Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature: List. Nobel Prize laureates in literature from the USSR and Russia

The Nobel Prize was established by the industrialist, inventor and chemical engineer from Sweden, Alfred Nobel, and named in his honor. It is considered the most prestigious in the world. Laureates receive a gold medal, which depicts AB Nobel, a diploma, as well as a check for a large sum. The latter consists of the amount of profits that the Nobel Foundation receives. In 1895, Alfred Nobel made a will, according to which his capital was placed in bonds, shares and loans. The income that brings this money every year is divided equally into five parts and becomes a premium for achievements in five spheres: in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and also for activities to strengthen peace.

The first Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded on December 10, 1901, and since then it has been issued annually on this date, which is the anniversary of Nobel's death. The awarding of the winners takes place in Stockholm by the Swedish king himself. After receiving the award, the Nobel Prize winners in literature should give a lecture on the topic of their work within 6 months. This is an indispensable condition for receiving a reward.

The decision about who will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature will be taken by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, as well as by the Nobel Committee itself, which will announce only the number of applicants without naming their names. The very procedure of choice is classified, which sometimes causes vicious reviews of critics and ill-wishers who claim that the award is given for political reasons, and not for literary achievements. The main argument, which is included in the proof, is Nabokov, Tolstoy, Bohrez, Joyce, who were left behind. However, the list of authors who received it still remains impressive. From Russia, the Nobel Prize winners in literature are five writers. Read more about each of them below.

The Nobel Prize for Literature of 2014 was awarded 107 times, it was awarded to Patrick Modiano, a French writer and screenwriter. That is, since 1901 the winners of the award were 111 writers (since four times it was awarded to two authors simultaneously).

List all laureates and get acquainted with each of them - it's quite a long time. The most famous and well-read Nobel Prize laureates in literature and their works are offered to your attention.

1. William Golding, 1983

William Golding won the award for his famous novels, which in his work number 12. The most famous, "Lord of the Flies" and "Heirs", are some of the best-selling books written by Nobel laureates. The novel "The Lord of the Flies", released in 1954, brought the writer world fame. Critics often compare it with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger in terms of its significance for the development of literature and modern thought in general.

2. Tony Morrison, 1993

The Nobel Prize winners in literature are not only men, but also women. Among them is Tony Morrison. This American writer was born in a working family, in Ohio. Entering the Howard University, where she studied literature and the English language, she began writing her own works. The first novel, "The Blueest Eyes" (1970), was written on the basis of a story compiled for a university circle of writers. He is one of the most popular works of Tony Morrison. Another of her novel, "Sula", published in 1975, was nominated for the National Book Award of the United States.

3. John Steinbeck, 1962

The most famous works of Steinbeck are "To the east of paradise", "Grapes of anger", "About mice and people". In 1939, the novel "Grapes of Wrath" became a bestseller, more than 50 thousand copies were sold, and today their number is more than 75 million. Until 1962, the writer was nominated for the award eight times, and he himself believed that he was not worthy of such a reward. And many American critics noted that his later novels were much weaker than the previous ones, and they reacted negatively to this award. In 2013, when some documents of the Swedish Academy were declassified (which were kept in secret for 50 years), it became clear that the writer was awarded because this year he was "the best in a bad company".

4. Ernest Hemingway, 1954

This writer became one of the nine holders of the award for literature, which she was awarded not for creativity in general, but for a specific work, namely for the story "The Old Man and the Sea." This same work, first published in 1952, brought the writer in the next, 1953, and another prestigious award - the Pulitzer Prize.

In the same year, the Nobel Committee included Hemingway in the list of candidates, but Winston Churchill, who by the time was already 79, became the winner of the award, and therefore it was decided not to delay the presentation of the prize. And Ernest Hemingway became the deserved owner of the award in the following year, 1954.

5. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1982

Nobel laureates in literature in 1982 included in their ranks Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He became the first writer from Colombia, who received the award of the Swedish Academy. His books, among which the Chronicle of the Announced Death, The Autumn of the Patriarch, and Love in the Time of Cholera, are among the most sold works written in Spanish, throughout its history. The novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967), which another Nobel laureate, Pablo Neruda, called the greatest after the novel of Cervantes "Don Quixote" a creation in Spanish, was translated into more than 25 languages, and the total circulation of the work was more than 50 Million copies.

6. Samuel Beckett, 1969

The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 was awarded to Samuel Beckett. This Irish writer is one of the most famous representatives of modernism. It was he, together with Eugene Ionescu, who founded the famous "theater of the absurd". Samuel Beckett wrote his works in two languages - English and French. The most famous child of his pen was the play "Waiting for Godot," written in French. The plot of the work is the following. The main characters throughout the play expect a certain Godot, who must make some sense in their existence. However, that does not appear, so the reader or the viewer has to decide independently what kind of image it was.

Beckett was fond of playing chess, enjoyed success with women, but led a rather closed way of life. Even he did not agree to come to the Nobel Prize ceremony, sending his publisher, Jérôme Lyndon, instead.

7. William Faulkner, 1949

The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 went to William Faulkner. He also initially refused to go to Stockholm for the award, but in the end he persuaded him to this daughter. American President John F. Kennedy sent him an invitation to dinner, organized in honor of the Nobel Prize winners. However Faulkner, who considered himself to be "not a writer but a farmer", in his own words, refused to accept the invitation, citing old age.

The most famous and popular novels of the author are "Noise and fury" and "When I was dying." However, success to these works did not come immediately, they were not sold for a long time. The novel "Noise and Fury", published in 1929, for the first 16 years after the publication was sold only in a circulation of three thousand copies. However, in 1949, by the time the author received the Nobel Prize, this novel was already a model of America's classical literature.

In 2012, the UK published a special edition of this work, in which the text was printed in 14 different colors, which was done at the will of the writer so that the reader could notice different time planes. Limited edition of the novel was only 1480 copies and sold out immediately after the release. Now the cost of the book of this rare edition is estimated at about 115 thousand rubles.

8. Doris Lessing, 2007

The Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007 was awarded to Doris Lessing. This writer and poetess from the UK received the award at the age of 88 and became the oldest owner of it. She also became the eleventh woman (out of 13), who won the Nobel Prize.

Lessing did not have much popularity with critics, since she seldom wrote on topics devoted to pressing social issues, she was even often called the propagandist of Sufism, a doctrine preaching a rejection of worldly vanity. Nevertheless, according to The Times, this writer takes the fifth place in the list of the 50 greatest authors of Great Britain, published after 1945.

The most popular work by Doris Lessing is the novel "The Golden Notebook", published in 1962. Some critics refer him to the samples of classical feminist prose, but the writer herself with this opinion categorically disagrees.

9. Albert Camus, 1957

The French writers also received the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of them, a writer, journalist, essayist of Algerian origin, Albert Camus, is "the conscience of the West." The most famous of his works is the novel The Outsider, published in 1942 in France. In 1946 an English translation was made, sales began, and in a few years the number of copies sold was more than 3.5 million.

Albert Camus is often referred to as representatives of existentialism, but he himself did not agree with this and strongly denied such a definition. Thus, in a speech delivered at the awarding of the Nobel Prize, he noted that in his work he strove "to avoid blatant lies and resist oppression."

10. Alice Munro, 2013

In 2013, the Nobel Prize nominees in literature included Alice Munroe in her list. A representative of Canada, this novelist became famous in the genre of a short story. She started writing them early, from the teenage years, but the first collection of her works titled "The Dance of Happy Shadows" was published only in 1968, when the author was already 37 years old. In 1971, the following collection appeared, "The Life of Girls and Women," which critics called "the novel of education." Other of her literary works include books: "And who are you, in fact, such?", "Fugitive", "Satellites of Jupiter", "Too much happiness." According to one of her collections, "Hate, Friendship, Courting, Love, Marriage," published in 2001, there was even a Canadian film called "Far from It," directed by Sarah Polly. The most popular book of the author is "Dear life", published in 2012.

Munroe is often called the "Canadian Chekhov", because the styles of these writers are similar. Like the Russian writer, he is characterized by psychological realism and clarity.

Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature from Russia

To date, the winners are five Russian writers. The first of them was IA Bunin.

1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, 1933

This is a famous Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920 Ivan Alekseevich emigrated to France, and at the awarding ceremony he noted that the Swedish Academy had acted very boldly, awarding an emigre writer. Among the applicants for this year's award was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, thanks in large part to the publication of the book "The Life of Arseniev" by that time, the balance bowed all the same in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.

Bunin began writing his first poems at the age of 7-8. Later his well-known works are published: the story "Village", the collection "Sukhodol", the books "John Rydalets", "The Mister from San Francisco", etc. In the 1920s he wrote "Rose of Jericho" (1924) and " Sunstroke "(1927). And in 1943, the light of the creation of Ivan Alexandrovich, a collection of short stories "Dark alleys" appeared. This book was devoted to only one topic - love, its "dark" and gloomy sides, as the author wrote in one of his letters.

2. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, 1958

The Nobel Prize winners in literature from Russia in 1958 included in their list Boris Leonidovich Pasternak. The poet was awarded a prize in a difficult time. He was forced to abandon it under the threat of exile from Russia. However, the Nobel Committee regarded the refusal of Boris Leonidovich as forced, in 1989 he transferred the medal and diploma after the writer's death to his son. The famous novel "Doctor Zhivago" is a genuine artistic testament of Pasternak. Written this work was in 1955. Albert Camus, laureate of 1957, spoke with admiration of this novel.

3. Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, 1965

In 1965, MA Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Russia once again proved to the whole world that it has talented writers. Starting his literary career as a representative of realism, depicting the profound contradictions of life, Sholokhov, however, in some works is trapped in the socialist current. During the awarding of the Nobel Prize, Mikhail Alexandrovich delivered a speech in which he noted that in his works he sought to give praise to the "nation of toilers, builders and heroes."

In 1926 he began his main novel, The Quiet Don, and completed it in 1940, long before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Sholokhov's works were published in parts, including the Quiet Flows the Don. In 1928, largely thanks to the assistance of AS Serafimovich, a friend of Mikhail Aleksandrovich, the first part appeared in print. The second volume was published the following year. The third was published in 1932-1933, already with the assistance and support of M. Gorky. The last, fourth, volume was published in 1940. This novel was of great importance for both Russian and world literature. It was translated into many languages of the world, became the basis of the famous opera by Ivan Dzerzhinsky, as well as numerous theatrical productions and films.

Some, however, accused Sholokhov of plagiarism (including AI Solzhenitsyn), believing that most of the work was rewritten from the manuscripts of F. D. Kryukov, a Cossack writer. Other researchers confirmed the authorship of Sholokhov.

In addition to this work, Sholokhov in 1932 created and "Virgin Soil Upturned," a work that tells the story of collectivization among the Cossacks. In 1955 the first chapters of the second volume were published, and in the beginning of 1960 the latter were completed.

At the end of 1942, a third novel was published, "They fought for their homeland."

4. Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, 1970

The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 was awarded to AI Solzhenitsyn. Alexander Isaevich took it, but did not dare attend the award ceremony, because he was afraid of the Soviet government, which regarded the decision of the Nobel Committee as "politically hostile." Solzhenitsyn was afraid that he would not be able to return to his homeland after this trip, although the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, which he received, raised the prestige of our country. In his work he touched upon acute social and political problems, actively fought against communism, his ideas and the policy of Soviet power.

The main works of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn are: "One Day of Ivan Denisovich" (1962), the story "Matrenin Dvor", the novel "In the First Circle" (written from 1955 to 1968), "The Gulag Archipelago" (1964-1970). The first published work was the story "One Day of Ivan Denisovich", appeared in the magazine "New World". This publication aroused great interest and numerous responses from readers that inspired the writer to create the "Gulag Archipelago". In 1964, the first story of Alexander Isaevich received the Lenin Prize.

However, a year later he lost the favor of the Soviet authorities, and his works are forbidden to print. His novels The Gulag Archipelago, The First Circle and The Cancer Corps were published abroad, for which the writer was deprived of citizenship in 1974, and he was forced to emigrate. Only 20 years later, he managed to return to his homeland. In 2001-2002 Solzhenitsyn's great work "Two hundred years together" appears. Alexander Isaevich died in 2008.

5. Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky, 1987

The holders of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987 joined the ranks of IA Brodsky. In 1972, the writer was forced to emigrate to the United States, so the world encyclopedia even calls it American. Among all the writers who received the Nobel Prize, he is the youngest. With his lyrics, he interpreted the world as a single cultural and metaphysical whole, and also pointed to the limited perception of man as a subject of cognition.

Iosif Alexandrovich wrote not only in Russian, but also in English, poems, essays, literary criticism. Immediately after the publication in the West of his first collection, in 1965, international glory came to Brodsky. The best books of the author include: "Embankment of the Unconscience," "Part of Speech," "Landscape with a Flood," "The End of a Beautiful Era," "A Stop in the Desert," and others.