1903 Nobel Prize in Literature: Difference between revisions

The [[Swedish Academy]] received four nominations – two nominations each in [[1902 Nobel Prize in Literature|1902]] and 1903 – for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson before getting awarded.

In total, the [[Nobel Committee]] received 43 nominations for 25 individualswriters in 1903, including repeated nominations for the Russian novelist [[Leo Tolstoy]] (four nominations) and Norwegian playwright [[Henrik Ibsen]] (one nomination), and with new nominations for the English writers [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] and [[Rudyard Kipling]] (one nominations each). Kipling would later be awarded in [[1907 Nobel Prize in Literature|1907]].<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1903 Nomination archive – 1903] nobelprize.org</ref> French writer [[Anatole France]] and [[Fredrik Wulff]] were the first nominators to nominate a collective group of writers purposely for a shared prize. France nominated Tolstoy, Brandes, and Maeterlinck in one nomination,<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=1539 Nomination archive] nobelprize.org</ref> whereas Wulff nominated Paris and Mistral together.<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=3952 Nomination archive] nobelprize.org</ref>

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In 1903, four writers were shortlisted during the Nobel committee's deliberations: [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], [[Henrik Ibsen]], [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]] and [[Georg Brandes]].{{cn|date=April 2023}} Brandes was dismissed for his [[agnosticism]] while Maeterlinck was dismissed for being "too obscure, literary motifs of such embarrassing and bizarre nature."<ref name{{cn|date=set>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/literature/svensen/index.htmlApril The Nobel Prize in Literature: Nominations and Reports 1901–1950] nobelprize.org</ref>2023}} Ibsen, on the other hand, was regarded as "too old and burn-out."<ref{{cn|date=April name=set/>2023}} It was then believed by the Academy that awarding Bjørnson on the basis of his character of having agitated for Norway's independence from Sweden would prove vital later on.<ref>Gustav Källstrand ''Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia'', Fri Tanke 2021</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2023}}<ref>Helmer Lång, ''Hundra nobelpris i litteratur 1901-2001'', Symposion 2001, p.26 (in Swedish)</ref>