Presentation Speech by Fredrik Böök, Member of the Nobel Committee for Literature, on December 10, 1929 If one asks which innovation the nineteenth century made in the field of literature, which new form it created in addition to the old forms of epic, drama, and lyric, whose roofs are in Greece, the answer must be:…

  Presentation Speech by Dr. Karl Ragnar Gierow, of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, This year’s Nobel prizewinner in literature, Vicente Aleixandre, is hard to understand and in one way controversial. The latter may be due to the former. For even his devoted admirers offer varying…

Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Member of the Nobel Committee of the on December 10, 1931 If an interested foreigner were to ask one of Erik Axel Karlfeldt’s countrymen what we admire most in this poet and on what qualities his national greatness depends, it would at first seem easy to give an answer. People…

Presentation Speech by Dr. Horace Engdahl of the , December 10, 1999. Translation of the Swedish text. Dr. Horace Engdahl delivering the Presentation Speech for the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Photo: Hans Mehlin, Nobelprize.org Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, These days, we often hear talk of…

Swedish Presentationstal av Professor Anders Olsson, ledamot av , 10 december 2009. Professor Anders Olsson presenterar Nobelpriset i litteratur 2009 i Stockholms Konserthus. Eders Majestäter, Eders Kungliga Högheter, mina damer och herrar! Det finns litteratur som först långsamt, steg för steg, uppenbarar sina djupa kvaliteter. Och så finns det litteratur som omedelbart fångar…

Presentation Speech by S. Siwertz, Member of the Very seldom have great statesmen and warriors also been great writers. One thinks of Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, and even Napoleon, whose letters to Josephine during the first Italian campaign certainly have passion and splendour. But the man who can most readily be compared with Sir Winston…

  Presentation Speech by Karl Ragnar Gierow, of the (Translation) Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, No great writer gains lustre from a Nobel Prize. It is the Nobel Prize that gains lustre from the recipient – provided the right one has been chosen. But who is the right one? According to Nobel’s…

Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the In our modern age, American authors have set their stamp more and more strongly on the general physiognomy of literature. Our generation in particular has, during the last few decades, seen a reorientation of literary interest which implies not only a temporary change in the market…

Presentation Speech by Per Hallström, Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1934 The work of Luigi Pirandello is extensive. As an author of novellas he certainly is without equal in output, even in the primary country of this literary genre. Boccaccio’s Decameron contains one hundred novellas; Pirandello’s Novelle per un anno (1922-37) has…

Presentation Speech by E. Wessén, Member of the Iceland is the cradle of narrative art here in the North. This is ultimately due to the peculiar nature and development of the Icelandic community. In Iceland there were no conditions for the rise of the class society elsewhere so characteristic of the Middle Ages, with its…