The Noble Prize for Literature has been awarded to one recipient annually since 1901*. The 2016 winner is Bob Dylan. Bob becomes the 1st musician to earn this distinction.
*There was no award granted from 1940–1943. That WWII thing got in the way.
Past award winners have come from the world of literature or poetry. One noteable exception is the inclusion of statesman Sir Winston Churchill in 1953.
The list is impressive, with many giants of literature being represented. My personal top 10 favorite past recipients include:
- Ruyard Kipling, awarded in 1907 — “Jungle Book”
- Sinclair Lewis, awarded in 1930 — “The Jungle”
- Herman Hesse, awarded in 1946 — “Siddhartha”
- William Faulkner, awarded in 1949 — “The Sound and the Fury”, “As I Lay Dying”
- Sir Winston Churchill, awarded in 1953 — “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be,we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
- Ernest Hemmingway, awarded in 1954 — “A Farewell to Arm”
- Albert Camus, awarded in 1957 “The Stranger”
- John Steinbeck, awarded in 1962 — “The Grapes of Wrath”, “Of Mice and Men”
- Saul Bellow, awarded in 1976 — “The Adventures of Augie March”, “Herzog”
- Gunter Grass, awarded in 1999 — “The Tin Drum”
Some other favorites who have won include Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, Isaac Singer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William Golding, Nadine Gordimer, and Alice Munro.
Award winners by country with more than 5 recipients:
United States — 12 (4 authors are listed with dual country of origin)
France — 11 (Gao Xinjian is listed as belonging to China and France)
United Kingdom — 9 (T.S. Eliot is listed as belonging to the UK and the US)
Germany — 9
Sweden — 7
Notables who have not won the award
- Joseph Conrad — “The Heart of Darkness”
- James Joyce — “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, “Ulysses”
- Thomas Wolfe — “You Can Never Go Home Again”
- Philip Roth — “Goodbye, Columbus”, “The Human Stain”
- J.D. Salinger — “The Catcher and the Rye”
- Henry James — “The Turn of the Screw”, “The Portrait of a Lady”
- C.S. Lewis — “The Screwtape Letters”, The Narnia Chronicles
- Henry Miller — “Tropic of Cancer”, “Tropic of Capricorn”
- Franz Kafka — “The Trial”, “The Castle”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald — “The Great Gatsby”
- Salman Rusdie — “Midnight’s Children”, “The Moor’s Last Sigh”
Congrats to Mr. Dylan for joining this prestigious list. The Nobel prize serves as the ultimate recognition of his profound impact on his art form. It was a bold choice for the Nobel committee to choose a musician as their awardee. Long time contender Philip Roth continues to serve the role as the Susan Lucci for the award. In defense of the winner, no musician before or since has changed the face of musical lyricism to the degree that Bob Dylan has. As mentioned earlier, he stands as the only musician in over 100 years to earn the designation. Perhaps we will wait another 100 for the next recipient from the music world.
