1954 Nobel Prize in Literature

Ernest Hemingway

The 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded the American author Ernest Hemingway "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style."^[1]

Laureate[]

Ernest Hemingway is known for novels such as The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and the Sea (1952), and also for his short stories.^[2]

Nominations and prize decision[]

Ernest Hemingway was nominated for the prize on four occasions between 1947 and 1954, the first three times by members of the Swedish Academy and in 1954 by an Austrian professor of English linguistics.^[3] In total the Nobel committee received 35 nominations for 27 individuals in 1954, including six nominations for Halldór Kiljan Laxness (who was awarded the prize in 1955). Other nominated authors included André Malraux, Albert Camus, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Nikos Kazantzakis, E. M. Forster, Gottfried Benn and Robert Frost.^[4] According to The New York Times Hemingway had been a serious contender for the prize in 1953, but his candidacy was postponed as members of the Academy thought that Hemingway and his wife may have perished in an air crash in Africa.^[5]

Reactions[]

Hemingway was a favourite to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 along with Halldór Kiljan Laxness. "I am very pleased and very proud to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature," Hemingway said in an interview, but was not able to go to Stockholm to receive the award because of injuries he suffered in two plane crashes in Africa.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Award Ceremony speech nobelprize.org
• List of all nominations for the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature nobelprize.org