The 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Guatemalan writer Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974) "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1967 nobelprize.org He is the first Guatemalan and the second Latin American author to receive the prize after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral won in 1945.
Laureate
Miguel Angel Asturias first book Leyendas de Guatemala ("Legends of Guatemala", 1930) is a compilation of stories originating from Mayan legends. His debut novel El Señor Presidente ("The President", 1946) was a brutal portrayal of a Latin American dictatorship in the early 20th century. He wrote a trilogy – The Banana Trilogy – about the rampage of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala in the 1950s, which included Viento Fuerte ("Strong Wind", 1950), El Papa Verde ("The Green Pope", 1954), and Los ojos de los enterrados ("The Eyes of the Interred", 1960). The works of Asturias are pervaded with social pathos and a potent language that fuses myth and reality, and are generally concerned with repression and injustice against the poor and the weak, both in Guatemala and the rest of Latin America. His other well-known works include Hombres de maíz ("Men of Maize", 1949) and Mulata de tal ("The Mulatta and Mr. Fly", 1963).Miguel Angel Asturias – Facts nobelprize.orgMiguel Ángel Asturias britannica.com
Deliberations Nominations Miguel Ángel Asturias was first nominated in 1964 by Erik Lindegren, a member of the Swedish Academy, and became an annual nominee until 1967 when he was eventually awarded with the prize. He received 3 nominations in 1967 with a single joint nomination with Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.Nomination archive – 1967 nobelprize.orgNomination by Henry Olsson for Asturias and Borges nobelprize.org
In total, the Nobel Committee received 112 nominations for 69 writers including Samuel Beckett, Thornton Wilder, Lawrence Durrell, E. M. Forster, Georges Simenon, Ezra Pound, Robert Graves, André Malraux and J. R. R. Tolkien. Eighteen of the nominees were nominated first-time such as Ivan Drach, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Rabbe Enckell, Saul Bellow (awarded in 1976), Jorge Amado, György Lukács, Claude Simon (awarded in 1985), Pavlo Tychyna, and Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The highest number of nominations was for the Spanish writer José María Pemán with eight nominations from academics and literary critics. The oldest nominee was the Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal (aged 98) and the youngest was Soviet-Ukrainian poet Ivan Drach (aged 31). Five of the nominees were women namely Katherine Anne Porter, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Lina Kostenko, Anna Seghers and Judith Wright.
The authors Djamaluddin Adinegoro, Marcel Aymé, Samira Azzam, Margaret Ayer Barnes, Vladimir Bartol, Ion Buzdugan, Ilya Ehrenburg, Forough Farrokhzad, Sidney Bradshaw Fay, Hugo Gernsback, João Guimarães Rosa, Langston Hughes, Lajos Kassák, Patrick Kavanagh, Margaret Kennedy, José Martínez Ruiz, André Maurois, Carson McCullers, Christopher Okigbo, Dorothy Parker, Arthur Ransome, Elmer Rice, Georges Sadoul, Siegfried Sassoon, Alice B. Toklas, Jean Toomer, David Unaipon, Robert van Gulik, Adrienne von Speyr, and Vernon Watkins died in 1967 without having been nominated for the prize. The Ukrainian poet Pavlo Tychyna died months before the announcement.
Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s)1Jorge Amado (1912–2001) novel, short story2Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987) poetry, essaysGunnar Ekelöf (1907–1968)3Louis Aragon (1897–1982) novel, short story, poetry, essaysCyrille Arnavon (1915–1978)4Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899–1974) novel, short story, poetry, essays, drama5Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–1973)poetry, essays, screenplayWalther Braune (1900–1989)6Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) novel, drama, poetry7Saul Bellow (1915–2005)novel, short story, memoir, essaysPEN Centre Germany8Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) poetry, essays, translation, short story9Emil Boyson (1897–1979) poetry, novel, translation Asbjørn Aarnes (1923–2013)10Arturo Capdevila (1889–1967)poetry, drama, novel, short story, essays, history11Josep Carner (1884–1970) poetry, drama, translation12Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980) novel, short story, essaysLars Gyllensten (1921–2006)13René Char (1907–1988) poetryGeorges Blin (1917–2015)14Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh (1892–1997) short story, translationEhsan Yarshater (1920–2018)15Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) novel, short story, poetry, drama, essaysHarald Patzer (1910–2005)16Rabbe Enckell (1903–1974) short story, poetryKauko Aatos Ojala (1919–1987)17Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929–2022)poetry, essays, translationWolfgang Baumgart (1949–2011)18Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticismAlbrecht Dihle (1923–2020)19Max Frisch (1911–1991) novel, drama20Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969) novel, short storyLars Gyllensten (1921–2006)21Jean Genet (1910–1986)novel, autobiography, drama, screenplay, poetry, essaysKarl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)22Jean Giono (1895–1970) novel, short story, essays, poetry, drama23Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) short story, novel, dramaHenry Olsson (1896–1985)24Robert Graves (1895–1985) history, novel, poetry, literary criticism, essaysJohn Wintour Baldwin Barns (1912–1974)25Graham Greene (1904–1991) novel, short story, autobiography, essaysKarl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)26Lawrence Sargent Hall (1915–1993)novel, short story, essaysRobert Brumbaugh (1918–1992)27Taha Hussein (1889–1973) novel, short story, poetry, translationJussi Aro (1928–1983)28Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994)drama, essaysKarl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982)29Ernst Jünger (1895–1998) philosophy, novel, memoir Rudolf Till (1911–1979)30Friedrich Georg Jünger (1898–1977)poetry, essays, novel, dramaFritz Schalk (1902–1980)31Marie Luise Kaschnitz (1901–1974)novel, short story, essays, dramaHermann Tiemann (1899–1981)32Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972) novel, short storyHoward Hibbett (1920–2019)33Basij Khalkhali (1918–1995)poetrySadeq Rezazadeh Shafaq (1892–1971)34Väinö Linna (1920–1992) novelLars Huldén (1926–2016)35György Lukács (1885–1971)philosophy, literary criticismErik Lindegren (1910–1968)36Karl Löwith (1897–1973) philosophyFranz Dirlmeier (1904–1977)37André Malraux (1901–1976) novel, essays, literary criticism38Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) philology, history39Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) novel, short story, drama, literary criticismHarry Martinson (1904–1978)40Eugenio Montale (1896–1981) poetry, translationUberto Limentani (1913–1989)41Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972) essays, novel, dramaPierre Grimal (1912–1996)42Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) novel, literary criticism, essays, dramaGustaf Fredén (1898–1987)43Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) poetryAndré Saint-Lu (1916–2009)44Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982) poetry, literary criticismNaoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979)45Germán Pardo García (1902–1991)poetryJames Willis Robb (1918–2010)46Konstantin Paustovsky (1892–1968) novel, poetry, dramaEyvind Johnson (1900–1976)47José María Pemán (1897–1981) poetry, drama, novel, essays, screenplay48André Pézard (1893–1984)translation, essaysWilhelm Theodor Elwert (1906–1997)49Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) short story, essaysCleanth Brooks (1906–1994)50Ezra Pound (1885–1972) poetry, essays51Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn Rahnamā (1894–1990)history, essays, translationThe Iranian PEN Club52Anna Seghers (1900–1983) novel, short storyAkademie der Künste der DDR53Georges Simenon (1903–1989)novel, short story, memoirJustin O'Brien (1906–1968)54Claude Simon (1913–2005) novel, essaysErik Lindegren (1910–1968)55Charles Percy Snow (1905–1980) novel, essaysFriedrich Schubel (1904–1991)56John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) novel, short story, poetry, philology, essays, literary criticismGösta Holm (1916–2011)57Pavlo Tychyna (1891–1967)poetry, translationOmeljan Pritsak (1919–2006)58Ivan Drach (1936–2018) poetry, literary criticism, drama59Lina Kostenko (1930–)poetry, novel60Pietro Ubaldi (1886–1972) philosophy, essaysAcademia Santista de Letras61Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)novel, poetry, essays, literary criticismFranz Link (1924–2001)62Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) poetry, novel63Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) novel, poetry, essays, translation64Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) drama, novel, short story65Edmund Wilson (1895–1972) essays, literary criticism, short story, drama66Judith Wright (1915–2000) poetry, literary criticism, novel, essays67Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977) drama, screenplay68Arnold Zweig (1887–1968) novel, short storyAkademie der Künste der DDR69Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968) poetry, essaysEyvind Johnson (1900–1976)
Prize decision Asturias was shortlisted along with Jorge Luis Borges, Graham Greene, W.H. Auden and Yasunari Kawabata (awarded in 1968). Anders Österling, chairman of the Swedish Academy's Nobel committee, favored Graham Greene whom he described as "an accomplished observer whose experience encompasses a global diversity of external environments, and above all the mysterious aspects of the inner world, human conscience, anxiety and nightmares", Österling's second proposal was Kawabata, and Auden his third. An opposing group in the committee including Eyvind Johnson, Erik Lindegren and Henry Olsson did not agree with Österling and presented an alternative proposal with a shared prize to Asturias and Borges as their first proposal, Auden their second and Kawabata their third proposal. The fifth member of the committee, Karl Ragnar Gierow, gave the oppositions proposal his support by proposing Asturias/Borges, Auden and Kawabata in no particular order. Ultimately a shared prize was rejected and Asturias alone was awarded. Despite Asturias winning the prize, Österling regarded him as a writer "too narrowly limited in his revolutionary subject world" and Borges as "too exclusive or artificial in his ingenious miniature art".
Reactions Largely unknown outside of the Spanish American literary world, Asturias was a surprise choice to many contemporary commentators who noted that there were other Spanish language authors more deserving of the Nobel prize.
Award ceremony speech At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1967, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy said:
Nobel lecture Miguel Angel Asturias delivered his Nobel lecture entitled The Latin American Novel Testimony of an Epoch on 12 December 1967. In it he spoke about the tradition and characteristics of the Latin American novel, and stated:
References
External links Ceremony speech by Anders Österling nobelprize.org Miguel Angel Asturias Nobel lecture nobelprize.org 1967 Documentary nobelprize.org