The 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) "for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1925 nobelprize.org The prize was awarded in 1926. Shaw was the second Irish Nobel laureate in literature after W. B. Yeats won in 1923.

Laureate

George Bernard Shaw, the son of a government servant, was born in Dublin. At the age of 20, he relocated to London after working as a real estate agent. Five of his novels had been turned down before he rose to prominence as a literary and music critic. He was a member of the Fabian Society, a socialist thinktank that had Virginia Woolf among its members. He simultaneously promoted racial biology and made flattering remarks about Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler.

As a theater critic and commentator, Shaw wrote essays to support his critiques of modern British theater. He claimed that art should be educational and address societal issues in his first plays, Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898). Allegories, provocation, and satire are hallmarks of Shaw's plays. The most well-known of his more than 60 plays is Pygmalion (1912). Shaw advanced the theory of "creative evolution," a form of racial biology that denied each person's inherent value. Among his major plays include Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), Man and Superman (1902), Major Barbara (1905), Saint Joan (1923).

Deliberations Nominations George Bernard Shaw was nominated seven times before he, in 1926, was awarded the 1925 prize. He was first recommended to the Nobel Committee in 1911 by British scholar Gilbert Murray and in 1912 by Norwegian academic Kristian Birch-Reichenwald Aars. His nominations came back in 1921 to 1926, when he was nominated annually by three different nominators, Henrik Schück, Tor Hedberg and Nathan Söderblom, all of which are members of the Swedish Academy.

In total, the Swedish Academy received 25 letters nominating 21 writers from Europe including Thomas Hardy, Georg Brandes, Guglielmo Ferrero (with 5 nominations – the highest), Willem Kloos, Paul Sabatier, Paul Claudel, Kostis Palamas, Roberto Bracco, Johan Bojer, Olav Duun and Paul Ernst. Six of the authors were newly nominated, namely Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (awarded in 1944), Giovanni Schembari, Paul Elmer More, Paul Raynal, Ferenc Herczeg and Rudolf Maria Holzapfel. There were only three female authors nominated, namely Grazia Deledda (awarded in 1926), Matilde Serao and Sigrid Undset (awarded in 1928).

The authors Hugo Bettauer, George Washington Cable, Mary Cholmondeley, Gottlob Frege, Mikhail Gershenzon, René Ghil, Pyotr Gnedich, Gerhard Gran, H. Rider Haggard, Emma Curtis Hopkins, José Ingenieros, Gustav Kastropp, Amy Lowell, Felix Liebermann, Pierre Louÿs, Antun Branko Šimić, Rudolf Steiner, Elisabeth von Heyking, Friedrich von Hügel and Sergei Yesenin died in 1925 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 Johan Bojer (1872–1959) novel, drama Christen Collin (1857–1926) 2 Roberto Bracco (1861–1943) drama, screenplay Haakon Shetelig (1877–1955) 3 Georg Brandes (1842–1927) literary criticism, essays Harry Fett (1875–1962) 4 Otokar Březina (1868–1929) poetry, essays 6 professors of the University in Brno 5 Grazia Deledda (1871–1936) novel, short story, essays Henrik Schück (1855–1947) 6 Olav Duun (1876–1939) novel, short story Hjalmar Lindroth (1893–1979) 7 Paul Ernst (1866–1933) novel, short story, drama, essays Emil Ermatinger (1873–1953) 8 Guglielmo Ferrero (1871–1942) history, essays, novel 9 Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) novel, short story, poetry, drama Robert Eugen Zachrisson (1880–1937) 10 Ferenc Herczeg (1863–1954) novel, drama, essays Hungarian Academy of Sciences 11 Rudolf Maria Holzapfel (1874–1930) philosophy, essays Romain Rolland (1866–1944) 12 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) novel, short story, poetry Frederik Poulsen (1876–1950) 13 Willem Kloos (1859–1938) poetry, essays, literary criticism Dutch authors and professors 14 Paul Elmer More (1864–1937) theology, essays, literary criticism Nathan Söderblom (1866–1931) 15 Paul Raynal (1885–1971) drama, essays Tor Hedberg (1862–1931) 16 Paul Sabatier (1858–1928) history, theology, biography Carl Bildt (1850–1931) 17 Giovanni Schembari (1894–1959) essays Achille Loria (1857–1943) 18 Matilde Serao (1856–1927) novel, essays 4 professors of the Academy in Naples 19 George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) drama, essays, novel Tor Hedberg (1862–1931) 20 Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) novel, memoir, essays 2 members of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters 21 Ludwig von Pastor (1854–1928) history Olof Kolsrud (1885–1945)

Prize decision

In their report to the Swedish Academy dated 12 September 1925, the Nobel committee recommended that the prize for 1925 should not be awarded. Among the nominees dismissed were four authors who were subsequently awarded the prize, George Bernard Shaw, Grazia Deledda, Sigrid Undset and Johannes V. Jensen. One committee member, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, unsuccessfully proposed that the year's prize should be awarded to the English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy. The Nobel committee also considered the Czech poet Otokar Březina, but his candidacy was hindered as none of the committee members could read his work in the original language but were referred to rather inadequate German and English translations.

In November 1925, the Swedish Academy declared that no Nobel Prize in Literature would be awarded with the following statement:

After the deliberations in 1926, the Swedish Academy decided that George Bernard Shaw should be awarded the prize for 1925.

Reactions At first, Shaw declined the prize stating "I can forgive Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel prize". He later changed his mind and accepted the honour, but refused to receive the prize money.

Shaw recommended that the prize money instead used to fund the translation of works by Swedish playwright August Strindberg to English.

Award ceremony At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1926, Per Hallström, chairman of the Nobel committee of the Swedish Academy, said:

Notes

References

External links Award ceremony speech Documentary About GB Shaw from George Bernard Shaw Society