Know All Nobel Prize Winners in English Literature

Founded in 1895 by the
Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Nobel Prize
is an annual award acknowledging outstanding contributions to physics,
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics, and peace. The Nobel
Laureates are announced at the beginning of October each year. A couple of
months later, on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, they
receive their prizes from the Swedish King ā€“ a Nobel diploma, a medal, and 10
million Swedish crowns per prize. All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm,
Sweden, except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
Here is a list of some
eminent literary personas that were awarded and adorned this Nobel Prize for
their ornamental contribution in English Literature.
Rudyard Kipling

Name
Rudyard Kipling
Year
1907
Nationality
U.K.
Indian Born
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“in
consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination,
virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration that characterize the
creations of this world-famous author”
Genre
novel,
short story, poetry
Notable Works
The Jungle Book, Kim
Rabindranath Tagore
Name
Rabindranath Tagore
Year
1913
Nationality
Indian
Languages
Bengali & English
Why rewarded?
“because
of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with
consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own
English words, a part of the literature of the West”
Genre
poetry,
novel, drama, short story, music
Notable Works
Gitanjali, Nirjharer Swapanbhanga, Gora, Naibedya etc.
W. B. Yeats
Name
William Butler Yeats
Year
1923
Nationality
Ireland
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression
to the spirit of a whole nation”
Genre
Poetry
Notable Works
A Vision, The Celtic Twilight, The Tower, The Wild Swanā€™s at Coole,
G. B. Shaw
Name
George Bernard Shaw
Year           
1925
Nationality
Ireland
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating
satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty”
Genre
Drama, literary criticism
Notable Works
Arms and the Man,
Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Candida
Sinclair Lewis
Name
Sinclair Lewis
Year
1930
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with
wit and humour, new types of characters”
Genre
novel,
short story, drama
Notable Works
Babbitt, It Canā€™t
Happen Here, Free Air, The Job: An American Novel, Arrowsmith, Mantrap
John Galsworthy
Name
Year
1932
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his distinguished art of narration, which takes its highest form in
The Forsyte Saga
Genre
Novel
Notable Works
The White Monkey,
The Apple Tree, Silver Box, Passers
By, Loyalties, Justice etc.
Eugene O’Neill
Name
Eugene Oā€™Neill
Year
1936
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody
an original concept of tragedy”
Genre
Drama
Notable Works
Beyond the
Horizon, Dynamo, Ah! Wilderness etc
.
P. S. Buck
Name
Pearl S. Buck
Year
1938
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her
biographical masterpieces”
Genre
Novel, biography
Notable Works
The Good Earth,
Pavilion of Women, Peony, The Big Wave, Sons, Dragon Seed etc.
T. S. Eliot

Name
T.S. Eliot
Year
1948
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetryā€¯
Genre
Poetry
Notable Works
The Waste Land, The
Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock

William Faulkner

Name
William Faulkner
Year
1949
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American
novel
Genre
Short story, novel
Notable Works
Abasalom,
Abasalom!, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying etc
.

Bertrand Russell

Name
Bertrand Russell
Year
1950
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“in
recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions
humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”
Genre
Philosophy, essay
Notable Works
Why I am not a
Christian, The Problems of Philosophy, A History of Western Philosophy etc.

Winston Churchill

Name
Sir Winston Churchill
Year
1953
Nationality
United Kingdom
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for
brilliant oratory in defending exalted human valuesā€¯
Genre
history,
essay,
memoirs
Notable Works
My Early Life,
The River War, The World Crisis, Savrola etc
.

Earnest Hemingway

Name
Earnest Hemingway
Year
1954
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“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”
Genre
Novel, short story, screen play
Notable Works
The Old Man and
the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, To
Have and Have Not etc.

John Steinbeck

Name
John Steinbeck
Year
1962
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic
humour and keen social perceptionā€¯
Genre
Novel, short story, screen play
Notable Works
Of Mice and Men,
East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Cannery Row etc.

Samuel Beckett

Name
Samuel Becket
Year
1969
Nationality
Languages
English & French
Why rewarded?
“for
his writing, which – in new forms for the novel and drama – in the
destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”
Genre
Novel, drama, poetry
Notable Works
Waiting for
Godot, Molloy, The Unnamable, Watt etc.

Patrick White

Name
Patrick White
Year
1973
Nationality
Australia(Born in the United Kingdom)
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
an epic and psychological narrative art, which has introduced a new continent
into literatureā€¯
Genre
Novel, short story, drama
Notable Works
Voss, The Tree of
Man, The Eye of the Storm, The Vivisector etc.

Saul Bellow

Name
Saul Bellow
Year
1976
Nationality
United States
(Born in
Canada)
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are
combined in his workā€¯
Genre
Short story, novel
Notable Works
Humboldtā€™s Gift,
Herzog, The Adventure of Augie March, Seize the Day etc
.
Name
Year
1983
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
his novels, which with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the
diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the
world of todayā€¯
Genre
Novel, poetry, drama
Notable Works
Lord of the
Flies, Free Fall, The Inheritors, The Pyramid, The Spire etc.

Wole Soyinka

Name
Wole Soyinka
Year
1986
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“who
in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama
of existence”
Genre
Drama, novel, poetry
Notable Works
The Interpreters,
The Man Died: Prison Notes, Ake: The Years of Childhood etc.

Joseph Brodsky

Name
Joseph Brodsky
Year
1987
Nationality
Languages
English & Russian
Why rewarded?
“for
an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic
intensity”
Genre
Poetry
Notable Works
Less than One, To
Urania, Watermark, So Forth etc.

Nadine Gordimer

Name
Nadine Gordimer
Year
1991
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“who
through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel –
been of very great benefit to humanity”
Genre
Novel, short story, essay
Notable Works
Burgerā€™s
Daughter, Le coservateur, The Pickup, No Time Like the Present, The Lying
Days etc.

Derek Walcott

Name
Derek Walcott
Year
1992
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the
outcome of a multicultural commitment
Genre
Poetry, drama
Notable Works
Omeros, White
Egrets, Tiepoloā€™s Hound etc.

Toni Morrison

Name
Toni Morrison
Year
1993
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“who
in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to
an essential aspect of American reality
Genre
Novel
Notable Works
Beloved, The
Bluest Eye, Jazz, God Helps the Child, Tar baby, A Mercy, Sula, Songs of
Solomon etc
.

Seamus Heaney

Name
Seamus Heaney
Year
1995
Nationality
Ireland (Born in the United Kingdom)
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and
the living pastā€¯
Genre
Poetry
Notable Works
Death of
Naturalist, Human Chain, North, Seeing Things etc.

V. S. Naipaul

Name
V. S. Naipaul
Year
2001
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“for
having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that
compel us to see the presence of suppressed historiesā€¯
Genre
Novel, essay
Notable Works
The Mimic Man, A House for Mr. Biswas, The Enigma of Arrival, A Bend in the River,
An Area of Darkness, Miguel Street, Among the Believers etc.

J. M. Coetzee

Name
J. M. Coetzee
Year
2003
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“who
in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsiderā€¯
Genre
Novel, essay, translation
Notable Works
Disgrace, Foe,
Waiting for the Barbarians, Slow Man, Age of Iron, The Childhood of Jesus,
etc.

Harold Pinter

Name
Harold Pinter
Year
2005
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“who
in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry
into oppression’s closed roomsā€¯
Genre
Drama
Notable Works
The Room, The
Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter, The Dwarf etc.

Doris Lessing

Name
Doris Lessing
Year
2007
Nationality
 United Kingdom
(Born in
Iran)
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“that
epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary
power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny
Genre
novel,
drama, poetry, short story,
memoirs
Notable Works
The Golden
Notebook, The Grass is Singing, The Fifth Child, Shikasta, The Good Terrorist

Alice Munro

Name
Alice Munro
Year
2013
Nationality
Languages
English
Why rewarded?
“master
of the contemporary short storyā€¯
Genre
Short story
Notable Works
Dear Life, Lives of Girls and
Women, Who Do You Think You Are?, Dance of the Happy Shades, Too Much
Happiness etc.

~~~~~*~~~~~

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