Nobel Prize

Saint-John Perse, born in 1887, pseudonym for Alexis Saint-Léger Léger, came from an old Bourguignon family which settled in the French Antilles in the seventeenth century and returned to France at the end of the nineteenth century. Perse studied law at Bordeaux and, after private studies in political science, went into the diplomatic service in…

French Elfriede Jelinek est née le 20 octobre 1946 dans la ville de Mürzzuschlag dans le «land» autrichien de Styrie. Son père – d’origine tchèque et juive – était chimiste et employé à la recherche de matériel de guerre, de sorte qu’il échappe aux persécutions. Sa mère est issue d’une famille de la haute bourgeoisie…

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Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1905 Wherever the literature of a people is rich and inexhaustible, the existence of that people is assured, for the flower of civilization cannot grow on barren soil. But in every nation there are some rare geniuses who concentrate in themselves…

Swedish Academy The Permanent Secretary Press release The Nobel Prize in Literature 1981 Elias Canetti Born in 1905, in the port of Rustschuk on the lower Danube, Elias Canetti belongs to a Sephardic family whose members, in 1492, were driven out of the town of Canete, situated between Cuenca and Valencia. For several hundred years,…

English Swedish Academy The Permanent Secretary Press release October 9, 1997 The Nobel Prize for Literature 1997 Dario Fo “who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden” Dario Fo, the dramatist and actor, was born at Lago Maggiore, and is 71. His education included studies…

  Presentation Speech by Dr. Johannes Edfelt, of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, The exiled and cosmopolitan author Canetti has one native land, and that is the German language. He has never abandoned it, and he has often avowed his love of the highest manifestations of…

English Biobibliographical Notes Dario Fo, one of the leading figures in modern farce and political drama, was born in 1926 in the village of Sangiano (Varese) in Lombardy, where while still young he came into contact with popular theatrical and narrative traditions (his grandfather was a well-known fabulatore). After studying art and architecture in Milan,…