C. S. Forester, Jean Galtier-Boissière, Mina Loy, Lao She, Kathleen Norris, Frank O'Connor, Frank O'Hara, Brian O'Nolan, Delmore Schwartz, Cordwainer Smith, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki,Caterina Albert(Victor catala),Henry Treece, and Marja-Liisa Vartio died in 1966 without having been nominated for the prize. Soviet-Russian poet Anna Akhmatova died months before the announcement.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)1Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966)poetry2Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1887–1970)novel, short storyEyvind Johnson (1900–1976)3Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)drama, screenplay, translation4Louis Aragon (1897–1982)novel, short story, poetry, essaysRobert Ricatte (1913–1995)5Alexandre Arnoux (1884–1973)screenplay, novelFrançois Bar (1907–1984)6Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974)novel, short story, poetry, essays, dramaCharles Vincent Aubrun (1906–1993)7Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–1973)poetry, essays, screenplay8Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)novel, drama, poetry9Johan Borgen (1902–1979)novel, literary criticismHarry Martinson (1904–1978)10Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)poetry, essays, translation, short story11Henri Bosco (1888–1976)novel, short storyLouis Guinet (1911–1993)12Heinrich Böll (1917–1985)novel, short storyRené Wellek (1903–1995)13Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980)novel, short story, essaysHenri Peyre (1901–1988)14René Char (1907–1988)poetryGeorges Blin (1917–2015)15Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)novel, short story, poetry, drama, essaysHenry Olsson (1896–1985)16Pierre Emmanuel (1916–1984)poetry, autobiographyJacqueline Duchemin (1910–1988)17Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970)novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism18Max Frisch (1911–1991)novel, drama19Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893–1973)novel, short story, poetryMario Pei (1901–1978)20Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969)novel, short storyAndrés Iduarte Foucher (1907–1984)21Hossein Ghods-Nakhai (1911–1977)poetry, essaysArthur John Arberry (1905–1969)22Jean Giono (1895–1970)novel, short story, essays, poetry, dramaJean-Jacques Leveque (1931–2012)23Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969)short story, novel, dramaGunnar Jacobsson (1918–2001)24Günter Grass (1927–2015)novel, drama, poetry, essaysErwin Wolff (1924–2007)25Robert Graves (1895–1985)history, novel, poetry, literary criticism, essays26Graham Greene (1904–1991)novel, short story, autobiography, essaysKristian Smidt (1916–2013)27Jorge Guillén (1893–1984)poetry, literary criticismHenri Peyre (1901–1988)28Leslie Poles Hartley (1895–1972)novel, short story, essaysGeoffrey Tillotson (1905–1969)29Gyula Illyés (1902–1983)poetry, novel, drama, essaysJános Lotz (1913–1973)30Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980)poetry, essays, drama, translation, short story, novelJean Fabre (1904–1975)31Marcel Jouhandeau (1888–1979)short story, novelJean Gaulmier (1905–1997)32Ernst Jünger (1895–1998)philosophy, novel, memoirRudolf Till (1911–1979)33Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)novel, short storyKarl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)34Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981)poetry, drama, short story, novel, essaysGunnar Jacobsson (1918–2001)35Erich Kästner (1899–1974)poetry, screenplay, autobiographyWerner Betz (1912–1980)36Carlo Levi (1902–1975)memoir, novel, short storyMaria Bellonci (1902–1986)37Robert Lowell (1917–1977)poetry, translationEric Bentley (1916–2020)38André Malraux (1901–1976)novel, essays, literary criticism39Harry Martinson (1904–1978)poetry, novel, drama, essaysAlf Önnerfors (1925–2019)40Thierry Maulnier (1909–1988)drama, essays, literary criticismFélix Carrère (1911–1991)41Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968)philology, history 42Vilhelm Moberg (1898–1973)novel, drama, historyGösta Bergman (1894–1984)43Eugenio Montale (1896–1981)poetry, translationUberto Limentani (1913–1989)44Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972)essays, novel, dramaBarthélémy-Antonin Taladoire (1907–1976) 45Alberto Moravia (1907–1990)novel, literary criticism, essays, drama46Henri Muller (1902–1980)novel, memoir, essaysPierre Lyautey (1893–1976)47Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)novel, short story, poetry, drama, translation, literary criticism, memoirJacques Guicharnaud (1924–2005)48Pablo Neruda (1904–1973)poetry49Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982)poetry, literary criticism Naoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979)50Walter Pabst (1907–1992)essays, literary criticismGünther Reichenkron (1907–1966)51Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974)novel, memoir, drama, screenplayJean François-Anatole Ricci (–)52Konstantin Paustovsky (1892–1968)novel, poetry, dramaKarl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)53José María Pemán (1897–1981)poetry, drama, novel, essays, screenplay54Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)short story, essaysCleanth Brooks (1906–1994)55Ezra Pound (1885–1972)poetry, essays56John Boynton Priestley (1894–1984)novel, drama, screenplay, literary criticism, essaysArchibald Tucker (1904–1980)57Jules Romains (1885–1972)poetry, drama, screenplayYves Gandon (1899–1975)58Nelly Sachs (1891–1970)poetry, drama59Paul Celan (1920–1970)poetry, translationHenry Olsson (1896–1985)60Pierre-Henri Simon (1903–1972)essays, novel, literary criticism, poetryPierre Jonin (1912–1997)61Gustave Thibon (1903–2001)philosophyÉdouard Delebecque (1910–1990)62Miguel Torga (1907–1995)poetry, short story, novel, drama, autobiographyJean-Baptiste Aquarone (1903–1989)63Pietro Ubaldi (1886–1972)philosophy, essaysAcademia Santista de Letras64Mika Waltari (1908–1979)short story, novel, poetry, drama, essays, screenplayManfred Mayrhofer (1926–2011)65Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)poetry, novel66Arnold Wesker (1932–2016)drama, novel, essaysAlistair Campbell (1907–1974)67Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971)novel, poetry, essays, translation68Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)drama, novel, short storyMorton Wilfred Bloomfield (1913–1987)69Edmund Wilson (1895–1972)essays, literary criticism, short story, dramaLeon Samuel Roudiez (1917–2004)70Arnold Zweig (1887–1968)novel, short storyHeinz Mettke (1924–2007)71Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968)poetry, essaysEyvind Johnson (1900–1976)72Alberto Hidalgo Lobato (1897–1967)poetry, essaysPeruvian Writers Association

Prize decision The Nobel committee, a working group within the Swedish Academy, proposed that the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature should be awarded to the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, but, unconventionally, the 18 members of the Academy did not follow the recommendation and voted for a prize to Agnon and Sachs.Kaj Schueler Svenska Akademien körde över Nobelkommittén Svenska Dagbladet 2 January 2017 (in Swedish) A shared prize to the Latin American writers Jorge Luis Borges and Miguel Angel Asturias,Nabokov, Neruda and Borges revealed as losers of 1965 Nobel prize The Guardian 6 January 2016 and to Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan were proposed.

Award ceremony In his award ceremony speech on 10 December 1966 Anders Österling of the Swedish Academy said:

References

External links Award Ceremony speech nobelprize.org List of all nominations nobelprize.org