1938 Nobel Prize in Literature

20px 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature Pearl Sydenstricker Buck Swedish Academy 1901 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1938/summary/ 1938 laureate Pearl Buck (Nobel).jpg "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." 10 November 1938http://libris.kb.se/bib/8345517 Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901–1950 Bo Svensén 2001 Svenska Akademien 9789113010076 1 November 2025 (announcement) 10 December 1938 (ceremony) Stockholm, Sweden 1937 Nobel Prize in Literature 1939 The 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American author Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 nobelprize.org Buck was the first female American to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the third American recipient following Eugene O'Neill in 1936 and Sinclair Lewis in 1930. She was also the fourth woman to receive the prize.Pearl Buck – Facts nobelprize.org Laureate Pearl Buck Pearl Buck's first novel, East Wind: West Wind, was published in 1930, which narrates about a Chinese woman, Kwei-lan, and the changes that she and her family undergo. It was followed then by trilogy that brought her major literary breakthrough: The Good Earth (1931), Sons (1932), and A House Divided (1935), which is a saga about the Wang family. The books were highly acclaimed and very popular during the 1930s receiving other literary prizes such as the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The recurring theme in Buck's many novels is everyday life in China wherein she describes a rich gallery of characters, trapped between tradition and modernity. 190px|thumb|left|The Good Earth was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932 and was influential in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Deliberations Nominations Pearl Buck had not been nominated before for the prize, making her one of the laureates who won on a rare occasion when they have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year they were first nominated.Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature nobelprize.org She received 4 four nominations all from members of the Swedish Academy. In total, the academy received 47 nominations for 29 writers among them the American novelist Margaret Mitchell, Finnish writer Frans Eemil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939), Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen (awarded in 1944), Hermann Hesse (awarded in 1946), Czech author Karel Čapek, Norwegian writer Johan Falkberget, British author Aldous Huxley, Greek poet Kostis Palamas, Croatian author Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, and Finnish writer Sally Salminen.Nomination archive – 38 nobelprize.org] The authors Lascelles Abercrombie, Samuel Alexander, Serafín Álvarez Quintero, Alexander Amfiteatrov, Ernst Barlach, Nagendranath Basu, Rudolf G. Binding, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Isabelo de los Reyes, C. J. Dennis, Paola Drigo, Zona Gale, Edmund Husserl, Muhammad Iqbal, Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin, Leopoldo Lugones, Osip Mandelstam, Momčilo Nastasijević, Henry Newbolt, Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (known as Migjeni), Branislav Nušić, Olivia Shakespear, William Stern, Alfonsina Storni, César Vallejo, Owen Wister and Thomas Wolfe died in 1938 without having been nominated for the prize. Croatian writer Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić died weeks before the announcement. Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize No. Nominee Country Genre(s) Nominator(s) 1 Mark Aldanov (1886–1957) Soviet UnionFrench Third Republic France biography, novel, essays, literary criticism 20px Ivan Bunin (1870–1953) 2 Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938) Kingdom of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia(Croatia) novel, short story Albert Bazala (1877–1947) Gavro Manojlović (1856–1939)3Pearl Buck (1892–1973)United States 1912novel, biography, autobiography, essaysHenrik Schück (1855–1947) Sven Hedin (1865–1952) Torsten Fogelqvist (1880–1941) Bo Bergman (1869–1967) 4 Henriette Charasson (1884–1972) French Third Republic France poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism, biography Serge Barrault (1887–1976) 5 Sanjib Kumar Chaudhuri (1902–) British Raj India law, philology Mahmud Hasan (1897–) 6 António Correia de Oliveira (1878–1960) Estado Novo (Portugal) Portugal poetry Antero de Figueiredo (1866–1953) 7 Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) Fascist Italy (1922–1943) Italy history, philosophy, law Johan Nordström (1891–1967) 8 Karel Čapek (1890–1938) Czechoslovakia drama, novel, short story, essays, literary criticism Josef Janko (1869–1947)notes Karel Čapek was also nominated by 10 other professors of history and literature at Charles University, Prague. 9 Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947) Estado Novo (Portugal) Portugal poetry, essays António Baião (1878–1961) 10 Olav Duun (1876–1939) Norway novel, short story Paal Berg (1873–1968) Halvdan Koht (1873–1965) Torstein Høverstad (1880–1959) 11 Johan Falkberget (1879–1967) Norway novel, short story, essays Fredrik Paasche (1886–1943) Richard Beck (1897–1980) 12 Mohammad Habib Khan (?)(probably Mohammad Habib (1895–1971)) Kingdom of Afghanistan Afghanistan(or British Raj India) history Per Hallström (1866–1960)notes This nomination was a pro forma nomination. 13 Jarl Hemmer (1893–1944) Finland poetry, novel Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) 14 Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) Nazi Germany GermanySwitzerland novel, poetry, essays, short story Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) Anders Österling (1884–1981) 15 Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) United Kingdom novel, short story, essays, poetry, screenplay, drama, philosophy Wilhelm Keilhau (1888–1954) 16 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873–1950) Denmark novel, short story, essays 7 Danish and Norwegian nominators (unnamed) Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978) Francis Bull (1887–1974) 17 Rudolf Kassner (1873–1959) Nazi Germany Austria philosophy, essays, translation Carl Jacob Burckhardt (1891–1974) 18 Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (1885–1962) Finland poetry, essays Aapeli Saarisalo (1896–1986) 19 Ramón Menéndez Pidal (1869–1968) Spanish Republic Spain philology, history Gunnar Tilander (1894–1973) 20 Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) United States 1912 novel Sven Hedin (1865–1952) 21 Kostis Palamas (1859–1943) Kingdom of Greece Greece poetry, essays 3 members of the Athens Academy of Science 22 Robert Ritchie Racey (1873–1956) Canada 1921 novel, essays Arthur Leonard Phelps (1887–1970) 23 Valdemar Rørdam (1872–1946) Denmark poetry, essays Ejnar Thomsen (1897–1956) 20px Henrik Pontoppidan (1857–1943) 24 Sally Salminen (1906–1976) Finland novel, essays, autobiography Henrik Schück (1855–1947) 25 Karl Schönherr (1867–1943) Nazi Germany Austria drama, short story, poetry Kaarle Sanfrid Laurila (1876–1947) 26 Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) Finland novel, short story, poetry Jalo Kalima (1884–1952) Yrjö Hirn (1870–1952) Aarno Maliniemi (1892–1972) Lauri Cederberg (1881–1943) Kurt Reinhold Melander (1858–1941) Juho Kusti Paasikivi (1870–1956) 27 Herman Teirlinck (1879–1967) Belgium novel, poetry, essays, drama Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) 28 Arthur van Schendel (1874–1946) Kingdom of the Netherlands Netherlands novel, short story Cornelis Gerrit Nicolaas de Vooys (1873–1955) 2 Dutch professors (unnamed)notes The two professors were from Leiden and Amsterdam, Netherlands. 29 Stijn Streuvels (1871–1969) Belgium novel, short story Fredrik Böök (1883–1961) Prize decision In their deliberations for the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee failed to agree on one candidate. As the year before, three committee members, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Fredrik Böök and committee chairman Per Hallström, advocated a prize to the Flemish Belgian writer Stijn Streuvels. Committee member Torsten Fogelqvist divergently argued that Streuvels best works were too far back in time and proposed that Pearl Buck should be awarded, while Anders Österling proposed Hermann Hesse (subsequently awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature).Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1920-1950 1938 Svensén, Bo Svenska Akademien 2001 Spanish philologist and historian Ramón Menéndez Pidal were also recommended as a candidate for the prize. Pearl Buck was considered to be awarded for her biographical works and the novel The Good Earth. In the Nobel committee's report to the Swedish Academy dated 8 September 1938, chairman Per Hallström wrote: "The expert opinion expresses lively admiration for the author's biographies of her parents, the missionary couple, in China, and is inclined to grant these two books a truly classic rank and a corresponding prospect of lasting life, something that is rare enough in contemporary fiction. Alongside them, a couple of novels about Chinese peasant fates also stand out as decidedly remarkable through authenticity and richness of the depiction and rare knowledge and insight into a world little known to Western readers and very difficult to access. Already as a feat of discovery, they are significant, and they contain passages of high poetic value. As literary works of art, however, the two biographies are incomparable to anything else in Pearl Buck's oeuvre." On 10 November 1938 the Swedish Academy decided that that year's Nobel Prize in Literature should be awarded to Pearl Buck "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces". Reception thumb|Pearl S. Buck receives the Nobel Prize for Literature from King Gustav V of Sweden in the Stockholm Concert Hall in 1938 In 1938, the Nobel Prize committee in awarding the prize said: By awarding this year's Prize to Pearl Buck for the notable works which pave the way to a human sympathy passing over widely separated racial boundaries and for the studies of human ideals which are a great and living art of portraiture, the Swedish Academy feels that it acts in harmony and accord with the aim of Alfred Nobel's dreams for the future.The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 nobelprize.org In her speech to the academy, she took as her topic "The Chinese Novel." She explained, "I am an American by birth and by ancestry", but "my earliest knowledge of story, of how to tell and write stories, came to me in China." After an extensive discussion of classic Chinese novels, especially Romance of the Three Kingdoms, All Men Are Brothers, and Dream of the Red Chamber, she concluded that in China "the novelist did not have the task of creating art but of speaking to the people." Her own ambition, she continued, had not been trained toward "the beauty of letters or the grace of art." In China, the task of the novelist differed from the Western artist: "To farmers he must talk of their land, and to old men he must speak of peace, and to old women he must tell of their children, and to young men and women he must speak of each other." And like the Chinese novelist, she concluded, "I have been taught to want to write for these people. If they are reading their magazines by the million, then I want my stories there rather than in magazines read only by a few."Nobel Lecture (1938) The Chinese Novel Reactions The 1938 Nobel Prize is one of the most criticized in the prize's history because Buck's later works generally were not considered to be of the literary standard of a Nobel laureate.Helmer Lång, 100 nobelpris i litteratur 1901–2001, Symposion 2001, p. 153. According to novelist Irving Wallace, he was told by Sven Hedin that Buck "scarcely bowled over the academy". Ten of the eighteen members voted against her, but Hedin and Selma Lagerlöf later changed their minds thus awarding her the prize.Irving Wallace, Writing of a Novel, p. 17. The American literary critic Norman Holmes Pearson referred to the Swedish Academy's choice as reducing the Nobel to the "hammish" level of the Pulitzer Prize and commented: "Thank heavens I have seen no one who has taken it seriously." Referring to Buck's widely quoted comment when she received the Nobel news – "I don't believe it... That's ridiculous. It should have gone to Dreiser" – Pearson responded: "Nuts to her, say I, I think that was putting it mildly." Lists of American writers besides Theodore Dreiser whom contemporaries mentioned as more deserving of the Nobel than Pearl Buck included Henry James, Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, and John Dos Passos.https://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/question-pearl-buck The Question of Pearl Buck 14 October 2010 21 May 2020 chinafile.org Notes References External links Award ceremony speech by Per Hallström nobelprize.org The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 1938 nobelprize.org 1938 Category:Pearl S. Buck Nobel