1946 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the German author Hermann Hesse "for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style".^[1]

1946 Nobel Prize in Literature
Hermann Hesse
"for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style"
Date	November 1946 (announcement) 10 December 1946 (ceremony)
Location	Stockholm, Sweden
Presented by	Swedish Academy
First award	1901
Website	Official website
← 1945 · Nobel Prize in Literature · 1947 →

Laureate

Main article: Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a novelist and a poet whose writings are influenced by the likes of Francis of Assisi, Buddha, Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky. His best known works – Demian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), Der Steppenwolf (1927), and Das Glasperlenspiel ("The Glass Bead Game", 1943) – deals with the individual's search for self-knowledge and spirituality, often through mysticism.^[2]

Der Steppenwolf was wildly popular and has been a perpetual success across the decades, but Hesse later asserted that the book was largely misunderstood.

Deliberations

Nominations

Hermann Hesse was nominated for the prize eight times, first in 1931 by the 1929 Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann. In 1946 the Nobel committee received one nomination for Hesse by the Swiss literature professor and author Robert Faesi, and one nomination by Anders Österling of the Swedish Academy.^[3]

In total, the Nobel committee received 32 nominations for 22 writers including Nikolai Berdyaev, T. S. Eliot (awarded in 1948), E. M. Forster, H. G. Wells, Arnulf Øverland, Georges Duhamel, and Marie Under. Nine of the authors were first-time nominated namely André Gide (awarded in 1947), François Mauriac (awarded in 1952), Winston Churchill (awarded in 1953), Boris Pasternak (awarded in 1958), Sholem Asch, Tarjei Vesaas, Angelos Sikelianos and Ignazio Silone. The Swiss author Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was the most nominated with four nominations. Marie Under and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício were the only women nominated.^[4]

The authors Marion Angus, Octave Aubry, Eduard Bass, John Langalibalele Dube, Ronald Fangen, Constance Garnett, Harley Granville-Barker, Amir Hamzah, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Violet Jacob, Orrick Glenday Johns, Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, Ernest Rhys, Alfred Rosenberg, Damon Runyon, Thomas Scott-Ellis, Edward Sheldon, Mary Amelia St. Clair (known as May Sinclair), Gertrude Stein, Booth Tarkington and Ibn Zaydan died in 1946 without having been nominated for the prize.

Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize

No.	Nominee	Country	Genre(s)	Nominator(s)
1	Sholem Asch (1880–1957)	Poland United States	novel, short story, drama, essays	Walter Arthur Berendsohn (1884–1984)
2	Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948)	Soviet Union ( Ukraine)	philosophy, theology	Alf Nyman (1884–1968)
3	Winston Churchill (1874–1965)	United Kingdom	history, essays, memoir	Axel Romdahl (1880–1951)
4	Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício (1884–1947)	Portugal	poetry, essays	António Baião (1878–1961)
5	Georges Duhamel (1884–1966)	France	novel, short story, poetry, drama, literary criticism	Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
6	Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965)	United States United Kingdom	poetry, essays, drama	Gustaf Hellström (1882–1953) Anders Österling (1884–1981)
7	Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970)	United Kingdom	novel, short story, drama, essays, biography, literary criticism	Gustaf Hellström (1882–1953)
8	André Gide (1869–1951)	France	novel, short story, poetry, drama, memoir, essays	Giuseppe Antonio Borgese (1882–1952)
9	Herbert J. C. Grierson (1866–1960)	United Kingdom	essays, literary criticism	William James Entwistle (1895–1952)
10	Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)	Germany  Switzerland	novel, poetry, essays, short story	Anders Österling (1884–1981) Robert Faesi (1883–1972)
11	Ricarda Huch (1864–1947)	Germany	history, essays, novel, poetry	Fritz Strich (1882–1963)
12	François Mauriac (1885–1970)	France	novel, short story	Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) Henry Olsson (1896–1985)
13	Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894–1958)	United Kingdom	drama, novel, essays, poetry	Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) Henning Söderhjelm (1888–1967)
14	Arvid Mörne (1876–1946)	Finland	poetry, drama, novel, essays	Rolf Pipping (1889–1963) Olaf Homén (1879–1949)
15	Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968)	Norway	poetry, essays	Andreas Hofgaard Winsnes (1889–1972) Francis Bull (1887–1974) Rolv Thesen (1896–1966)
16	Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)	Soviet Union	poetry, novel, translation	Maurice Bowra (1898–1971)
17	Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878–1947)	Switzerland	novel, poetry, short story	Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953) Albert Béguin (1901–1957) Henri de Ziégler (1885–1970) Marcel Raymond (1897–1981)
18	Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951)	Greece	poetry, drama	Anders Österling (1884–1981)
19	Ignazio Silone (1900–1978)	Italy	novel, short story, essays, drama	Hjalmar Gullberg (1898–1961)
20	Marie Under (1883–1980)	Soviet Union ( Estonia)	poetry	Hjalmar Hammarskjöld (1862–1953)
21	Tarjei Vesaas (1897–1970)	Norway	poetry, novel	Olav Midttun (1883–1972)
22	Herbert George Wells (1866–1946)	United Kingdom	novel, short story, essays, history, biography	Carl Adolf Bodelsen (1894–1978)

Award ceremony

The Nobel diploma awarded to Hermann Hesse.

At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1946, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said:

This year’s Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to a writer of German origin who has had wide critical acclaim and who has created his work regardless of public favour. The sixty-nine-year-old Hermann Hesse can look back on a considerable achievement consisting of novels, short stories, and poems, partly available in Swedish translation. (...) at present Hesse, together with Mann, is the best representative of the German cultural heritage in contemporary literature. (...)

Hesse’s award is more than the confirmation of his fame. It honours a poetic achievement which presents throughout the image of a good man in his struggle, following his calling with rare faithfulness, who in a tragic epoch succeeded in bearing the arms of true humanism.^[5]

Reasons of health prevented Hermann Hesse to travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony. In his stead, the prize was accepted by the envoy of the Swiss republic.^[5]