119 laureates: 99 of them were white; 35 defined as poets; 30 exclusively novelists; 3 major
academics; 1 politician
● when was the Nobel prize first awarded to more than one person in other
categories?
○ physics: 1903 [Antoine Henri Becquerel & Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née
Sklodowska]
○ chemistry: 1912 [Victor Grignard & Paul Sabatier]
○ physiology/medicine: 1922 [Archibald Vivian Hill & Otto Fritz Meyerhof]
(awarded to a team in 1906 and 1908)
○ peace: 1902 [Élie Ducommun & Charles Albert Gobat]
○ economic sciences: n/a
● In what years were no Nobel prizes awarded in a category?
○ Physics: 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942
○ chemistry: 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1942
○ physiology/medicine: 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941, 1942
○ peace: 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939, 1940, 1941,
1942, 1943, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1972
○ economic sciences: 0
● First post-freeze WWII winner:
○ physics – Otto Stern “for his contribution to the development of the molecular
ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton”
○ chemistry – George de Hevesy “for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers
in the study of chemical processes”
○ physiology/medicine: Henrik Carl Peter Dam & Edward Adelbert Doisy for
“discovery of the chemical nature of vitamin K”
○ peace – Comité international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of
the Red Cross) “for the great work it has performed during the war on behalf
of humanity”
● Last pre-freeze WWII winner:
○ physics – Ernest Orlando Lawrence “for the invention and development of the
cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial
radioactive elements”
○ chemistry – Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt “for his work on sex hormones”
& Leopold Ruzicka “for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes”
○ physiology/medicine: Gerhard Domagk “for the discovery of the antibacterial
effects of prontosil”
○ peace - Office international Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Nansen International
Office for Refugees) “for having carried on the work of Fridtjof Nansen to the
benefit of refugees across Europe”
● Call Nobel committee about the years prizes weren’t awarded; for comment etc.
● Sociopsychic analysis: race, sex/gender, nationality, genre
Commented [1]: there are no other disciplines
registering n/as in post-wwii years
“The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 115 times to 119 Nobel Prize laureates
between 1901 and 2022.”
● 2 more laureates would represent all 121 years
2022 Annie Ernaux [426/31] x
● White
● French
● female
● autofiction
● Notes
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah [195/10] x
● African
● British, Tanzanian
● male
● Novels and academic work
● Notes
2020 Louise Glück [104/17] x
● white
● American
● female
● poetry
● Notes
2019 Peter Handke [264/46] x
● white
● Austrian
● male
● Creative writing
● Notes
2018 Olga Tokarczuk [30/7] x
● white
● Polish
● female
● novels
● Notes
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro [2090/16] x
● asian
● japanese
● male
● novels
● Notes
2016 Bob Dylan [1465/68] x
● white
● American
● male
● The Lyric
● Notes
2015 Svetlana Alexievich [83/4] x
● white
● Soviet
● female
● journalism
● Notes
2014 Patrick Modiano [270/22] x
● white
● French
● male
● novels
● Notes
2013 Alice Munro [1360/33] x
● white
● Canadian
● female
● Short stories
● Notes
2012 Mo Yan [141/11] x
● asian
● chinese
● male
● prose
● Notes
2011 Tomas Tranströmer [15/7] x
● white
● swedish
● male
● poetry
● Notes
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa [1154/103] x
● Latino
● Peru
● Male
● Creative writing and nonfiction
● Notes
2009 Herta Müller [na] x
● White
● Romanian
● female
● Poetry and prose
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio [37/4] x
● white
● French
● male
● prose
● Notes
2007 Doris Lessing [1182/66] x
● white
● British
● female
● fiction
● Notes
2006 Orhan Pamuk [804/22] x
● Middle eastern
● turkish
● male
● prose
● Notes
2005 Harold Pinter [1799/64] x
● white
● English
● male
● drama
● Notes
2004 Elfriede Jelinek [315/28] x
● white
● Austrian
● female
● Creative writing
● Notes
2003 John M. Coetzee [4206/50]
● South African
● white
● male
● novels
● Notes
2002 Imre Kertész [54/10] x
● White
● Hungarian
● male
● novels
● Notes
2001 Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul [1462/48] x
● Asian
● Indian
Commented [2]: Johnston2014 9 October
2014 Johnston J. M. Coetzee's Work in
Stylostatistics JournalArticle Digital Humanities
Quarterly
● male
● novels
● Notes
2000 Gao Xingjian [131/17^] x
● Asian
● Chinese
● male
● fiction
● Notes
1999 Günter Grass [2/1] x
● white
● German
● male
● novels
● Notes
1998 José Saramago [621/45] x
● white
● Portuguese
● male
● novels
● Notes
1997 Dario Fo [333/37]
● white
● italian
● male
● drama
● Notes
1996 Wislawa Szymborska * [125/16] x
● white
● polish
● female
● poetry
● Notes
1995 Seamus Heaney [2918/91] x
● white
● irish
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1994 Kenzaburo Oe [43/4] x
● asian
● japanese
● male
● prose
● Notes
1993 Toni Morrison [11317/49] x
● African
● American
● female
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1992 Derek Walcott [1470/57] x
● West Indian
● Saint Lucian
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1991 Nadine Gordimer [927/53] x
● white
● South african
● female
● prose
● Notes
1990 Octavio Paz [1104/93] x
● latino
● mexican
● male
● Poetry and prose
● Notes
1989 Camilo José Cela [315/18] x
● white
● Spanish
● male
● Prose and editorial
● Notes
1988 Naguib Mahfouz [865/41] x
● Middle Eastern
● Egyptian
● male
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1987 Joseph Brodsky [197/21] x
● white
● russian
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1986 Wole Soyinka [1706/68] x
Commented [3]: 2012 Finn New Literary
Cultures: Mapping the Digital Networks of Toni
Morrison BookSection From Codex to Hypertext:
Reading at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
● African
● Nigerian
● male
● Creative writing (drama)
● Notes
1985 Claude Simon [13/6] x
● white
● French
● male
● novels
● Notes
1984 Jaroslav Seifert [8/6] x
● white
● Czech
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1983 William Golding [1574/26]
● white
● British
● male
● novels
● Notes
1982 Gabriel García Márquez [346/41] x
● latino
● columbian
● male
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1981 Elias Canetti [211/24] x
● white
● bulgarian
● male
● Academic and creative writing
● Notes
1980 Czeslaw Milosz [300/35] x
● white
● Lithuanian
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1979 Odysseus Elytis [11/1] x
● white
● Greek
Commented [4]: golding1955 1955 Golding The
Inheritors Book
Commented [5]: halliday1981 1981 Halliday Lin
guistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into
the Language of William Golding's The
Inheritors BookSection Essays in Modern
Stylistics
Commented [6]: http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/d
hq/vol/1/2/000012/000012.html
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer [610/63] x
● white
● Polish
● male
● Prose
● Notes
1977 Vicente Aleixandre [7/5] x
● white
● spanish
● Male
● poetry
● Notes
1976 Saul Bellow [758/26] x
● white
● North American
● male
● Fiction and criticism
● Notes
1975 Eugenio Montale [120/20] x
● italian
● white
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1974 Eyvind Johnson [8/3] x
● white
● swedish
● male
● prose
● Notes
1974 Harry Martinson [3/2] x
● white
● swdish
● male
● Poetry and prose
● Notes
1973 Patrick White [763/38]
● white
● Australian
● male
● fiction
Commented [7]: http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/d
hq/vol/11/2/000360/000360.html
● Notes
1972 Heinrich Böll [na] - x
● white
● german
● male
● novels
● Notes
1971 Pablo Neruda [1354/93]
● Latino
● Chilean
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1970 Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn [274/4] x
● white
● russian
● male
● fiction
● Notes
1969 Samuel Beckett [6019/154]
● white
● Irish
● male
● fiction
● Notes
1968 Yasunari Kawabata [535/39] x
● Asian
● Japanese
● male
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1967 Miguel Angel Asturias [160/20] x
● Latino
● Guatemala
● male
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon [125/25] x
● white
● israeli
● male
● Creative writing
● Notes
1966 Nelly Sachs [15/6] x
Commented [8]: 21 de ene de
1947 Neruda Discurso de Despedida a Nicolás
Guillén JournalArticle Periódico Hoy
Commented [9]: beckett1958 1958 Beckett Act
without words: a mime for one
player BookSection Endgame, a play
beckett1964 1964 Beckett | Beckett How It
Is Book
beckett1969 1969 Beckett Sans Book
beckett1970 1970 Beckett Lessness Book
beckett1970a 1970 Beckett Play BookSection
Cascando and other short dramatic pieces
beckett1974 1974 Beckett Breath BookSection
First Love and Other Shorts
beckett1995 1995 Beckett | Gontarski The
Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 Book
vanhulle2011 2011-present Van Hulle |
Nixon Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript
Project WebSite
● white
● German
● female
● Poetry and drama
● Notes
1965 Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov [188/16] x
● white
● Russian
● male
● fiction
● Notes
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre [6731/122]
● white
● French
● male
● Creative writer
● Notes
1963 Giorgos Seferis [55/17] x
● White
● Greek
● Male
● Poet
● notes
1962 John Steinbeck [6372/73] x
● white
● american
● male
● novel
● Notes
1961 Ivo Andric [123/6] x
● White
● balkan
● male
● epic
● Notes
1960 Saint-John Perse [20/11] x
● white
● french
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo [10/3] x
● white
● italian
Commented [10]: sartre1995 1955 Sartre John
Dos Passos and 1919 BookSection Literary and
Philosophical Essays
sartre2004 2004 Sartre | Ree | Sheridan-
Smith Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume One:
Theory of Practical Ensembles Book
jameson1971 1974 Jameson Sartre and
History BookSection Marxism and Form:
Twentieth-Century Dialectical Theories of Literature
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1958 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak [570/35] x
● white
● russian
● male
● novels
● Notes
1957 Albert Camus [5959/85]
● white
● french
● male
● novels
● Notes
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez [40/3] x
● white
● spanish
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1955 Halldór Kiljan Laxness [48/16$] x
● white
● Icelandic
● male
● writing
● Notes
1954 Ernest Miller Hemingway [10,899/106]
● white
● American
● male
● fiction
● Notes
1953 Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill [1764/87] x
● white
● English
● male
● oratory
● Notes
1952 François Mauriac [123/27] x
● white
● french
● male
● fiction
Commented [11]: camus1962 1962 Camus |
Gilbert The stranger Book
Commented [12]: hemingway1972 1972 Heming
way The Torrents of Spring Book
● Notes
1951 Pär Fabian Lagerkvist [38/10] x
● white
● Swedish
● male
● Creative writing and criticism
● Notes
1950 Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell [4527/167*] x
● white
● British
● male
● philosophy
● Notes
1949 William Faulkner [11638/109]
● white
● American
● male
● novels
● Notes
1948 Thomas Stearns Eliot [14010/137]
● white
● Anglo
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1947 André Paul Guillaume Gide [636/58] x
● White
● French
● male
● Criticism and creative writing
● Notes
1946 Hermann Hesse [1546/61] x
● White
● German
● Male
● novels
● Notes
1945 Gabriela Mistral [89/16] x
● Latina
● Chilean
● Female
● poetry
● Notes
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen [16/5_] x
Commented [13]: whissell1994 1994 Whissell
A Computer-program for the Objective Analysis of
Style and Emotional Connotations of Prose-
Hemingway, Galsworthy, and Faulkner
Compared JournalArticle Perceptual and Motor
Skills
faulkner1938 1938 Faulkner The
Unvanquished Book
faulkner1978 1978 Faulkner A Rose for
Emily BookSection The Norton Anthology of
Short Fiction
Commented [14]: eliot1921 1921 Eliot Tradition
and Individual Talent BookSection The Sacred
Wood
● White
● Danish
● male
● Non-academic writing
● Notes
1943 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1942 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1941 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1940 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää [1/1] x
● White
● Finland
● male
● Fiction in prose
● peasants
1938 Pearl Buck [314/38] x
● white
● American
● female
● novels
● China
1937 Roger Martin du Gard [7/6] x
● white
● French
● male
● novels
● Notes
1936 Eugene Gladstone O’Neill [n/a] x
● white
● American
● male
● drama
● Notes
1935 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1934 Luigi Pirandello [1478/76!] x
● white
● Italian
● male
● The artistic ones
● Notes
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin [150/20] x
● white
● Russian
● male
● prose
● Notes
1932 John Galsworthy [175/50]
● white
● english
● male
● novels
● Notes
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt [n/a] x
● white
● swedish
● male
● poetry
● Notes
1930 Sinclair Lewis [538/28] x
● white
● american
● male
● fiction
● ‘Buzz’ – it can’t happen here
1929 Thomas Mann [3363/122] x
● White
● German
● queer male
● Genre
● Notes
1928 Sigrid Undset [55/10] x
● White
● Norwegian
● Female
● Historical fiction
● Notes
1927 Henri Bergson [1469/46]
● White
● French
● Male?
● Philosophy
● Notes
1926 Grazia Deledda [88/13] x
● White
● Italian
● Female
● Fiction
● Notes
Commented [15]: whissell1994 1994 Whissell
A Computer-program for the Objective Analysis of
Style and Emotional Connotations of Prose-
Hemingway, Galsworthy, and Faulkner
Compared JournalArticle Perceptual and Motor
Skills
Commented [16]: http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/
dhq/vol/17/2/000676/000676.html
Commented [17]: http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/
dhq/vol/8/3/000188/000188.html
Commented [18]: bergson1912 1912 Bergson
Matter and Memory Book
1925 George Bernard Shaw [3582/154] x
● white
● irish
● Male?
● drama
● Notes
1924 Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont [35/5] x
● white
● polish
● male?
● novelist
● Notes
1923 William Butler Yeats [6301/217] x
● Race
● Nationality
● Sex/Gender
● Genre
● Notes
1922 Jacinto Benavente [26/9] x
● White
● Spanish
● Male?
● poet/playwright
● Notes
1921 Anatole France [158/51] x
● White
● French
● Male?
● prose
● Notes
1920 Knut Pedersen Hamsun [188/15] x
● white
● norwegian
● male?
● novelist
● Notes
1919 Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler [3/2] x
● White
● Swiss
● Male?
● poet/novelist
● Notes
1918 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special
Fund of this prize section.
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup x
● White
● Danish
● Male?
● novelist
● Notes
1917 Henrik Pontoppidan [16/2] x
● white
● danish
● male?
● Novels, short stories, journalism
● Notes
1916 Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam [1/1] x
● White
● Swedish
● male?
● poetry/prose
● “Collected scriptures”
1915 Romain Rolland [38/21] x
● White
● French
● Male?
● Novelist and essayist
● Notes
1914 No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special
Fund of this prize section.
1913 Rabindranath Tagore [n/a] x
● South-east asian
● Indian
● Male
● poet
● “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”
1912 Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann [239/24] x
● White
● Polish
● Male?
● drama
● Notes
1911 Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck [191/46] x
● Race
● German
● Male?
● poet
● Notes
1910 Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse [n/a] x
● White
● German
● Male
● Scholar of poetry
● Notes
1909 Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf [65/17] x
● White
● Swedish
● Female
● Prose fiction
● Notes
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken [12/7] x
● White
● German
● Male?
● Philosopher
● Notes
1907 Rudyard Kipling [3703/231] x
● White
● English
● Male?
● Poetry, stories, journalism, novels, children’s fiction
● Notes
1906 Giosuè Carducci [11/3] x
● White
● Italian
● Male?
● poetry
● Notes
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz [123/24] x
● White
● Polish
● Male?
● Historical novels
● Will connect to ESTRANGING THE NOVEL: POLAND, IRELAND, AND THEORIES
OF WORLD LITERATURE via Manshel’s dissertation
1904 José Echegaray y Eizaguirre [n/a] x
● White
● Spanish
● Male?
● Drama
● Notes
1904 Frédéric Mistral [1/1] x
● White
● French
● male?
● poet
● Notes
1903 Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson [3/2] x
● White
● Norwegian
● Male?
● Novelist/poet/critic
● Notes
1902 Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen [107/21] x
● White
● Danish/German
● Male?
● History
● Numerous titles and perhaps split entities in search
1901 Sully Prudhomme [3/1] x
● White
● French
● Male?
● Poet
● Notes
[bracketed information represent count/tiles of authors by the Open Syllabus project’s
aggregation of more than 18 million English syllabi]
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-literature/ (archived since 29
September 2018)
*Italics indicate I am familiar with the work of the listed laureate. Asterisks denote questioning.
