Dedicated to the great Russian writers.

From October 21 to November 21, 2015, the Library and Information Complex invites you to an exhibition dedicated to the works of Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR.

Nobel Prize in literature in 2015 the Belarusian writer received. The award was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich with the following wording: “For her polyphonic creativity - a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” At the exhibition we also presented works by Svetlana Alexandrovna.

The exhibition can be viewed at the address: Leningradsky Prospekt, 49, 1st floor, room. 100.

The prizes, established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding works in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, for literary works, for contributions to strengthening peace, economics (since 1969).

The Nobel Prize in Literature is an award for achievements in the field of literature, awarded annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm on December 10. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the following persons can nominate candidates: members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutes and societies with similar tasks and goals; university professors of literary history and linguistics; Nobel Prize laureates in literature; chairmen of copyright unions representing literary creativity in the respective countries.

Unlike laureates of other prizes (for example, physics and chemistry), the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature is made by members of the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy unites 18 Swedish figures. The Academy includes historians, linguists, writers and one lawyer. They are known in society as "Eighteen". Membership in the academy is for life. After the death of one of the members, the academicians elect a new academician by secret vote. The Academy selects a Nobel Committee from among its members. It is he who deals with the issue of awarding the prize.

Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR :

• I. A. Bunin(1933 "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose")
• B.L. Parsnip(1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel")
• M. A. Sholokhov(1965 "For the artistic strength and honesty with which he depicted in his Don epic historical era in the life of the Russian people")
• A. I. Solzhenitsyn(1970 "For moral strength, with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature")
• I. A. Brodsky(1987 "For comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry")

Russian literature laureates are people with different, sometimes opposing, views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents of Soviet power, and M. A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded Nobel Prizes.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a famous Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920, Bunin emigrated to France.

The most difficult thing for a writer in exile is to remain himself. It happens that, having left his homeland due to the need to make dubious compromises, he is again forced to kill his spirit in order to survive. Fortunately, Bunin escaped this fate. Despite any trials, Bunin always remained true to himself.

In 1922, Ivan Alekseevich’s wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, wrote in her diary that Romain Rolland nominated Bunin for the Nobel Prize. From then on, Ivan Alekseevich lived with hopes that someday he would be awarded this prize. 1933 All newspapers in Paris came out on November 10 with large headlines: “Bunin - Nobel laureate.” Every Russian in Paris, even the loader at the Renault plant, who had never read Bunin, took this as a personal holiday. Because my compatriot turned out to be the best, the most talented! In the Parisian taverns and restaurants that evening there were Russians, who sometimes drank for “one of their own” with their last pennies.

On the day the prize was awarded, November 9, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin watched the “cheerful stupidity” “Baby” in the cinema. Suddenly the darkness of the hall was cut through by a narrow beam of a flashlight. They were looking for Bunin. He was called by telephone from Stockholm.

“And immediately my whole old life ends. I go home quite quickly, but without feeling anything other than regret that I was not able to watch the film. But no. I can’t help but believe: the whole house is glowing with lights. And my heart squeezes with some kind of sadness ... Some kind of turning point in my life,” recalled I. A. Bunin.

Exciting days in Sweden. In the concert hall, in the presence of the king, after the report of the writer, member of the Swedish Academy Peter Hallström on the work of Bunin, he was presented with a folder with a Nobel diploma, a medal and a check for 715 thousand French francs.

When presenting the award, Bunin noted that the Swedish Academy acted very bravely by awarding the emigrant writer. Among the contenders for this year’s prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely thanks to the publication of the book “The Life of Arsenyev” by that time, the scales nevertheless tipped in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.

Returning to France, Bunin feels rich and, sparing no expense, distributes “benefits” to emigrants and donates funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invests the remaining amount in a “win-win business” and is left with nothing.

Bunin’s friend, poet and prose writer Zinaida Shakhovskaya, in her memoir book “Reflection,” noted: “With skill and a small amount of practicality, the prize should have been enough to last. But the Bunins did not buy either an apartment or a villa...”

Unlike M. Gorky, A. I. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Russia, despite the admonitions of the Moscow “messengers”. I have never come to my homeland, not even as a tourist.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow into a family famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Maybe that’s why, as a child, the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won out. B. L. Pasternak's fame was brought by his poetry, and his bitter trials by "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.

The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer transferred the novel abroad, to Italy, where it was published in 1957. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet creative colleagues, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize starting in 1946, but was awarded it only in 1958, after the release of the novel. The conclusion of the Nobel Committee says: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."

At home, the award of such an honorary prize to an “anti-Soviet novel” aroused the indignation of the authorities, and under the threat of deportation from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Evgeniy Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a Nobel laureate medal for his father.

The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and his childhood and youth were spent in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University, A.I. Solzhenitsyn taught and at the same time studied by correspondence at the Literary Institute in Moscow. When the Great Patriotic War began, the future writer went to the front.

Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was critical remarks against Stalin, found by military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962, the magazine "New World" published the first story - "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", telling about the life of prisoners in the camp. Literary magazines refused to publish most of the subsequent works. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not give up and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich did not limit himself to literary activities - he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, and sharply criticized the Soviet system.

The literary works and political position of A. I. Solzhenitsyn were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the award ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.

In 1974, A.I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. First he lived in Switzerland, then moved to the USA, where, with a significant delay, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Such works as “In the First Circle”, “The Gulag Archipelago”, “August 1914”, “Cancer Ward” were published in the West. In 1994, A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, traveling across all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.

The fate of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, the only Russian Nobel Prize laureate in literature who was supported by government agencies, turned out differently. M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center of the Russian Cossacks. My small homeland- the village of Kruzhilin of the village of Veshenskaya - he later described it in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events of the civil war, led a food detachment that took away the so-called surplus grain from rich Cossacks.

Already in his youth, the future writer felt a penchant for literary creativity. In 1922, Sholokhov came to Moscow, and in 1923 he began publishing his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, the collections “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe” were published. Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Turning Point (First World War, revolutions and Civil War) - began in 1925. In 1928, the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov completed it in the 30s. " Quiet Don"became the pinnacle of the writer's creativity, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the artistic strength and completeness with which he depicted the historical phase in the life of the Russian people in his epic work about the Don." "Quiet Don" has been translated into 45 countries around the world. several dozen languages.

By the time he received the Nobel Prize, Joseph Brodsky’s bibliography included six collections of poems, the poem “Gorbunov and Gorchakov”, the play “Marble”, and many essays (written mainly in English). However, in the USSR, from where the poet was expelled in 1972, his works were distributed mainly in samizdat, and he received the prize while already a citizen of the United States of America.

A spiritual connection with his homeland was important to him. He kept Boris Pasternak's tie as a relic and even wanted to wear it to the Nobel Prize ceremony, but protocol rules did not allow it. Nevertheless, Brodsky still came with Pasternak’s tie in his pocket. After perestroika, Brodsky was invited to Russia more than once, but he never came to his homeland, which rejected him. “You can’t step into the same river twice, even if it’s the Neva,” he said.

From Nobel lecture Brodsky: “A person with taste, in particular literary taste, is less susceptible to repetition and rhythmic spells characteristic of any form of political demagoguery. The point is not so much that virtue is no guarantee of a masterpiece, but that evil, especially political evil, is always a poor stylist. The richer the aesthetic experience of an individual, the firmer his taste, the clearer his moral choice, the freer he is - although perhaps not happier. It is in this applied rather than platonic sense that one should understand Dostoevsky’s remark that “beauty will save the world,” or Matthew Arnold’s statement that “poetry will save us.” The world probably won’t be able to be saved, but an individual can always be saved.”

The Nobel Prize for Literature began to be awarded in 1901. Several times the awards were not held - in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940-1943. Current laureates, chairmen of authors' unions, literary professors and members of scientific academies can nominate other writers for the prize. Until 1950, information about the nominees was public, and then only the names of the laureates began to be named.

For five years in a row, from 1902 to 1906, Leo Tolstoy was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1906, Tolstoy wrote a letter to the Finnish writer and translator Arvid Järnefelt, in which he asked him to persuade his Swedish colleagues to “try to ensure that I am not awarded this prize,” because “if this happened, it would be very unpleasant for me to refuse.”

As a result, the prize was awarded to the Italian poet Giosue Carducci in 1906. Tolstoy was glad that he was spared the prize: “Firstly, it saved me from a great difficulty - to manage this money, which, like any money, in my conviction, can only bring evil; and secondly, it gave me the honor and great pleasure to receive expressions of sympathy from so many people, although unknown to me, but still deeply respected by me.”

In 1902, another Russian also ran for the prize: lawyer, judge, speaker and writer Anatoly Koni. By the way, Koni had been friends with Tolstoy since 1887, corresponded with the count and met with him many times in Moscow. “Resurrection” was written based on Koni’s memories of one of Tolstoy’s cases. And Koni himself wrote the work “Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy”.

Kony himself was nominated for the award for his biographical essay about Dr. Haase, who devoted his life to the struggle to improve the lives of prisoners and exiles. Subsequently, some literary scholars spoke of Kony’s nomination as a “curiosity.”

In 1914, the writer and poet Dmitry Merezhkovsky, the husband of the poetess Zinaida Gippius, was nominated for the prize for the first time. In total, Merezhkovsky was nominated 10 times.

In 1914, Merezhkovsky was nominated for a prize after the publication of his 24-volume collected works. However, this year the prize was not awarded due to the outbreak of the World War.

Later, Merezhkovsky was nominated as an emigrant writer. In 1930 he was again nominated for the Nobel Prize. But here Merezhkovsky turns out to be a competitor to another outstanding Russian literary emigrant - Ivan Bunin.

According to one legend, Merezhkovsky suggested that Bunin conclude a pact. “If I win the Nobel Prize, I will give you half, and if you win, you will give me half. Let's divide it in half. We will insure ourselves mutually." Bunin refused. Merezhkovsky was never given the prize.

In 1916, Ivan Franko, a Ukrainian writer and poet, became a nominee. He died before the award was considered. With rare exceptions, Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously.

In 1918, Maxim Gorky was nominated for the prize, but again it was decided not to present the award.

1923 becomes a “fruitful” year for Russian and Soviet writers. Ivan Bunin (for the first time), Konstantin Balmont (pictured) and again Maxim Gorky were nominated for the award. Thanks for this to the writer Romain Rolland, who nominated all three. But the prize is given to the Irishman William Gates.

In 1926, a Russian emigrant, the Tsarist Cossack General Pyotr Krasnov, became a nominee. After the revolution, he fought with the Bolsheviks, created the state of the All-Great Don Army, but later was forced to join Denikin’s army and then retire. In 1920 he emigrated and lived in Germany until 1923, then in Paris.

Since 1936, Krasnov lived in Nazi Germany. He did not recognize the Bolsheviks and helped anti-Bolshevik organizations. During the war years, he collaborated with the fascists, viewing their aggression against the USSR as a war exclusively against the communists, and not against the people. In 1945 he was captured by the British, handed over to the Soviets and in 1947 hanged in Lefortovo prison.

Among other things, Krasnov was a prolific writer, publishing 41 books. His most popular novel was the epic From the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner. Krasnov was nominated for the Nobel Prize by Slavic philologist Vladimir Frantsev. Can you imagine if, by some miracle, he received the prize in 1926? How would people argue about this person and this award now?

In 1931 and 1932, in addition to the already familiar nominees Merezhkovsky and Bunin, Ivan Shmelev was nominated for the prize. In 1931, his novel “Bogomolye” was published.

In 1933, he received the Nobel Prize for the first time Russian-speaking writer- Ivan Bunin. The wording is “For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose.” Bunin didn’t really like the wording; he wanted more to be awarded for his poetry.

On YouTube you can find a very muddy video in which Ivan Bunin reads out his address on the occasion of the Nobel Prize.

After the news of receiving the prize, Bunin went to visit Merezhkovsky and Gippius. “Congratulations,” the poetess told him, “and I envy him.” Not everyone agreed with the decision of the Nobel committee. Marina Tsvetaeva, for example, wrote that Gorky was much more worthy of the prize.

Bunin actually squandered the prize, 170,331 crowns. The poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “Having returned to France, Ivan Alekseevich ... in addition to money, began to organize parties, distribute “benefits” to emigrants, and donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some “win-win business” and was left with nothing.”

In 1949, emigrant Mark Aldanov (pictured) and three Soviet writers - Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Sholokhov and Leonid Leonov - were nominated for the prize. The award was given to William Faulkner.

In 1958, Boris Pasternak received the Nobel Prize “for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel.”

Pasternak received the award, having previously been nominated six times. IN last time Albert Camus nominated him.

In the Soviet Union, the persecution of the writer immediately began. At the initiative of Suslov (pictured), the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee adopted a resolution, classified “Strictly Secret,” “On the slanderous novel by B. Pasternak.”

“Recognize that awarding the Nobel Prize to Pasternak’s novel, which slanderously portrays the October Socialist Revolution, the Soviet people who carried out this revolution, and the construction of socialism in the USSR, is an act hostile to our country and a weapon of international reaction aimed at inciting the Cold War.” , the resolution said.

From Suslov’s note on the day the prize was awarded: “Organize and publish a collective speech by the most prominent Soviet writers, in which they evaluate the awarding of the prize to Pasternak as an attempt to ignite the Cold War.”

The writer was persecuted in newspapers and at numerous meetings. From the transcript of the all-Moscow meeting of writers: “There is no poet more distant from the people than B. Pasternak, a more aesthetic poet, in whose work the pre-revolutionary decadence preserved in its pristine purity would sound so clear. All of B. Pasternak’s poetic creativity lay outside the true traditions of Russian poetry, which always warmly responded to all events in the life of its people.”

Writer Sergei Smirnov: “I was finally offended by this novel, like a soldier Patriotic War, as a person who had to cry over the graves of his fallen comrades during the war, as a person who now has to write about the heroes of the war, about the heroes of the Brest Fortress, about other wonderful war heroes who revealed the heroism of our people with amazing power.”

“Thus, comrades, the novel Doctor Zhivago, in my deep conviction, is an apology for betrayal.”

Critic Kornely Zelinsky: “I was left with a very difficult feeling from reading this novel. I felt literally spat upon. My whole life seemed to be spat upon in this novel. Everything that I put my energy into for 40 years, creative energy, hopes, hopes - all of it was spat on.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just mediocrity that attacked Pasternak. Poet Boris Slutsky (pictured): “A poet is obliged to seek recognition from his people, and not from their enemies. The poet must seek fame native land, and not from an overseas uncle. Gentlemen, Swedish academicians know about Soviet land only that the Battle of Poltava, hated by them, took place there, and the even more hated by them October Revolution(noise in the hall). What is our literature to them?

Writers' meetings were held throughout the country, at which Pasternak's novel was branded as slanderous, hostile, mediocre, etc. Rallies were held at factories against Pasternak and his novel.

From Pasternak’s letter to the presidium of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR: “I thought that my joy at being awarded the Nobel Prize would not remain lonely, that it would affect the society of which I am a part. In my eyes, the honor given to me, a modern writer living in Russia and, therefore, Soviet, was also given to all Soviet literature. I am saddened that I was so blind and mistaken.”

Under enormous pressure, Pasternak decided to refuse the prize. “Due to the importance that the award given to me has received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal an insult,” he wrote in a telegram to the Nobel Committee. Until his death in 1960, Pasternak remained in disgrace, although he was not arrested or deported.

Nowadays they erect monuments to Pasternak, his talent is recognized. Then the hounded writer was on the verge of suicide. In the poem “Nobel Prize,” Pasternak wrote: “What kind of dirty trick have I done, / Am I a murderer and a villain? / I made the whole world cry / Over the beauty of my land.” After the publication of the poem abroad, the Prosecutor General of the USSR Roman Rudenko promised to prosecute Pasternak under the article “Treason to the Motherland.” But he didn't attract me.

In 1965 he received the prize Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov - “For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.”

The Soviet authorities viewed Sholokhov as a “counterweight” to Pasternak in the fight for the Nobel Prize. In the 1950s, lists of nominees had not yet been published, but the USSR knew that Sholokhov was being considered as a possible contender. Through diplomatic channels, the Swedes were hinted that the USSR would have assessed the awarding of the prize to this Soviet writer extremely positively.

In 1964, the prize was awarded to Jean-Paul Sartre, but he refused it and expressed regret (among other things) that the prize was not awarded to Mikhail Sholokhov. This predetermined the decision of the Nobel Committee the following year.

During the presentation, Mikhail Sholokhov did not bow to King Gustav Adolf VI, who was presenting the prize. According to one version, this was done deliberately, and Sholokhov said: “We, Cossacks, do not bow to anyone. In front of the people, please, but I won’t do it in front of the king, that’s all...”

1970 was a new blow to the image of the Soviet state. The prize was awarded to dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Solzhenitsyn is the record holder for the speed of literary recognition. From the moment of the first publication to the award of the last prize, only eight years. No one could do this.

As in the case of Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn immediately began to be persecuted. A letter from the American singer Dean Reed, popular in the USSR, appeared in the magazine Ogonyok, who convinced Solzhenitsyn that everything was in order in the USSR, but in the USA it was a complete mess.

Dean Reed: “After all, it’s America, not Soviet Union, wages wars and creates a tense environment of possible wars in order to enable its economy to operate, and our dictators, the military-industrial complex to acquire even more wealth and power from the blood of the Vietnamese people, our own American soldiers and all the freedom-loving peoples of the world! It’s my homeland that has a sick society, not yours, Mr. Solzhenitsyn!”

However, Solzhenitsyn, who went through prisons, camps and exile, was not too afraid of censure in the press. He continued his literary work and dissident work. The authorities hinted to him that it was better to leave the country, but he refused. Only in 1974, after the release of The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship and forcibly expelled from the country.

In 1987, the prize was received by Joseph Brodsky, at that time a US citizen. The prize was awarded “for comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry.”

US citizen Joseph Brodsky wrote his Nobel speech in Russian. It became part of his literary manifesto. Brodsky spoke more about literature, but there was also room for historical and political remarks. The poet, for example, put the regimes of Hitler and Stalin on the same level.

Brodsky: “This generation - the generation born precisely when the Auschwitz crematoria were operating at full capacity, when Stalin was at the zenith of God-like, absolute, nature itself, seemingly sanctioned power, came into the world, apparently, to continue what theoretically should have been interrupted in these crematoria and in the unmarked mass graves of the Stalinist archipelago.”

Since 1987, the Nobel Prize has not been awarded to Russian writers. Among the contenders, Vladimir Sorokin (pictured), Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Mikhail Shishkin, as well as Zakhar Prilepin and Viktor Pelevin are usually named.

In 2015, the prize was sensationally received by the Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich. She wrote such works as "War has no woman's face", "Zinc Boys", "Enchanted by Death", "Chernobyl Prayer", "Second Hand Time" and others. Quite rare for last years an event when a prize was given to a person who writes in Russian.

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded for the 107th time - the 2014 winner was the French writer and screenwriter Patrick Modiano. Thus, since 1901, 111 authors have already received the literature prize (four times the award was awarded to two writers at the same time).

Alfred Nobel bequeathed a prize for “the most outstanding literary work in ideal direction”, and not for circulation and popularity. But the concept of a “bestselling book” already existed at the beginning of the 20th century, and sales volumes can at least partially speak about the skill and literary significance of the writer.

RBC has compiled a conditional rating of Nobel laureates in literature based on the commercial success of their works. The source was data from the world's largest book retailer Barnes & Noble on the best-selling books of Nobel laureates.

William Golding

Winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For novels that, with the clarity of realistic narrative art combined with the diversity and universality of myth, help to comprehend the existence of man in the modern world"

Over a nearly forty-year literary career, the English writer published 12 novels. Golding's novels Lord of the Flies and The Descendants are among the Nobel laureates' best-selling books according to Barnes & Noble. The first, released in 1954, brought him worldwide fame. In terms of the significance of the novel for the development of modern thought and literature, critics often compared it with Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”

The best-selling book at Barnes & Noble is Lord of the Flies (1954).

Toni Morrison

Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature

« A writer who brought to life an important aspect of American reality in her dreamy and poetic novels.”

American writer Toni Morrison was born in Ohio into a working-class family. She began making art while attending Howard University, where she studied " English language and literature." The basis for Morrison's first novel, The Most Blue eyes"was inspired by a story she wrote for a university circle of writers and poets. In 1975, her novel Sula was nominated for the US National Book Award.

Best selling book at Barnes & Noble - The Bluest Eye (1970)

John Steinbeck

Winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For his realistic and poetic gift, combined with gentle humor and keen social vision"

Among the most famous novels Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men. All of them are included in the top dozen bestsellers according to the American store Barnes & Noble.

By 1962, Steinbeck had already been nominated for the prize eight times, and he himself believed that he did not deserve it. Critics in the United States greeted the award with hostility, believing that his later novels were much weaker than his subsequent ones. In 2013, when Swedish Academy documents were revealed (kept secret for 50 years), it was revealed that Steinbeck - a recognized classic of American literature - was awarded because he was "the best in a bad company" of candidates for that year's award.

The first edition of the novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” with a circulation of 50 thousand copies, was illustrated and cost $2.75. In 1939, the book became a bestseller. To date, the book has sold more than 75 million copies, and a first edition in good condition costs more than $24,000.

Ernest Hemingway

Winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For the narrative mastery once again demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence it has had on modern style"

Hemingway became one of nine literary laureates to whom the Nobel Prize was awarded for a specific work (the story "The Old Man and the Sea"), and not for literary activity generally. In addition to the Nobel Prize, The Old Man and the Sea won the author a Pulitzer Prize in 1953. The story was first published in Life magazine in September 1952, and in just two days, 5.3 million copies of the magazine were purchased in the United States.

Interestingly, the Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the prize to Hemingway in 1953, but then chose Winston Churchill, who wrote more than a dozen books of a historical and biographical nature during his life. One of the main reasons for not delaying the awarding of the former British Prime Minister was his venerable age (Churchill was 79 years old at that time).

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For novels and stories in which fantasy and reality combine to reflect the life and conflicts of an entire continent"

Márquez became the first Colombian to receive a prize from the Swedish Academy. His books, including Chronicle of a Death Proclaimed, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The Autumn of the Patriarch, outsold all books ever published in Spanish except the Bible. The novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” called by the Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda “the greatest creation in history.” Spanish after Cervantes' Don Quixote," has been translated into more than 25 languages ​​and has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.

The best-selling book at Barnes & Noble is One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

Samuel Beckett

Winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For innovative works in prose and drama, in which tragedy modern man becomes his triumph"

A native of Ireland, Samuel Beckett is considered one of the most prominent representatives of modernism; Along with Eugene Ionescu, he founded the “theater of the absurd.” Beckett wrote in English and French, and his most famous work - the play "Waiting for Godot" - was written in French. The main characters of the play throughout the entire play are waiting for a certain Godot, meeting with whom can bring meaning to their meaningless existence. There is practically no dynamics in the play, Godot never appears, and the viewer is left to interpret for himself what kind of image he is.

Beckett loved chess, attracted women, but led a secluded life. He agreed to accept the Nobel Prize only on the condition that he would not attend the presentation ceremony. Instead, his publisher, Jérôme Lindon, received the prize.

William Faulkner

Winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For his significant and artistically unique contribution to the development of the modern American novel"

Faulkner initially refused to go to Stockholm to receive the prize, but his daughter persuaded him. When asked by US President John F. Kennedy to attend a dinner in honor of Nobel Prize winners, Faulkner, who said to himself “I am not a writer, but a farmer,” replied that he was “too old to travel so far for a dinner with strangers.”

According to Barnes & Noble, Faulkner's best-selling book is his novel As I Lay Dying. “The Sound and the Fury,” which the author himself considered his most successful work, for a long time was not a commercial success. In the 16 years after its publication (in 1929), the novel sold only three thousand copies. However, at the time of receiving the Nobel Prize, The Sound and the Fury was already considered a classic of American literature.

In 2012, the British publishing house The Folio Society released Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, where the text of the novel is printed in 14 colors, as the author himself wanted (so that the reader could see different time planes). The publisher's recommended price for such a copy is $375, but the circulation was limited to only 1,480 copies, and already at the time of the book's release, a thousand of them were pre-ordered. On this moment on eBay you can buy a limited edition of “The Sound and the Fury” for 115 thousand rubles.

Doris Lessing

Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For his insight into women's experiences with skepticism, passion and visionary power"

British poet and writer Doris Lessing became the oldest winner of the Swedish Academy Literary Prize, in 2007 she was 88 years old. Lessing also became the eleventh woman to win this prize (out of thirteen).

Lessing was not popular among the masses literary critics, since her works were often devoted to pressing social issues (in particular, she was called a propagandist of Sufism). However, The Times magazine places Lessing fifth on its list of the "50 greatest British authors since 1945".

The most popular book at Barnes & Noble is Lessing's 1962 novel The Golden Notebook. Some commentators rank it among the classics of feminist fiction. Lessing herself categorically disagreed with this label.

Albert Camus

Winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature

"For his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience"

Algerian-born French essayist, journalist and writer Albert Camus has been called the “conscience of the West.” One of his most popular works, the novel “The Outsider,” was published in 1942, and sales began in the United States in 1946. English translation, and in just a few years more than 3.5 million copies were sold.

When presenting the prize to the writer, member of the Swedish Academy Anders Exterling said that “ philosophical views Camus were born in an acute contradiction between the acceptance of earthly existence and the awareness of the reality of death." Despite Camus's frequent association with the philosophy of existentialism, he himself denied his involvement in this movement. In a speech in Stockholm, he said his work was built on the desire to "avoid outright lies and resist oppression."

Alice Munro

Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature

The prize was awarded with the wording “ master of the modern short story genre"

Canadian short story writer Alice Munro wrote stories from adolescence, but the first collection (Dance of the Happy Shadows) was published only in 1968, when Munro was already 37. In 1971, the writer published a collection of interconnected stories, Lives of Girls and Women, described by critics as a “novel of education” (Bildungsroman). Among other literary works are the collections “Who are you, exactly?” (1978), “The Moons of Jupiter” (1982), “The Fugitive” (2004), “Too Much Happiness” (2009). The 2001 collection “The Hate Me, the Hate Friendship, the Courtship, the Love, the Marriage” served as the basis for the Canadian feature film Away from Her directed by Sarah Polley.

Critics have called Munro "the Canadian Chekhov" for his narrative style, characterized by clarity and psychological realism.

The best selling book at Barnes & Noble is “ Dear Life" (year 2012).

In Alfred Nobel's will, the prize for the creation of the most outstanding literary work was mentioned fourth among five prizes. The will was announced in 1897, and the first laureate in this category in 1901 was the Frenchman Sully-Prudhomme. 32 years later, a native of Russia received this honor. Let's look through the history of presenting the prestigious world award, and in our review there are Russian writers who are laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature. So who are they, Russians? Nobel laureates on literature.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin

An aesthetically subtle and talented Russian writer, a native of the city of Voronezh, began his literary career with poetry. In 1887 he published his first poem, and in 1902 he was awarded the Pushkin Prize for the book “Falling Leaves.”

In 1909 he again became a laureate of the prestigious Russian Prize. He did not accept the changes that occurred in Russia after October 1917 and emigrated to France. The separation from his homeland was hard for him, and during the first years of his life in Paris he practically did not write.

In 1923, Romain Rolland proposed to the Nobel Committee the candidacy of an emigrant from Russia for the Nobel Prize, but the award went to a Scottish poet. But 10 years later, in 1933, the Russian emigrant writer entered the list of literary figures, becoming the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize.

The boy was brought up in an intelligent, creative family. Boris's father was a talented artist, for which he was awarded the title of academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and the poet's mother was a pianist.

At the age of 23, the gifted young man had already published his first poems, and in 1916 the first collection of his works was published. After the revolution, the poet’s family left for Berlin, and he remained to live and work in the USSR. In the late 20s - early 30s he was called the best poet of the Soviet state, and he takes an active part in literary life countries.

In 1955, one of the best works Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago". In 1958, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize, but under pressure from the Soviet leadership, Leonid Pasternak refused it. Real persecution began, and in 1960, having become seriously ill, Leonid Pasternak died in Peredelkino near Moscow.

By the way, there is an article on the site about the world. We highly recommend watching it.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov

The village of Veshenskaya is famous for the fact that the legendary Cossack writer Mikhail Sholokhov was born here in 1905, who glorified it throughout the world.

As a boy, he learned to read and write, but the war and revolutionary events interrupted the young man’s education. In 1922, he was almost shot by a revolutionary tribunal for abuse of power. But the father bought his son and sent him to Moscow. In 1923 he began publishing his first works, and in 1940 his most famous and readable work"Quiet Don"

In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre made a grand gesture and refused the prize, saying that it was awarded only to Western writers, ignoring the great masters of words from Soviet Russia. The following year, members of the Royal Committee unanimously voted for Mikhail Sholokhov.

The native of Kislovodsk became famous not only literary works, but also sharp journalistic articles on the history of Russia.

Already at school, a rebellious character appeared when Alexander, despite the ridicule of his peers, wore a cross and did not want to join the pioneers. Under pressure from the Soviet school, he accepted the Marxist-Leninist ideology, became a member of the Komsomol and carried out active social work.

Even before the war, he became interested in history and began literary activity. He fought heroically and was awarded the highest orders and military medals. After the war, he began to criticize the Soviet system, and in 1970 he became a Nobel Prize laureate. After the publication of the resonant work “The Gulag Archipelago,” Solzhenitsyn was deprived of citizenship in 1974 and forcibly expelled from the USSR. Only in 1990 will the writer be able to restore his citizenship.

Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky

The Russian prose writer and poet received the Nobel Prize in 1987 as a citizen of the United States of America, because he was expelled from the USSR with the wording “for parasitism.”

Joseph was born in Leningrad, and his childhood occurred during the war years. Together with their mother, they survived the blockade winter of 1941-1942, and then were evacuated to Cherepovets. He dreamed of becoming a submariner, a doctor, worked on geological expeditions, and in the early 60s he became famous as a poet.

The aspiring poet did not work anywhere, and cases were repeatedly brought against him for parasitism. Working as a translator, he managed to temporarily subdue the agility of the authorities, but in the end, in 1972, Brodsky left the USSR. The prize was awarded to him in November 1987 as a Russian writer with a US passport.

Ivan Bunin received 170,331 Swedish crowns, and upon returning from Sweden to Paris, he began to organize dinner parties, distributed money to Russian emigrants without counting, and donated to various emigrant organizations and unions. Then he got involved in a financial scam, losing the remaining money.

Leonid Pasternak refused the prize, sending a telegram to the Royal Committee with a refusal, and so that they would not consider it an insult. In 1989, the medal and diploma of the laureate were solemnly presented to the writer’s son Evgeniy. In the same year, Pasternak's works appeared in the school curriculum of Soviet schools.

Mikhail Sholokhov donated two Soviet prizes to the state. In 1941, he donated the highest Stalin Prize in the USSR to the defense fund, and donated the Lenin Prize to the restoration of his native school. Using the funds from the world's highest literary award, the writer showed his children the world. They traveled all over Europe by car, and then visited Japan with their children. By the way, we have a useful article on the most popular ones on our website.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the prize only after he was expelled from the USSR. With this money he bought a house in the American state of Vermont. There were even two houses, one of which the writer used only for work.

Joseph Brodsky used the prize he received to open a restaurant in Manhattan with poetic name“Russian samovar”, which became a kind of center of Russian culture. The restaurant still operates in New York.

Curiosities

Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving his diploma and medal, pointedly did not bow to the Swedish monarch Gustav Adolf VI. Some media outlets indicated that he did this with the words “I bow to the people, but we Cossacks have never bowed our heads before kings.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn wanted to go on stage to receive his medal and diploma not in a tailcoat, but in his prison uniform. The Soviet authorities did not allow the writer to leave the country, and he was not present at the ceremony. For well-known reasons, Boris Pasternak was not at the ceremony.

Leo Tolstoy could become the first Russian writer to receive the prestigious award. In 1901, the Committee sent an apology to the writer that they had not chosen him, to which the writer thanked them for saving him from the difficulties of spending money, which undoubtedly constitutes an evil. In 1906, having learned that he was on the list of candidates, Tolstoy wrote to his friend, a writer from Finland, not to vote for him. Everyone considered this to be just another count’s quirk of an outstanding writer, and the “block of Russian literature” was no longer nominated as a candidate.

In a whirlwind of anti-Soviet propaganda, the Committee wanted to present an award to the Soviet defector Igor Guzenko, who worked as the head of the encryption department at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. In the West, he unexpectedly took up literature and actively criticized the Soviet system. But his opuses did not reach the level of literary masterpieces.

Candidates from the USSR and Russia for the literary prize

Only 5 Russian writers were awarded the high award, but other equally famous and talented figures of Russian and Soviet literature also had this opportunity.

The Russian and Soviet literary and public figure was nominated five times as a candidate for the prestigious award. The first time this happened was in 1918, and the last time in 1933, but that year the author was awarded “ Garnet bracelet" Dmitry Merezhkovsky was nominated along with them. They didn’t give “Petrel” an award with the wording “collaborating with the Bolsheviks.”

Anna Akhmatova

Along with Boris Pasternak, the name of the famous Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova was also on the list of nominees for the Royal Award. The committee, choosing between prose and poetry, chose prose.

In 1963, the notorious Vladimir Nabokov, whose “Lolita” is admired by the whole world, was nominated for the prize. But the Committee considered it too immoral. In 1974, at the instigation of Solzhenitsyn, he was again on the list, but the prize was given to two Swedes, whose names no one will remember. Outraged by this circumstance, one of the American critics wittily declared that it was not Nabokov who did not deserve the prize, but the prize that Nabokov did not deserve.

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Summarize

Russian literature is distinguished by the aesthetic content of its works and its moral core. And if European culture quickly reoriented towards mass, entertainment, true Russian writers remained faithful to the established traditions that were laid down by recognized world classics, Russian poets and writers of the 19th century. Russian Nobel laureates in literature have made a significant contribution to the development of world culture. This concludes the article. The editors of TopCafe are waiting for your comments!

“In works of great emotional power, he revealed the abyss that lies beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world,” says the official release published on the website announcing the new Nobel laureate in literature, British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro.

A native of Nagasaki, he moved with his family to Britain in 1960. The writer’s first novel, “Where the Hills Are in the Haze,” was published in 1982 and was dedicated specifically to his hometown and new homeland. The novel tells the story of a Japanese woman who, after the suicide of her daughter and moving to England, cannot shake off haunting dreams of the destruction of Nagasaki.

Great success came to Ishiguro with the novel The Remains of the Day (1989),

dedicated to the fate of the former butler, who served one noble house all his life. For this novel, Ishiguro received the Booker Prize, and the jury voted unanimously, which is unprecedented for this award. In 1993, an American director filmed this book with and starring.

The writer's fame was greatly supported by the release in 2010 of the dystopian film Never Let Me Go, which takes place in an alternative Britain at the end of the twentieth century, where children who donate organs for cloning are raised in a special boarding school. The film stars Keira Knightley and others.

In 2005, this novel was included in the list of the hundred best according to the version.

Kazuo's latest novel, The Buried Giant, published in 2015, is considered one of his strangest and most daring works. This is a medieval fantasy novel in which the journey of an elderly couple to a neighboring village to visit their son becomes a road to their own memories. Along the way, the couple defends themselves from dragons, ogres and other mythological monsters. You can read more about the book.

This year's award amount is $1.12 million. The award ceremony will take place at the Stockholm Philharmonic on December 10, the day of the death of the founder of the award.

Literary rate

Every year, it is the Nobel Prize in Literature that arouses particular interest among bookmakers - in no other discipline in which the award is given does such a stir occur. The list of this year's favorites, according to the bookmaker companies Ladbrokes and Unibet, included the Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (5.50), the Canadian writer and critic (6.60), and the Japanese writer (odds 2.30). The current laureate’s fellow countryman, the author of “The Sheep Hunt” and “After Dark,” however, has been promised a Nobel for many years, just like another “eternal” literary Nobel nominee, the famous Syrian poet Adonis. However, both of them remain without a reward year after year, and the bookmakers are slightly perplexed.

Other candidates this year included: Chinese Ian Leanke, Israeli, Italian Claudio Magris, Spaniard, American singer and poetess Patti Smith, from Austria, South Korean poet and prose writer Ko Eun, Nina Buraoui from France, Peter Nadas from Hungary, American rapper Kanye West and others.

In the entire history of the award, bookmakers have made no mistakes only three times:

In 2003, when the victory was awarded to the South African writer John Coetzee, in 2006 with the famous Turk, and in 2008 with the Frenchman.

“It is unknown what the bookmakers are guided by when determining the favorites,” says the literary expert, editor-in-chief of the Gorky Media resource, “we only know that a few hours before the announcement, the odds for whoever turns out to be the winner then drop sharply to unfavorable values.” Whether this means that someone is supplying bookmakers with information several hours before the announcement of the winners, the expert refused to confirm. According to Milchin,

Bob Dylan was at the bottom of the list last year, as was Svetlana Alexievich in 2015.

According to the expert, a few days before the announcement of the current winner, bets on Canadian Margaret Atwood and Korean Ko Eun dropped sharply.

The name of the future laureate is traditionally kept in the strictest confidence until the announcement. The list of candidates compiled by the Swedish Academy is also classified and will only become known after 50 years.

The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to support and develop the Swedish language and literature. It consists of 18 academicians who are elected to their posts for life by other members of the academy.