The 1940 Nobel Prize in Literature was not awarded because the Nobel committee's deliberations were upset by the start of World War II on September 1, 1939. Instead, the prize money was allocated with 1/3 to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.The Nobel Prize in Literature 1940 nobelprize.org This was the fourth occasion in Nobel history that the prize was not conferred.
Nominations The Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy received 26 nominations for 19 writers.Nomination archive – 1940 nobelprize.org
Seven of the nominees were nominated first-time such as Carl Sandburg, Gabriela Mistral (awarded in 1945), Lin Yutang, Bert Bailey, and Edmund Blunden. The highest number of the nominations – three nominations – was for the French writer Henriette Charasson. Three of the nominees were women, namely Gabriela Mistral, Henriette Charasson, and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício.
The authors Isaak Babel, Walter Benjamin, E. F. Benson, Marie Bregendahl, John Buchan, Mikhail Bulgakov, Tomás Carrasquilla, Charley Chase, Lucio D'Ambra, William Henry Davies, Mary Bathurst Deane, Charles Edgar du Perron, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hamlin Garland, Emma Goldman, Anton Hansen (known as A. H. Tammsaare), Thomas Little Heath, Nicolae Iorga, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao, Jan Lorentowicz, Edwin Markham, Hendrik Marsman, Ricardo Miró, Eileen Power, Ameen Rihani, T. O'Conor Sloane, Santōka Taneda, Menno ter Braak, Leon Trotsky, Nathanael West, and Humbert Wolfe died in 1940 without having been nominated for the prize.
Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)1Albert Edward Bailey (1868–1953)drama, screenplayGeorges Rency (1875–1951)2Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)poetry, essays, biographyHeinrich Wolfgang Donner (1904–1980)3Gösta Carlberg (1909–1973)novel, poetry, short story, essaysEinar Tegen (1884–1965)4Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography5António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) poetryAntónio Mendes Correia (1888–1960)6Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) poetry, essaysAntónio Baião (1878–1961)7Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticismAnders Österling (1884–1981)8Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) novel, short story, essays9Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) history, essays, poetrySven Lönborg (1871–1959)10Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)history11Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) novel, short story, essays12Lin Yutang (1895–1976) novel, philosophy, essays, translation13Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957)poetry14Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) poetry, essaysIōannēs Kalitsounakēs (1878–1966)15Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) poetry, essays, biography Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951)16Alfonso Strafile (1872–)essaysDomenico Vittorini (1892–1958)17Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969) novel, short storyFredrik Böök (1883–1961)18Felix Timmermans (1886–1947)novel, short story, drama, poetry, essaysPaul Sobry (1895–1954)19Paul Valéry (1871–1945) poetry, philosophy, essays, dramaRolf Lagerborg (1874–1959)
Prize decision The Nobel committee unanimously proposed that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1940 should be awarded to the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, but ultimately no prize was awarded that year. Gabriela Mistral was subsequently awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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