Only five Russian writers have been awarded the prestigious international Nobel Prize. For three of them, this brought not only worldwide fame, but also widespread persecution, repression and exile. Only one of them was approved by the Soviet government, and its last owner was "forgiven" and invited to return to his homeland.
Nobel Prize- one of the most prestigious awards, which is awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, significant inventions and a significant contribution to the culture and development of society. One comical but not accidental story is connected with its establishment. It is known that the founder of the award - Alfred Nobel - is also famous for the fact that it was he who invented dynamite (pursuing, nevertheless, pacifist goals, since he believed that opponents armed to the teeth would understand all the stupidity and senselessness of the war and stop the conflict). When his brother Ludwig Nobel died in 1888, and the newspapers erroneously "buried" Alfred Nobel, calling him a "merchant of death", the latter seriously thought about how society would remember him. As a result of these reflections, in 1895 Alfred Nobel changed his will. And it said the following:
“All my movable and immovable property must be turned into liquid values by my executors, and the capital thus collected is placed in a reliable bank. The income from investments should belong to the fund, which will distribute them annually in the form of bonuses to those who during the previous year have brought the greatest benefit to mankind ... The indicated percentages must be divided into five equal parts, which are intended: one part - to the one who makes the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; the other to the one who makes the most important discovery or improvement in the field of chemistry; the third - to the one who will make the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine; the fourth - to the one who will create the most outstanding literary work of an idealistic direction; fifth - to the one who will make the most significant contribution to the rallying of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction of the existing armies and the promotion of peaceful congresses ... My particular desire is that the nationality of candidates should not be taken into account when awarding prizes ... ".
Medal awarded to Nobel laureate
After conflicts with Nobel's "deprived" relatives, the executors of his will - the secretary and the lawyer - established the Nobel Foundation, whose duties included organizing the presentation of bequeathed prizes. A separate institution has been established to award each of the five prizes. So, Nobel Prize Literature was included in the competence of the Swedish Academy. Since then, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually since 1901, except for 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-1943. It is interesting that upon delivery Nobel Prize only the names of the laureates are announced, all other nominations are kept secret for 50 years.
Swedish Academy building
Despite the apparent lack of commitment Nobel Prize, dictated by the philanthropic instructions of Nobel himself, many "left" political forces still see obvious politicization and some Western cultural chauvinism in the award of the prize. It is hard not to notice that the vast majority of Nobel laureates come from the USA and European countries (more than 700 laureates), while the number of laureates from the USSR and Russia is much smaller. Moreover, there is a point of view that most of the Soviet laureates were awarded the prize only for criticizing the USSR.
Nevertheless, this five Russian writers - laureates Nobel Prize on literature:
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin- Laureate of 1933. The prize was awarded "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." Bunin received the award while in exile.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak- Laureate in 1958. The prize was awarded "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel." This award is associated with the anti-Soviet novel Doctor Zhivago, therefore, in the face of severe persecution, Pasternak is forced to refuse it. The medal and diploma were awarded to the writer's son Eugene only in 1988 (the writer died in 1960). Interestingly, in 1958, this was the seventh attempt to present the prestigious award to Pasternak.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov- Laureate in 1965. The prize was awarded "For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." This award has a long history. Back in 1958, a delegation of the Writers' Union of the USSR, which visited Sweden, countered the European popularity of Pasternak with the international popularity of Sholokhov, and in a telegram to the Soviet ambassador in Sweden dated 04/07/1958 it was said:
“It would be desirable, through cultural figures close to us, to make it clear to the Swedish public that the Soviet Union would highly appreciate the award Nobel Prize Sholokhov ... It is also important to make it clear that Pasternak, as a writer, is not recognized by Soviet writers and progressive writers in other countries.
Contrary to this recommendation, Nobel Prize in 1958, it was nevertheless awarded to Pasternak, which led to severe disapproval of the Soviet government. But in 1964 from Nobel Prize Jean-Paul Sartre refused, explaining this, among other things, by his personal regret that Sholokhov was not awarded the prize. It was this gesture of Sartre that predetermined the choice of the laureate in 1965. Thus, Mikhail Sholokhov became the only Soviet writer who received Nobel Prize with the consent of the top leadership of the USSR.
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn- Laureate in 1970. The prize was awarded "For the moral force with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." Only 7 years have passed from the beginning of Solzhenitsyn's career to the award of the prize - this is the only such case in the history of the Nobel Committee. Solzhenitsyn himself spoke about the political aspect of awarding him the prize, but the Nobel Committee denied this. Nevertheless, after Solzhenitsyn received the prize, a propaganda campaign was organized against him in the USSR, and in 1971 an attempt was made to physically destroy him, when he was injected with a poisonous substance, after which the writer survived, but was ill for a long time.
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky- Laureate in 1987. The prize was awarded "For comprehensive creativity, saturated with clarity of thought and passion of poetry." The award of the prize to Brodsky no longer caused such controversy as many other decisions of the Nobel Committee, since Brodsky was known in many countries by that time. He himself, in the very first interview after he was awarded the prize, said: "It was received by Russian literature, and it was received by a citizen of America." And even the weakened Soviet government, shaken by perestroika, began to establish contacts with the famous exile.
The Nobel Prize was founded and named after Swedish industrialist, inventor and chemical engineer Alfred Nobel. It is considered the most prestigious in the world. Laureates receive a gold medal, which depicts A. B. Nobel, a diploma, as well as a check for a large amount. The latter is made up of the amount of profits received by the Nobel Foundation. In 1895, he made a will, according to which his capital was placed in bonds, shares and loans. The income that this money brings is divided equally into five parts every year and becomes a prize for achievements in five areas: in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and also for peace-building activities.
The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on December 10, 1901, and has since been awarded annually on that date, which is the anniversary of Nobel's death. The winners are awarded in Stockholm by the Swedish king himself. After receiving the award, the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature must give a lecture on the topic of their work within 6 months. This is a prerequisite for receiving an award.
The decision on who to award the Nobel Prize in Literature is made by the Swedish Academy, located in Stockholm, as well as the Nobel Committee itself, which announces only the number of applicants, without naming their names. The selection procedure itself is classified, which sometimes causes angry reviews from critics and ill-wishers, who claim that the award is given for political reasons, and not for literary achievements. The main argument cited as proof is Nabokov, Tolstoy, Bokhres, Joyce, who were not awarded the prize. However, the list of authors who received it still remains impressive. From Russia, the Nobel Prize winners in literature are five writers. Read more about each of them below.
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded for the 107th time, to Patrick Modiano, and screenwriter. That is, since 1901, 111 writers have become the owners of the award (since it was awarded four times to two authors at the same time).
To list all the winners and get acquainted with each of them is quite a long time. The most famous and widely read Nobel Prize winners in literature and their works are brought to your attention.
1. William Golding, 1983
William Golding received the award for his famous novels, of which there are 12 in his work. The most famous, "Lord of the Flies" and "The Heirs", are among the best-selling books written by Nobel laureates. The novel "Lord of the Flies", published in 1954, brought the writer worldwide fame. Critics often compare it to Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in terms of its significance for the development of literature and modern thought in general.
2. Toni Morrison, 1993
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature are not only men, but also women. Toni Morrison is one of them. This American writer was born into a working-class family in Ohio. Enrolling at Howard University, where she studied literature and English, she began to write her own works. Her first novel, The Bluest Eyes (1970), was based on a short story she had written for a university literary circle. It is one of the most popular works of Toni Morrison. Another of her novels, "Sula", published in 1975, was nominated for the US National.
3. 1962
Steinbeck's most famous works are "East of Paradise", "The Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice and Men". In 1939, The Grapes of Wrath became a bestseller, with more than 50,000 copies sold, and today their number is more than 75 million. Until 1962, the writer was nominated for the award 8 times, and he himself believed that he was not worthy of such an award. Yes, and many American critics noted that his later novels are much weaker than the previous ones, and responded negatively to this award. In 2013, when some documents from the Swedish Academy (which have been kept in strict secrecy for 50 years) were declassified, it became clear that the writer was awarded because this year he turned out to be "the best in bad company."
4. Ernest Hemingway, 1954
This writer became one of the nine winners of the literature prize, to whom it was awarded not for creativity in general, but for a specific work, namely for the story "The Old Man and the Sea". The same work, first published in 1952, brought the writer the following year, 1953, and another prestigious award - the Pulitzer Prize.
In the same year, the Nobel Committee included Hemingway in the list of candidates, but Winston Churchill, who by that time was already 79 years old, became the owner of the award, and therefore it was decided not to delay the award. And Ernest Hemingway became a well-deserved winner of the award the following year, 1954.
5. Marquez, 1982
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 included Gabriel García Márquez in their ranks. He became the first writer from Colombia to receive an award from the Swedish Academy. His books, notably The Chronicle of a Declared Death, The Autumn of the Patriarch, and Love in the Time of Cholera, have become the best-selling works written in Spanish in its history. The novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), which another Nobel laureate, Pablo Neruda, called the greatest creation in Spanish after Cervantes' novel Don Quixote, was translated into more than 25 languages of the world, and the total circulation of the work was more than 50 million copies.
6. Samuel Beckett, 1969
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 was awarded to Samuel Beckett. This Irish writer is one of the most famous representatives of modernism. It was he, together with Eugene Ionescu, who founded the famous "theater of the absurd". Samuel Beckett wrote his works in two languages - English and French. The most famous brainchild of his pen was the play "Waiting for Godot", written in French. The plot of the work is as follows. The main characters throughout the play are waiting for a certain Godot, who should bring some meaning to their existence. However, he never appears, so the reader or viewer has to decide for himself what kind of image it was.
Beckett was fond of playing chess, enjoyed success with women, but led a rather secluded life. He did not even agree to come to the Nobel Prize ceremony, sending instead his publisher, Jerome Lindon.
7. 1949
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 went to William Faulkner. He also initially refused to go to Stockholm for the award, but was eventually persuaded to do so by his daughter. John Kennedy sent him an invitation to a dinner hosted in honor of Nobel laureates. However, Faulkner, who all his life considered himself "not a writer, but a farmer", in his own words, refused to accept the invitation, citing old age.
The author's most famous and popular novels are The Sound and the Fury and When I Was Dying. However, the success of these works did not come immediately, for a long time they were practically not sold. The Noise and Fury, published in 1929, sold only 3,000 copies in the first 16 years after publication. However, in 1949, by the time the author received the Nobel Prize, this novel was already a model of classic American literature.
In 2012, a special edition of this work was published in the UK, in which the text was printed in 14 different colors, which was done at the request of the writer so that the reader could notice different time planes. The limited edition of the novel was only 1480 copies and sold out immediately after the release. Now the cost of the book of this rare edition is estimated at about 115 thousand rubles.
8. Doris Lessing, 2007
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 was awarded This writer and poet from the UK received the award at the age of 88 and became the oldest recipient of it. She also became the eleventh woman (out of 13) to receive the Nobel Prize.
Lessing was not very popular with critics, as she rarely wrote on topics devoted to pressing social issues, she was even often called a propagandist of Sufism, a doctrine that preaches the rejection of worldly fuss. However, according to The Times magazine, this writer is ranked fifth in the list of the 50 greatest British authors published since 1945.
Doris Lessing's most popular work is The Golden Notebook, published in 1962. Some critics refer to it as a model of classical feminist prose, but the writer herself categorically disagrees with this opinion.
9. Albert Camus, 1957
The Nobel Prize in Literature was also awarded to French writers. One of them, a writer, journalist, essayist of Algerian origin, Albert Camus, is the "conscience of the West." His most famous work is the story "The Outsider" published in France in 1942. In 1946, an English translation was made, sales began, and within a few years the number of copies sold was more than 3.5 million.
Albert Camus is often referred to as representatives of existentialism, but he himself did not agree with this and in every possible way denied such a definition. So, in a speech given at the Nobel Prize, he noted that in his work he sought to "avoid outright lies and resist oppression."
10. Alice Munro, 2013
In 2013, nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature included Alice Munro in their list. A representative of Canada, this novelist became famous in the short story genre. She began to write them early, from adolescence, but the first collection of her works entitled "Dance of Happy Shadows" was published only in 1968, when the author was already 37 years old. In 1971, the next collection, The Lives of Girls and Women, appeared, which critics called "a novel of education." Her other literary works include books: "And who are you, actually, such?", "The Fugitive", "Too Much Happiness". One of her collections, "Hate, Friendship, Courtship, Love, Marriage", published in 2001, even released a Canadian film called "Away from Her", directed by Sarah Polley. The author's most popular book is "Dear Life", published in 2012.
Munro is often referred to as the "Canadian Chekhov" because the styles of these writers are similar. Like the Russian writer, he is characterized by psychological realism and clarity.
Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature from Russia
To date, five Russian writers have won the award. The first of them was I. A. Bunin.
1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, 1933
This is a well-known Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920, Ivan Alekseevich emigrated to France, and when presenting the award, he noted that the Swedish Academy acted very boldly by awarding the émigré writer. Among the contenders for this year's prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely due to the publication of the book "The Life of Arseniev" by that time, the scales still tipped in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.
Bunin began writing his first poems at the age of 7-8 years. Later, his famous works were published: the story "The Village", the collection "Dry Valley", the books "John Rydalets", "The Gentleman from San Francisco", etc. In the 20s he wrote (1924) and "Sunstroke" ( 1927). And in 1943, the pinnacle of Ivan Alexandrovich's work, a collection of short stories "Dark Alleys", was born. This book was devoted to only one topic - love, its "dark" and gloomy sides, as the author wrote in one of his letters.
2. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, 1958
Nobel Prize winners in literature from Russia in 1958 included Boris Leonidovich Pasternak in their list. The poet was awarded the prize at a difficult time. He was forced to abandon it under the threat of exile from Russia. However, the Nobel Committee regarded the refusal of Boris Leonidovich as forced, in 1989 he handed over the medal and diploma after the death of the writer to his son. The famous novel "Doctor Zhivago" is Pasternak's true artistic testament. This work was written in 1955. Albert Camus, laureate of 1957, praised this novel with admiration.
3. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, 1965
In 1965, M. A. Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Russia has once again proved to the whole world that it has talented writers. Having begun his literary activity as a representative of realism, depicting the deep contradictions of life, Sholokhov, however, in some works is captured by the socialist trend. During the presentation of the Nobel Prize, Mikhail Aleksandrovich delivered a speech in which he noted that in his works he sought to praise "a nation of workers, builders and heroes."
In 1926, he began his major novel, The Quiet Flows the Flows Flows the Flows Flows, and completed it in 1940, long before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Sholokhov's works were published in parts, including "Quiet Flows the Don". In 1928, largely thanks to the assistance of A. S. Serafimovich, a friend of Mikhail Alexandrovich, the first part appeared in print. The second volume was published the following year. The third was published in 1932-1933, already with the assistance and support of M. Gorky. The last, fourth, volume was published in 1940. This novel was of great importance for both Russian and world literature. It was translated into many languages of the world, became the basis of the famous opera by Ivan Dzerzhinsky, as well as numerous theatrical productions and films.
Some, however, accused Sholokhov of plagiarism (including A. I. Solzhenitsyn), believing that most of the work was copied from the manuscripts of F. D. Kryukov, a Cossack writer. Other researchers confirmed the authorship of Sholokhov.
In addition to this work, in 1932 Sholokhov created Virgin Soil Upturned, a work that tells about the history of collectivization among the Cossacks. In 1955 the first chapters of the second volume were published, and in early 1960 the last ones were completed.
At the end of 1942, the third novel, "They Fought for the Motherland", was published.
4. Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, 1970
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 was awarded to A. I. Solzhenitsyn. Alexander Isaevich accepted it, but did not dare to attend the award ceremony, because he was afraid of the Soviet government, which regarded the decision of the Nobel Committee as "politically hostile." Solzhenitsyn was afraid that he would not be able to return to his homeland after this trip, although the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, which he received, increased the prestige of our country. In his work, he touched on acute socio-political problems, actively fought against communism, its ideas and the policies of the Soviet government.
The main works of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn include: "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1962), the story "Matryona's Dvor", the novel "In the First Circle" (written from 1955 to 1968), "The Gulag Archipelago" (1964-1970). The first published work was the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which appeared in the magazine "New World". This publication aroused great interest and numerous responses from readers, which inspired the writer to create the Gulag Archipelago. In 1964, the first story of Alexander Isaevich received the Lenin Prize.
However, a year later, he loses the favor of the Soviet authorities, and his works are forbidden to be printed. His novels "The Gulag Archipelago", "In the First Circle" and "The Cancer Ward" were published abroad, for which in 1974 the writer was deprived of citizenship, and he was forced to emigrate. Only 20 years later he managed to return to his homeland. In 2001-2002, Solzhenitsyn's great work "Two Hundred Years Together" appeared. Alexander Isaevich died in 2008.
5. Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky, 1987
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987 were joined by I. A. Brodsky. In 1972, the writer was forced to emigrate to the United States, so the world encyclopedia even calls him American. Among all the writers who received the Nobel Prize, he is the youngest. With his lyrics, he comprehended the world as a single cultural and metaphysical whole, and also pointed out the limited perception of a person as a subject of knowledge.
Joseph Alexandrovich wrote not only in Russian, but also in English poetry, essays, literary criticism. Immediately after the publication in the West of his first collection, in 1965, international fame came to Brodsky. The author's best books include: "Embankment of the Incurable", "Part of Speech", "Landscape with a Flood", "The End of a Beautiful Era", "Stop in the Desert" and others.
The 107th Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 2014 to the French writer and screenwriter Patrick Modiano. Thus, since 1901, 111 authors have already received the Literature Prize (four times the award was awarded simultaneously to two writers).
Alfred Nobel bequeathed to present the prize for "the most outstanding literary work in an ideal direction", and not for circulation and popularity. But the concept of a “bestseller book” existed already at the beginning of the 20th century, and sales volumes can at least partly tell about the skill and literary significance of the writer.
RBC compiled a conditional rating of Nobel laureates in literature based on the commercial success of their works. The source was the data of the world's largest book retailer Barnes & Noble on the best-selling books of Nobel laureates.
William Golding
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1983
"for novels that, with the clarity of realistic narrative art, combined with the diversity and universality of myth, help to comprehend the existence of man in the modern world"
Over a nearly forty-year literary career, the English writer published 12 novels. Golding's novels Lord of the Flies and The Heirs are among the best-selling books by Nobel laureates according to Barnes & Noble. The first, coming out in 1954, brought him worldwide fame. In terms of the significance of the novel for the development of modern thought and literature, critics often compared it with Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
The best selling book on Barnes & Noble is Lord of the Flies (1954).
Toni Morrison
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1993
« A writer who, in her dreamy, poetic novels, brought to life an important aspect of American reality."
American writer Toni Morrison was born in Ohio, in a working-class family. She got her start in the creative arts while attending Howard University, where she studied "English Language and Literature". Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eyes, was based on a short story she wrote for a university writers' and poets' circle. In 1975, her novel Sula was nominated for the US National Book Award.
Barnes & Noble's best-selling book is The Bluest Eyes (1970)
John Steinbeck
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1962
"For his realistic and poetic gift, combined with gentle humor and keen social vision"
Among Steinbeck's most famous novels are The Grapes of Wrath, East of Paradise, Of Mice and Men. All of them are included in the first dozen bestsellers according to the American store Barnes & Noble.
By 1962, Steinbeck had already been nominated for the prize eight times, and he himself believed that he did not deserve it. Critics in the United States met the award with hostility, believing that his later novels were much weaker than subsequent ones. In 2013, when the Swedish Academy documents were revealed (they have been kept secret for 50 years), it was revealed that Steinbeck - a recognized classic of American literature - was awarded because he was "the best in bad company" of candidates for that year's award.
The first edition of The Grapes of Wrath, with a print run of 50,000 copies, was illustrated and cost $2.75. In 1939 the book became a bestseller. The book has sold over 75 million copies to date, and the first edition in good condition is worth over $24,000.
Ernest Hemingway
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1954
"For his storytelling once again in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the impact he has had on contemporary style"
Hemingway was one of nine laureates in literature who was awarded the Nobel Prize for a specific work (the story "The Old Man and the Sea"), and not for literary activity in general. In addition to the Nobel Prize, The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize for the author in 1953. The story was first published in Life magazine in September 1952, and in just two days, 5.3 million copies of the magazine were bought in the United States.
Interestingly, the Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the prize to Hemingway in 1953, but then chose Winston Churchill, who wrote more than a dozen books of a historical and biographical nature during his life. One of the main motives for “not delaying” the awarding of the former British Prime Minister was his advanced age (Churchill was 79 at the time).
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1982
"for novels and short stories in which fantasy and reality come together to reflect the life and conflicts of an entire continent"
Marquez became the first Colombian to receive a prize from the Swedish Academy. His books, including Chronicle of a Declared Death, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Autumn of the Patriarch, have outsold every Spanish book ever published except the Bible. One Hundred Years of Solitude, called by Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda "the greatest creation in Spanish since Cervantes's Don Quixote", has been translated into over 25 languages and has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
The best-selling book on Barnes & Noble is One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).
Samuel Beckett
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1969
"For innovative works in prose and drama, in which the tragedy of modern man becomes his triumph"
A native of Ireland, Samuel Beckett is considered one of the most prominent exponents of modernism; along with Eugène Ionescu, he founded the "theater of the absurd". Beckett wrote in English and French, and his most famous work, Waiting for Godot, was written in French. The main characters of the play throughout the action are waiting for a certain Godot, a meeting with which can bring meaning to their meaningless existence. There is practically no dynamics in the play, Godot never appears, and the viewer is left to interpret for himself what kind of image this is.
Beckett loved chess, attracted women, but led a secluded life. He agreed to accept the Nobel Prize only on the condition that he would not attend the award ceremony. His publisher, Jérôme Lindon, received the award instead.
William Faulkner
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1949
"For his significant and artistically unique contribution to the development of the modern American novel"
Faulkner initially refused to go to Stockholm to receive the award, but his daughter persuaded him. In response to an invitation from US President John F. Kennedy to attend a dinner in honor of Nobel laureates, Faulkner, who said to himself "I'm not a writer, but a farmer," replied that he was "too old to travel so far to dine with strangers."
According to Barnes & Noble, Faulkner's best-selling book is When I Was Dying. The Sound and the Fury, which the author himself considered his most successful work, did not have commercial success for a long time. In the 16 years after its publication (in 1929), the novel sold only 3,000 copies. However, at the time of receiving the Nobel Prize, The Sound and the Fury was already considered a classic of American literature.
In 2012, the British publishing house The Folio Society released Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, where the text of the novel is printed in 14 colors, as the author himself wanted (so that the reader can see different time planes). The publisher's recommended price for such a copy is $375, but the circulation was limited to only 1,480 copies, and already at the time of the book's release, a thousand of them were pre-ordered. At the moment, you can buy a limited edition of The Sound and the Fury on eBay for 115 thousand rubles.
Doris Lessing
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2007
"For a skeptical, passionate and visionary insight into the experience of women"
British poet and writer Doris Lessing became the oldest winner of the Swedish Academy Literary Prize, in 2007 she was 88 years old. Lessing also became the eleventh woman - the owner of this prize (out of thirteen).
Lessing was not popular with mass literary critics, since her works were often devoted to acute social issues (in particular, she was called a propagandist of Sufism). However, The Times magazine ranks Lessing as fifth on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Authors Since 1945".
The most popular book on Barnes & Noble is Lessing's The Golden Notebook, published in 1962. Some commentators rank it among the classics of feminist prose. Lessing herself strongly disagreed with this label.
Albert Camus
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957
"for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience"
Algerian-born French essayist, journalist and writer Albert Camus has been called "the conscience of the West". One of his most popular works, the novel The Stranger, was published in 1942, and in 1946 an English translation began to be sold in the United States, and in just a few years more than 3.5 million copies were sold.
During the presentation of the award to the writer, Anders Exterling, a member of the Swedish Academy, said that "Camus' philosophical views were born in a sharp contradiction between the acceptance of earthly existence and awareness of the reality of death." Despite the frequent correlation of Camus with the philosophy of existentialism, he himself denied his involvement in this movement. In his speech in Stockholm, he said that his work is built on the desire to "avoid outright lies and resist oppression."
Alice Munro
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2013
The prize was awarded with the wording " master of the modern short story genre"
Canadian novelist Alice Munro has been writing short stories since she was a teenager, but her first collection (Dance of Happy Shadows) was not published until 1968, when Munro was 37. as a "novel of education" (Bildungsroman). Among other literary works - collections "And who are you, in fact, such?" (1978), Moons of Jupiter (1982), The Fugitive (2004), Too Much Happiness (2009). The 2001 compilation Hate, Friendship, Courtship, Love, Marriage was the basis for the Canadian feature film Away from Her, directed by Sarah Polley.
Critics have called Munro the "Canadian Chekhov" for his narrative style, characterized by clarity and psychological realism.
The best selling book at Barnes & Noble is Dear Life (2012).
Dedicated to the great Russian writers.
From October 21 to November 21, 2015, the Library and Information Complex invites you to an exhibition dedicated to the work of Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR.
The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 was awarded to a Belarusian writer. The award was given to Svetlana Aleksievich with the following wording: "For her many-voiced work - a monument to suffering and courage in our time." At the exhibition, we also presented the works of Svetlana Alexandrovna.
The exposition can be found at the address: Leningradsky Prospekt, 49, 1st floor, room 100.
The prizes established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding work in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, for literary works, for contribution to the strengthening of peace, economics (since 1969).
The Nobel Prize in Literature is an award for literary achievement presented annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm on 10 December. According to the statute of the Nobel Foundation, the following persons can nominate candidates: members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutions and societies with similar tasks and goals; professors of the history of literature and linguistics of universities; laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature; chairmen of authors' unions representing literary creativity in the respective countries.
Unlike the winners of other prizes (for example, in physics and chemistry), the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature is made by members of the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy brings together 18 figures from Sweden. The Academy is composed of historians, linguists, writers and one lawyer. They are known in the community as "The Eighteen". Membership in the academy is for life. After the death of one of the members, the academicians choose a new academician by secret ballot. The Academy elects from among its members the Nobel Committee. It is he who deals with the issue of awarding the prize.
Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR :
- I. A. Bunin(1933 "For the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose")
- B.L. Parsnip(1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel")
- M. A. Sholokhov(1965 "For the artistic power and honesty with which he depicted the historical era in the life of the Russian people in his Don epic")
- A. I. Solzhenitsyn(1970 "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature")
- I. A. Brodsky(1987 "For a comprehensive work imbued with the clarity of thought and the passion of poetry")
Russian laureates in literature are people with different, sometimes opposing views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents of Soviet power, and M. A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prizes.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a famous Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920 Bunin emigrated to France.
The most difficult thing for a writer in exile is to remain himself. It happens that, having left the Motherland because of the need to make dubious compromises, he is again forced to kill the spirit in order to survive. Fortunately, this fate passed Bunin. Despite any trials, Bunin always remained true to himself.
In 1922, Ivan Alekseevich's wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, wrote in her diary that Romain Rolland nominated Bunin for the Nobel Prize. Since then, Ivan Alekseevich lived in hopes that someday he would be awarded this prize. 1933 All newspapers in Paris on November 10 came out with large headlines: "Bunin - Nobel laureate." Every Russian in Paris, even a loader at the Renault factory, who had never read Bunin, took this as a personal holiday. For the compatriot turned out to be the best, the most talented! In Parisian taverns and restaurants that evening there were Russians who sometimes drank for "their own" for their last pennies.
On the day of awarding the prize on November 9, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin watched "merry stupidity" - "Baby" in the "cinema". Suddenly, a narrow beam of a flashlight cut through the darkness of the hall. They were looking for Bunin. He was called by phone from Stockholm.
“And my whole old life immediately ends. I go home pretty quickly, but feeling nothing but regret that I didn’t manage to watch the film. But no. You can’t not believe it: the whole house is lit up with lights. ... Some kind of turning point in my life," recalled I. A. Bunin.
Exciting days in Sweden. In the concert hall, in the presence of the king, after the report of the writer, member of the Swedish Academy Peter Galstrem on the work of Bunin, he was presented with a folder with a Nobel diploma, a medal and a check for 715 thousand French francs.
When presenting the award, Bunin noted that the Swedish Academy acted very boldly by awarding the émigré writer. Among the contenders for this year's prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely due to the publication of the book "The Life of Arseniev" by that time, the scales still tipped in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.
Returning to France, Bunin feels rich and, sparing no money, distributes "allowances" to emigrants, donates funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invests the remaining amount in a "win-win business" and is left with nothing.
Bunin's friend, poetess and prose writer Zinaida Shakhovskaya, in her memoir book "Reflection", noted: "With skill and a small amount of practicality, the prize should have been enough to the end. But the Bunins did not buy either an apartment or a villa ..."
Unlike M. Gorky, A. I. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Russia, despite the exhortations of the Moscow "messengers". He never came to his homeland, even as a tourist.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow in the family of the famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Maybe that's why in childhood the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won. Glory to B. L. Pasternak was brought by his poetry, and bitter trials - "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.
The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer sent the novel abroad, to Italy, where in 1957 it was published. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet colleagues in the creative workshop, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize starting in 1946, but was awarded it only in 1958, after the release of the novel. The conclusion of the Nobel Committee says: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."
In his homeland, the award of such an honorary prize to an "anti-Soviet novel" aroused the indignation of the authorities, and under the threat of expulsion from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Yevgeny Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a Nobel laureate medal for his father.
The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and his childhood and youth were spent in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University, A. I. Solzhenitsyn taught and at the same time studied in absentia at a literary institute in Moscow. When the Great Patriotic War began, the future writer went to the front.
Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was the critical remarks about Stalin found by military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962, the Novy Mir magazine published the first story, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which tells about the life of prisoners in the camp. Literary magazines refused to print most of the subsequent works. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not back down and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich was not limited to literary activity - he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, spoke out with sharp criticism of the Soviet system.
The literary works and political position of AI Solzhenitsyn were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the award ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.
In 1974 A. I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. He first lived in Switzerland, then moved to the United States, where he was, with a considerable delay, awarded the Nobel Prize. In the West, such works as "In the First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago", "August 1914", "The Cancer Ward" were printed. In 1994, A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, having traveled through all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.
The fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, the only one of the Russian Nobel Prize winners in literature, who was supported by government agencies, turned out differently. M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center of the Russian Cossacks. He later described his small homeland - the farm Kruzhilin of the village of Vyoshenskaya - in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events of the civil war, led the food detachment, which selected the so-called surplus grain from wealthy Cossacks.
Already in his youth, the future writer felt a penchant for literary creativity. In 1922, Sholokhov arrived in Moscow, and in 1923 he began to publish his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, the collections "Don Stories" and "Azure Steppe" were published. Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Turn (World War I, revolutions and civil war) - began in 1925. In 1928, the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov finished it in the 30s . "Quiet Don" became the pinnacle of the writer's work, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the artistic strength and completeness with which he depicted a historical phase in the life of the Russian people in his epic work about the Don." "Quiet Flows the Don" has been translated into several dozen languages in 45 countries.
By the time of receiving the Nobel Prize in the bibliography of Joseph Brodsky, there were six collections of poems, the poem "Gorbunov and Gorchakov", the play "Marble", many essays (written mainly in English). However, in the USSR, from where the poet was expelled in 1972, his works were distributed mainly in samizdat, and he received the award, already being a citizen of the United States of America.
For him, the spiritual connection with the homeland was important. As a relic, he kept the tie of Boris Pasternak, he even wanted to wear it to the Nobel Prize, but the rules of the protocol did not allow it. Nevertheless, Brodsky still came with Pasternak's tie in his pocket. After perestroika, Brodsky was repeatedly invited to Russia, but he never came to his homeland, which rejected him. "You can't step into the same river twice, even if it's the Neva," he said.
From Brodsky's Nobel lecture: “A person with taste, in particular literary, is less susceptible to repetition and rhythmic incantations, characteristic of any form of political demagoguery. It's not so much that virtue is no guarantee of a masterpiece, but that evil, especially political evil, is always a bad stylist. The richer the aesthetic experience of the individual, the firmer his taste, the clearer his moral choice, the freer he is - although perhaps not happier. It is in this rather applied than Platonic sense that Dostoyevsky's remark that "beauty will save the world" or Matthew Arnold's saying that "poetry will save us" should be understood. The world will probably not be saved, but an individual person can always be saved.
