Nobel Prize

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910) was the son of a Norwegian pastor. At school in Christiania (Oslo) Ibsen was one of his fellow students. Bjørnson participated early in the movement for a national Norwegian theatre and wrote some poetic plays which he did not publish. While a student, he became a literary critic for the Morgenbladet in…

As the Laureate was unable to be present at the Nobel Banquet December 10, 1984, the speech was given by his daughter Jana Seifertová (in French) Vos Majestés, Vos Altesses Royales, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ce que mon père à écrit, il l’a toujours écrit sans grandes prétentions. Seule, la spontanéité l’a toujours poussé; il n’a…

German Harold Pinter wurde am 10. Oktober 1930 als Sohn eines jüdischen Damenschneiders in Hackney, London geboren. Er mußte in den Jahren seines Heranwachsens antisemitische Stimmungen fühlen, was, wie er selbst betont hat, für seine Entwicklung zum Dramatiker von Bedeutung war. Beim Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurde er als Neunjähriger aus London evakuiert und kehrte…

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Swedish Academy The Permanent Secretary Press release The Nobel Prize in Literature 1976 When Saul Bellow published his first book, the time had come for a change of climate and generation in American narrative art. The so-called hard-boiled style, with its virile air and choppy prose, had now slackened into an everyday routine, which was…

Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, As we all know, this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Eugenio Montale, from Italy. He comes from Eastern Liguria, a coastal landscape whose harsh character is reflected in his poetry. In…

German Der ständige Sekretär Pressemitteilung 9. Oktober 2008 Der Nobelpreis in Literatur des Jahres 2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Der Nobelpreis in Literatur des Jahres 2008 wird dem französischen Schriftsteller Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio verliehen „dem Verfasser des Aufbruchs, des poetischen Abenteuers und der sinnlichen Ekstase, dem Erforscher einer Menschlichkeit außerhalb und unterhalb der herrschenden…

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Eugenio Montale, born in 1896, is one of the few obvious “true masters” of the last fifty years of Italian literature. Born in Genoa into a family of businessmen, he discontinued his secondary studies and started, on a private basis, to study singing with the baritone Ernesto Sivori. But the 1915-18 war (in which he…

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four children in a black working-class family. Displayed an early interest in literature. Studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities, followed by an academic career at Texas Southern University, Howard University, Yale, and since 1989, a chair at Princeton University. She has also…