Home > Teaching and Education > Books and Literature > Nobel Prize in Literature: List of Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature: List of Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

Research by
  • Buffer

Facts about the Nobel Prize in Literature

Alfred Nobel had broad cultural interests. His library holds a rich spectrum of literature in different languages. Literature was the fourth prize area Nobel mentioned in his will.

Who won the first Nobel Prize in Literature? The very first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 1901 to the French poet and philosopher Sully Prudhomme, who in his poetry showed the “rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect”. Over the years, the Nobel Prize in Literature has distinguished the works of authors from many different languages and cultural backgrounds. The Literature Prize has been awarded to unknown masters as well as authors acclaimed worldwide.

Who award the Nobel Prize in Literature? The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by the Swedish Academy.

1901-2010 List of Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

2010: Mario Vargas Llosa
2009: Herta Müller
2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
2007: Doris Lessing
2006: Orhan Pamuk
2005: Harold Pinter
2004: Elfriede Jelinek
2003: John M. Coetzee
2002: Imre Kertész
2001: Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul
2000: Gao Xingjian
1999: Günter Grass
1998: José Saramago
1997: Dario Fo
1996: Wislawa Szymborska
1995: Seamus Heaney
1994: Kenzaburo Oe
1993: Toni Morrison
1992: Derek Walcott
1991: Nadine Gordimer
1990: Octavio Paz
1989: Camilo José Cela
1988: Naguib Mahfouz
1987: Joseph Brodsky
1986: Wole Soyinka
1985: Claude Simon
1984: Jaroslav Seifert
1983: William Golding
1982: Gabriel García Márquez
1981: Elias Canetti
1980: Czeslaw Milosz
1979: Odysseus Elytis
1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977: Vicente Aleixandre
1976: Saul Bellow
1975: Eugenio Montale
1974: Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
1973: Patrick White
1972: Heinrich Böll
1971: Pablo Neruda
1970: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
1969: Samuel Beckett
1968: Yasunari Kawabata
1967: Miguel Angel Asturias
1966: Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Nelly Sachs
1965: Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
1964: Jean-Paul Sartre
1963: Giorgos Seferis
1962: John Steinbeck
1961: Ivo Andric
1960: Saint-John Perse
1959: Salvatore Quasimodo
1958: Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
1957: Albert Camus
1956: Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955: Halldór Kiljan Laxness
1954: Ernest Miller Hemingway
1953: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
1952: François Mauriac
1951: Pär Fabian Lagerkvist
1950: Earl Russell
1949: William Faulkner
1948: Thomas Stearns Eliot
1947: André Paul Guillaume Gide
1946: Hermann Hesse
1945: Gabriela Mistral
1944: Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
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
1938: Pearl Buck
1937: Roger Martin du Gard
1936: Eugene Gladstone O’Neill
1935: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1934: Luigi Pirandello
1933: Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
1932: John Galsworthy
1931: Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930: Sinclair Lewis
1929: Thomas Mann
1928: Sigrid Undset
1927: Henri Bergson
1926: Grazia Deledda
1925: George Bernard Shaw
1924: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
1923: William Butler Yeats
1922: Jacinto Benavente
1921: Anatole France
1920: Knut Pedersen Hamsun
1919: Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler
1918: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1917: Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
1916: Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam
1915: Romain Rolland
1914: No Nobel Prize was awarded this year.
1913: Rabindranath Tagore
1912: Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
1911: Count Maurice (Mooris) Polidore Marie Bernhard Maeterlinck
1910: Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse
1909: Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf
1908: Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1907: Rudyard Kipling
1906: Giosuè Carducci
1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz
1904: Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray y Eizaguirre
1903: Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson
1902: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen
1901: Sully Prudhomme

Who has won the Nobel Prize over the years?

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Resource by

I am the editor for TheFreeResource.com, and owner of LinchpinSEO, a small business content creation company. The Free Resource has a select community of talented writers, teachers, and business people (and we are always looking for more) that bring you the most trusted resources on the web and credible articles about many topics.

Related Research For Teachers, Students, and Kids

  • Nobel Prize in Chemsitry: List of Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry
    Facts about the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Chemistry was the second prize area that Nobel mentioned i...
  • Nobel Peace Prize: List of Nobel Peace Prize Winners
    Facts about the Nobel Peace Prize Alfred Nobel was interested in social issues. Peace was the fifth...
  • Nobel Prize in Physics: List of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics
    Facts about the Nobel Prize in Physics Physics was the prize area which Alfred Nobel mentioned firs...
  • Nobel Prize in Medicine: List of Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine
    Facts about the Nobel Prize in Medicine Alfred Nobel had an active interest in medical research. Ph...
  • List of Famous People From Rhode Island
    Below is a list of famous people from Rhode Island. List of Famous Athletes From Rhode Island Bill ...