The 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American playwright Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy". He is the second American to become a literature laureate after Sinclair Lewis in 1930 and the only American playwright awarded the prize.

Laureate

Influenced by the realist playwrights Chekhov, Strindberg and Ibsen, Eugene O'Neill is regarded as the foremost American dramatist of the 20th century. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society who struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusion and despair. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama four times, first for Beyond the Horizon (1920), his debut play, followed by Anna Christie in 1922, Strange Interlude in 1928 and Long Day's Journey into Night in 1957. Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and the posthumous Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as two masterpieces in a long string of plays.Eugene O'Neill – Facts nobelprize.org

Deliberations Nominations Eugene O'Neill was nominated for the prize three times (1934, 1935, and 1936). In 1936 the Nobel committee received 47 nominations for 27 writers including Paul Valéry, António Correia de Oliveira, Miguel Unamuno, Kostis Palamas, Olav Duun, Jarl Hemmer, Karel Capek, Benedetto Croce, Roger Martin du Gard (awarded in 1937) and Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944). Ten were newly nominated such as Georges Duhamel, Ludwig Klages, Sigmund Freud, Cécile Tormay, Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti and Arvid Mörne. Most nominations were submitted for the Finnish author Frans Emil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939) with five nominations, including two nominations suggesting a shared prize with Jarl Hemmer and Arvid Mörne respectively. Only two women were nominated namely Cécile Tormay Tormay and Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti.

The authors Juliette Adam, Jacques Bainville, Mateiu Caragiale, James Churchward, Eugène Dabit, Adolf de Herz, Teresa de la Parra, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Stefan Grabiński, Federico García Lorca, A. E. Housman, M. R. James, Kitty Lee Jenner, Dezső Kosztolányi, Mikhail Kuzmin, Mourning Dove, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Kristína Royová, Moritz Schlick, Jan Jacob Slauerhoff, Oswald Spengler, Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (known as Premchand), Heinrich Rickert, Ferdinand Tönnies, Lidia Veselitskaya and Zhou Shuren (known as Lu Xun) died in 1936 without having been nominated for the prize.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s) 1 Hari Mohan Banerjee (–1960) essays Devadatta R. Bhandarkar (1875–1950) 2 António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) poetry Luís da Cunha Gonçalvez (1875–1956) 3 Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) history, philosophy, law Julius von Schlosser (1866–1938) 4 Karel Čapek (1890–1938) drama, novel, short story, essays, literary criticism several professors 5 Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) novel, poetry, philosophy, essays, drama 6 Asis Domet (1890–1943) essays, translation G. E. Khoury (–) 7 Roger Martin du Gard (1881–1958) novel, drama, memoir Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941) 8 Georges Duhamel (1884–1966) novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) 9 Olav Duun (1876–1939) novel, short story 10 Alfred Edward Evershed (1870–1941) essays, pedagogy Elias Edward Miller (1878–1937) 11 Hans Fallada (1893–1947) novel, short story Martin Lamm (1880–1950) 12 Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) essays Romain Rolland (1866–944) 13 Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) poetry, novel 14 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) novel, short story, essays 15 Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) philosophy, poetry, essays Wilhelm Pinder (1878–1947) 16 Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer (1878–1962) novel, short story, poetry, drama Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld (1899–1993) 17 Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) novel, essays, poetry, drama Sigurd Agrell (1881–1937) 18 Arvid Mörne (1876–1946) poetry, drama, novel, essays Gunnar Landtman (1878–1940) 19 Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) drama Henrik Schück (1855–1947) 20 Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) poetry, essays 21 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) philosophy, essays, law Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) 22 Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) novel, short story, poetry 23 Hermann Stehr (1864–1940) novel, short story, poetry, drama Hermann August Korff (1882–1963) 24 Cécile Tormay (1875–1937) novel, short story, essays, translation 25 Paul Valéry (1871–1945) poetry, philosophy, essays, drama 26 Edvarts Virza (1883–1940) poetry, essays, translation 27 Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti (1871–1955) novel, poetry, essays

Prize decision Considered authors for the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature included Karel Čapek, Miguel de Unamuno, Cecile Tormay, Georges Duhamel, Roger Martin du Gard, Johannes V. Jensen, Paul Valéry, António Correia de Oliveira, Benedetto Croce, Ludwig Klages and Sigmund Freud, but the Nobel committee found none of the candidates recommendable for the prize. In a separate report to the Swedish Academy, committee member Henrik Schück successfully advocated that the prize for 1936 should be awarded to the American playwright Eugene O'Neill, rather than cancelling the awarding of the prize for a second year in succession. In another separate report, committee member Fredrik Böök pushed for awarding the Hungarian author Cecile Tormay.

On 12 November 1936 the Swedish Academy decided that the postponed prize for 1935 should not be awarded and that the prize for 1936 should be awarded to Eugene O'Neill.

Reactions The choice of Eugene O'Neill was generally well received. "No one in the postwar years has done more to stir interest in drama throughout the world than Mr. O'Neill!", The Guardian said. The Ceylon Daily News said that O'Neill was "our most modern dramatist in that he alone has succeeded in breasting back across that ocean of 2,000 years and more which roll between our time and the ancient Greek." The earlier Irish Nobel prize laureates George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yeats both said that they were pleased that O'Neill was awarded the prize. "I have the greatest admiration for his work", Yeats said. A negative reaction appeared in the communist newspaper The Daily Worker, lamenting that O'Neill had become "increasingly safe and conservative...O'Neill, who started out as a dramatist of the working class, has completed his middle period as the dramatist of a sick middle class."

Banquet speech Because of the state of his health, Eugene O'Neill was unable to travel to Stockholm to receive the prize. But he delivered a speech that was read by the American chargé d'affaires at the banquet in Stockholm City Hall. In the speech, O'Neill paid tribute to the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg and the great influence Strindberg had on his work.

Notes

References

External links Award ceremony speech by Per Hallström Banquet speech by Eugene O'Neill