1960 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the French poet Saint-John Perse (1887–1975) "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time" The Nobel Prize in Literature 1960 nobelprize.org

Laureate

Sain-John Perse, pseudonym for Alexis Leger, was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, where his family owned two plantations: a coffee and a sugar plantation. His family went back to France in 1899 and settled in Pau. In 1911, he published his first poetry collection Éloges and Other Poems which was almost completely ignored at the time, and one of the few writers who paid it any attention was Marcel Proust, who praised him as a creative young poet, but afterwards, in 1912, he started earning steady success with the help of Valery Larbaud and André Gide. His poetry, admired especially by literary circles, has been compared to that of Arthur Rimbaud. In 1914, he joined the French diplomatic service and spent many years abroad in various countries. While working as a consul in China, he wrote Anabase ("Anabasis", 1924), an epic poem that puzzled many critics. In 1940, he began a long exile in the U.S. in Washington, D.C. wherein much of his poetry has a profoundly personal tone, as in Exil (1942; "Exile"), Vents (1946; "Winds") and Amers (1957; "Seamarks").

Deliberations Nominations Saint-John Perse was nominated for the prize 15 times, including one nomination by 1937 Nobel laureate Roger Martin du Gard in 1956 and three nominations by the 1948 Nobel Prize laureate T. S. Eliot in 1955, 1958 and 1960.

In total, the Nobel committee received 70 nominations including nominations for 58 authors, including Ivo Andrić (awarded in 1961), John Steinbeck (awarded in 1962), Jean-Paul Sartre (awarded in 1964), Robert Frost, André Malraux, Romulo Gallegos, Aldous Huxley, Louis Aragon, Johan Falkberget, Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, Alberto Moravia, Ignazio Silone, Ezra Pound, Julien Gracq, E. M. Forster, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Junichiro Tanizaki, Miguel Torga and Tarjei Vesaas. Fourteen of the nominees were newly nominated namely Heinrich Böll (awarded in 1972), Wesley LaViolette, Aquilino Ribeiro, Marie Noël, Jean Price-Mars, James Thurber, Franz Theodor Csokor, Stratis Myrivilis, Elias Venezis, Aksel Sandemose, John Boyton Priestley and René Char. There were only four women nominated namely Maria Dąbrowska, Marie Noël, Juana de Ibarbourou and Karen Blixen.

The authors Sibilla Aleramo, Vicki Baum, Ya'akov Cahan, Ralph Chubb, Hjalmar Dahl, Harold Lenoir Davis, Leonora Eyles, Paul Fort, Ethel Voynich, Ferdynand Goetel, Sigurd Hoel, Zora Neale Hurston, Raïssa Maritain, John P. Marquand, Elsie J. Oxenham, Pierre Reverdy, Nevil Shute, Tetsuro Watsuji and Richard Wright died in 1960 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 Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) novel, short story, poetry 2 Louis Aragon (1897–1982) novel, short story, poetry, essays Henry Olsson (1896–1985) 3 Werner Bergengruen (1892–1964) novel, short story, poetry Wolfgang Stammler (1886–1965) 4 Karen Blixen (1885–1962) novel, short story, memoir Günther Jungbluth (1912–1976) 5 Heinrich Böll (1917–1985) novel, short story Gustav Korlén (1915–2014) 6 René Char (1907–1988) poetry Georges Blin (1917–2005) 7 Franz Theodor Csokor (1885–1969) drama, essays, poetry, autobiography The Austrian PEN-Club 8 Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965) novel, short story, essays, drama, literary criticism The Polish PEN-Club 9 Henry de Montherlant (1895–1972) essays, novel, drama Henri Morier (1910–2004) 10 Gonzague de Reynold (1880–1970) history, essays, biography, memoir Swiss Writers Association 11 Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) novel, short story, essays 12 Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) 13 Robert Frost (1874–1963) poetry, drama 14 Christopher Fry (1907–2005) poetry, drama, screenplay Arthur Henkel (1915–2005) 15 Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969) novel, short story 16 Armand Godoy (1880–1964) poetry, translation Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876–1973) 17 Julien Gracq (1910–2007) novel, poetry, drama, literary criticism Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) 18 Robert Graves (1895–1985) history, novel, poetry, literary criticism, essays 19 Graham Greene (1904–1991) novel, short story, autobiography, essays Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) 20 Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889–1975) novel, short story, poetry Stellan Arvidson (1902–1997) 21 Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) philosophy, essays Paul Böckmann (1899–1987) 22 Taha Hussein (1889–1973) novel, short story, poetry, translation Olle Hedberg (1899–1974) 23 Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophy R. Fricker (–) 24 Juana de Ibarbourou (1892–1979) poetry, essays Academia Cubana de la Lengua 25 Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) philosophy 26 Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) poetry, drama, short story, novel, essays Association of Writers of Yugoslavia 27 Wesley LaViolette (1894–1978) poetry, essays Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (1909–1992) 28 Wilhelm Lehmann (1882–1968) novel, short story, poetry, essays Friedrich Sengle (1909–1994) 29 André Malraux (1901–1976) novel, essays, literary criticism Claude Digeon (1920–2008) 30 Max Mell (1882–1971) drama, novel, screenplay 31 Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) philology, history 32 Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) novel, literary criticism, essays, drama Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) 33 Stratis Myrivilis (1890–1969) novel, short story The Greek Authors' Union 34 Junzaburō Nishiwaki (1894–1982) poetry, literary criticism Naoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979) 35 Marie Noël (1883–1967) poetry, autobiography Maurice Bémol (1900–1961) 36 Saint-John Perse (1887–1975) poetry 37 Ezra Pound (1885–1972) poetry, essays Ingvar Andersson (1899–1974) 38 Jean Price-Mars (1876–1969) essays, philosophy 39 John Boynton Priestley (1894–1984) novel, drama, screenplay, literary criticism, essays G. Wilson Knight (1897–1985) 40 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) philosophy, essays, law Nirmal Kumar Sidhanta (1929–2014) 41 Aquilino Ribeiro (1885–1963) novel, short story, biography, literary criticism, memoir, translation Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores 42 Mario Roques (1875–1961) history, philology, essays Ida-Marie Frandon (1907–1997) 43 Aksel Sandemose (1899–1965) novel, essays Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) 44 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) philosophy, novel, drama, essays, screenplay Kristian Smidt (1916–2013) 45 Rudolf Alexander Schröder (1878–1962) poetry, songwriting, translation Erich Kästner (1899–1974) 46 Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) novel, short story, essays, drama Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) 47 John Steinbeck (1902–1968) novel, short story, screenplay Henry Olsson (1896–1985) 48 Jules Supervielle (1884–1960) poetry, novel, short story Jean Fabre (1904–1974) 49 Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965) novel, short story Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) 50 Herman Teirlinck (1879–1967) novel, poetry, essays, drama Theodor Frings (1886–1968) 51 James Thurber (1894–1961) essays, short story, drama 52 Miguel Torga (1907–1995) poetry, short story, novel, drama, autobiography 53 George Macauley Trevelyan (1876–1962) biography, autobiography, essays, history Harry Martinson (1904–1978) 54 Elias Venezis (1904–1973) novel, short story 55 Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970) poetry, novel Sigmund Skard (1903–1995) 56 Simon Vestdijk (1898–1971) novel, poetry, essays, translation Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) 57 Heimito von Doderer (1896–1966) novel, short story, poetry, essays Ernst Alker (1895–1972) 58 Karl Heinrich Waggerl (1897–1973) novel, short story, poetry, essays Friedrich Wild (1888–1966)

Prize decision The main contenders for the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature were Saint-John Perse, who had been nominated by the 1948 Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot, and the Yugoslavian author Ivo Andrić. The members of the Nobel committee were divided between the candidates. Committee chairman Anders Österling and Sigfrid Siwertz supported a prize to Ivo Andrić, while Eyvind Johnson and Henry Olsson advocated a prize to Saint-John Perse. Österling found Perse a worthy candidate but a too esoteric poet with "a resonance that is too limited to be appropriately made the subject of a global award such as the Nobel Prize." Olsson, on the other hand, in comparing the two candidates, found that Perse in almost every aspect appeared "as Andrić's opposite and is as global as the other is regional". Olsson and Johnson also argued that Perse was well known and widely acknowledged as a great poet. Österling unsuccessfully argued for a prize to Ivo Andrić, noting the Yugoslav author's "mastered style" that would open "a previously unknown page in the world chronicle and appeals to us from the depths of the tormented national soul", adding that a prize to Andrić would also have the advantage of correcting "the justified criticism of the geographical distribution of the Nobel Prize in Literature.” Andrić was subsequently awarded the prize the following year.

Award ceremony

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1960, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said:

External links Award ceremony speech

References