The 1939 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Finnish writer Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) "for his deep understanding of his country’s peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1939 nobelprize.org He is the first and the only Finnish recipient of the prize.Frans Eemil Sillanpää britannica.com
Laureate
Sillanpää made his literary debut with short stories published in newspaper Uusi Suomi in Helsinki. His first novel, Elämä ja aurinko ("Life and Sun", 1916), garnered recognition for its audacious portrayal of adolescent love while also employing a Darwinian method of character observation. His artistic works frequently referenced people as elemental entities. The novel Hurskas kurjuus ("Meek Heritage", 1919), depicts the crofter Juha Toivola's life and terrible end, and the revolt of the Finns during their civil war is explained. Sillanpää authored 10 collections of short stories in addition to seven novels, among them Nuorena nukkunut ("The Maid Silja", 1931) and Ihmiset suviyössä ("People in the Summer Night", 1934).Frans Eemil Sillanpää – Facts nobelprize.org
Deliberations Nominations Sillanpää was nominated in 39 occasions since 1930. He received the highest number of nominations in 1938 with six nominations from literary critics and academics. In 1939, he received three nominations from a number of professors and members of Åbo Akademi University, University of Helsinki, and Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.Nomination archive – Frans E Sillanpää nobelprize.org
In total, the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy received 45 nominations. Ten of the nominees were newly elected such as Flávio de Carvalho, Herbert Samuel, Ethel Florence Richardson, Hugh Walpole, Johan Huizinga, Henriette Roland Holst, Maria Dąbrowska, and Hu Shih. The highest number of nominations was for the Danish author Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, who was awarded in 1944, with four nominations. Seven of the nominees were women namely Maria Dąbrowska, Maila Talvio, Henriette Charasson, Sally Salminen, Henriette Roland Holst, Ethel Florence Richardson, and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício.Nomination archive – 1939 nobelprize.org
The authors Pedro Nolasco Cruz Vergara, Ethel M. Dell, Havelock Ellis, Ford Madox Ford, Ludwig Fulda, Agnes Giberne, Zane Grey, Richard Halliburton, Sidney Howard, Kyōka Izumi, Okamoto Kanoko, Vladislav Khodasevich, Volter Kilpi, Antonio Machado, Anton Makarenko, Leonard Merrick, Llewelyn Powys, Amanda McKittrick Ros, Joseph Roth, Edward Sapir, Caton Theodorian, Vũ Trọng Phụng, Amy Catherine Walton, William Drake Westervelt, William Huntington Wright (known as S. S. Van Dine), and Iris Guiver Wilkinson (known as Robin Hyde) died in 1939 without having been nominated for the prize.
Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)1Mark Aldanov (1886–1957)biography, novel, essays, literary criticism Ivan Bunin (1870–1953)2Eugène Baie (1874–1964) law, essays Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949)3René Béhaine (1880–1966) novel, short story, essaysAlbert Feuillerat (1874–1952)4Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography5Sanjib Kumar Chaudhuri (1902–)law, philologyR. K. Danungo (–)6António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) poetryPer Hallström (1866–1960)7Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) history, philosophy, law8Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965) novel, short story, essays, drama, literary criticismSten Bodvar Liljegren (1885–1984)9Flávio de Carvalho (1899–1973)drama, essays, memoirPaul Vanorden Shaw (1898–1970)10Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) poetry, essays António Baião (1878–1961)11Olav Duun (1876–1939) novel, short story12Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) novel, short story, essays13Hans Fallada (1893–1947)novel, short storyOlle Holmberg (1893–1974)14Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) history, essays, poetry Sven Lönborg (1871–1959)15Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) poetry, novelHjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)16Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)novel, poetry, essays, short storySigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970)17Hu Shih (1891–1962) essays, philosophy, history, poetry, pedagogySven Hedin (1865–1952)18Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) history4 members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences19Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophyTorgny Segerstedt (1876–1945)20Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) novel, short story, essays21Josip Kosor (1879–1961)()novel, poetry, dramaBranko Popović (1882–1944)22Bijay Chandra Majumdar (1861–1942)essaysMukundadeb Chatterjee (–)23Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) philology, historyHjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)24Egidio Poblete Escudero (1868–1940)novel, short story, poetry, essaysMiguel Luís Amunátegui Reyes (1862–1949)25Ethel Florence Richardson (1870–1946)novel, short story, memoir, translationSten Bodvar Liljegren (1885–1984)26Henriette Roland Holst (1869–1952) poetry, essays, biographyHjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)27Sally Salminen (1906–1976) novel, essays, autobiographyHenrik Schück (1855–1947)28Herbert Samuel (1870–1963)philosophy, law, essaysPer Hallström (1866–1960)29Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) novel, short story, poetry30Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969) novel, short story Fredrik Böök (1883–1961)31Maila Talvio (1871–1951)novel, short story, translationVeikko Antero Koskenniemi (1885–1962)32Paul Valéry (1871–1945) poetry, philosophy, essays, drama33Hugh Walpole (1884–1941)novel, short story, drama, memoirSten Bodvar Liljegren (1885–1984)
Prize decision
In the Nobel committee's report to the Swedish Academy dated 21 September 1939, the candidacy of the eventually awarded Frans Eemil Sillanpää was rejected by the committee: "Despite all appreciation of the author's extraordinary style and ability to portray has not been able to grant him enough scope and power in the portrayal of people and narrative imagination to defend the proposed award of the Nobel Prize. Some of the Committee members have valued him much higher, and even among the other members of the Academy there has been no lack of support for the proposal. However, a majority in favor of this has not yet been achieved. The Committee does not wish to recommend the proposal at present."
Recommended candidates for the 1939 prize were the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, German poet and novelist Hermann Hesse and Flemish Belgian writer Stijn Streuvels. There were equal support in the committee for Huizinga and Hesse, two members, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld and Per Hallström, advocated a prize to Huizinga, two members, Anders Österling and Torsten Fogelqvist, advocated Hesse, while the fifth member Fredrik Böök proposed Streuvels.
In a separate report, Hammarskjöld argued for Huizinga's candidacy: "In my opinion, the Academy has rarely had to take a position on a candidacy that so closely corresponded to the founder's intentions and at the same time had current interest". Hammarskjöld also stated that he opposed Hesse's candidacy: "I find myself completely unable to contribute to a Nobel Prize for an author whose main and most notable production is of such a degrading and — to use an expression that fortunately probably lacks a full equivalent in the Swedish language — morbid character as Hesse's." Hallström commented that "However much [Hesse] wins the reader's heart, he cannot be called a poet of truly great proportions". Österling and Fogelqvist, on the other hand, argued that the current times was the right time to award Hesse as an "apolitical writer and at the same time a worthy and sympathetically original representative of the repressed but lingering humanism."
On 10 November 1939 the Swedish Academy decided that that year's Nobel Prize in Literature should be awarded to the Finnish author Frans Eemil Sillanpää "for his deep understanding of his country’s peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature."
It has been speculated that Sillanpää was awarded for political reasons rather than for his literary merits, but documents show that the 1939 conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union was not mentioned in the deliberations by the Nobel committee.
Hermann Hesse was subsequently awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Aftermath A few days after he received the prize, talks between Finland and Soviet Union broke down and the Winter War began. Sillanpää donated the golden medal to be melted for funds to aid the war effort.
References
External links Award ceremony speech by Per Hallström nobelprize.org Frans Eemil Sillanpää – Documentary nobelprize.org