The 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature was divided equally between Shmuel Yosef Agnon "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people" and Nelly Sachs "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength."[1]
In his award ceremony speech on 10 December 1966 Anders Österling of the Swedish Academy said:
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to two outstanding Jewish authors – Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs – each of whom represents Israel’s message to our time. Agnon’s home is in Jerusalem, and Miss Sachs has been an immigrant in Sweden since 1940, and is now a Swedish subject. The purpose of combining these two prizewinners is to do justice to the individual achievements of each, and the sharing of the prize has its special justification: to honour two writers who, although they write in different languages, are united in a spiritual kinship and complement each other in a superb effort to present the cultural heritage of the Jewish people through the written word. Their common source of inspiration has been, for both of them, a vital power.[2]
It is one of four occasions when the Nobel Prize in Literature has been shared between two individuals.[3]
Laureates
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon was one of the leading writers in modern Hebrew literature. His works deal with conflict between Jewish traditions and the modern world.[4]
Nelly Sachs
Nelly Sachs was a German poet and dramatist. Her work deals with the fate of the Jewish people in the 20th century.[5]
Nominations and prize decision
In 1966 the Nobel committee for literature received 99 nominations for 72 individuals including Anna Achmatova, Jean Anouilh, Louis Aragon, W. H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Heinrich Böll, Alejo Carpentier, René Char, Lawrence Durrell, E. M. Forster, Max Frisch, Günter Grass, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Jorge Guillén, Yasunari Kawabata, André Malraux, Harry Martinson, Alberto Moravia, Vladimir Nabokov, Pablo Neruda, Ezra Pound, Mika Waltari, Tarjei Vesaas and Simon Vestdijk.[6] A shared prize to the Latin American writers Jorge Luis Borges and Miguel Angel Asturias,[7] and to Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan were proposed.[6]
The Nobel committee, a working group within the Swedish Academy, proposed that the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature should be awarded to the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, but, unconventionally, the 18 members of the Academy did not follow the recommendation and voted for a prize to Agnon and Sachs.[8]
References
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966 nobelprize.org
- ^ Award Ceremony speech nobelprize.org
- ^ Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature nobelprize.org
- ^ S.Y. Agnon Britannica.com
- ^ Nelly Sachs Britannica.com
- ^ a b Nomination archive 1966 nobelprize.org
- ^ Nabokov, Neruda and Borges revealed as losers of 1965 Nobel prize The Guardian 6 January 2016
- ^ Kaj Schueler Svenska Akademien körde över Nobelkommittén Svenska Dagbladet 2 January 2017 (in Swedish)
External links
- Award Ceremony speech nobelprize.org
- List of all nominations nobelprize.org