20th Century Nobel Prize Winners in Literature Quiz

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in India. At the age of 41, he was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, with the prize citation: "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author." He declined the award of British Poet Laureate and knighthood. After his death in 1936, he was buried at Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey. Some of his famous works were:
"Jungle Book" (1894), "Just So Stories" (1902), "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888), "Mandalay" (1890), and "Gunga Din" (1890).

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, the son of a civil servant. He moved to London in 1876, and he struggled initially to establish himself as a writer. "Arms and the Man", written in 1894, was his first major success. Subsequently he began to become a more established writer in the 20th century.

In 1923, he wrote the play "Saint Joan" which was successfully premiered on Broadway in December. In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize with the following citation: "... marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty".

He wrote more than 60 plays. Some of his famous works were: "Man and Superman" (1902), "Pygmalion" (1913), "Saint Joan" (1923), and "Pygmalion", which was adapted into the 1964 musical classic, "My Fair Lady", in 1964.

Answer: William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865 -1939) was born in Sandymount in Ireland. He received his education in Dublin and London. Yeats was one of the founders of the Irish Literary Theatre in 1899 and Abbey Theatre in 1904, formed to promote Irish plays. He served as Senator of the Irish Free State from 1922 for about six years.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on December 1923 "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation". Some of his famous works were: "The Tower" (1928), "The Winding Stair" (1933), and "New Poems" (1938).

Answer: Harry Sinclair Lewis

Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951) was born in Saulk Centre, Minnesota. He graduated from Yale University in 1908. He was the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930. He was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters". Some of his best-known novels were: "Main Street" (1920), "Babbitt" (1922), "Arrowsmith" (1925), "Elmer Gantry" (1927), "Dodsworth" (1929), and "It Can't Happen Here" (1935).

Answer: Pearl S Buck

Pearl S Buck (1892-1973) was an American writer best known for her book titled "The Good Earth", the bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938, for her "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China".

Born in West Virginia in October 1892, her parents took her when she was only 4-month-old to China to carry out missionary works. She married her first husband, John Lossing Buck in 1917, divorced in 1935, and married her second husband, Richard John Walsh in the same year. On March 6, 1937, she died of lung cancer in Danby, Vermont.

Answer: Herman Hesse

Herman Hesse (1877 - 1962) was born in the Black Forest town of Calw in Wurttemberg, Germany, and grew up in Basel. During WWI, he lived in Switzerland, wrote articles on denunciations of militarism and nationalism, edited journals for German war prisoners and internees.

In 1923, he became a Swiss citizen. In 1899, he published his book, a collection of poems. In 1904, he wrote his first successful novel, "Peter Camenzind". In 1946 he awarded the Nobel Prize with the following citation: "for his inspired writings, which while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style.

Some of his well-known works were: "Gertrud" (1910), "Rosshalde" (1914), "Siddharta" (1922), a novel written after his visit to India on the Buddha's search for enlightenment, and "Der Steppenwolf" (1927).

Answer: Bertrand Russell

Born in Wales, Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) was one of the early 20th century's most prominent logicians. In 1893, he graduated from the Trinity College in Cambridge with a first- class honour on mathematics. He jointly wrote "Principia Mathematica" with his former teacher, A.N. Whitehead, a three-volume on the foundation of mathematics, published in 1910, 1912 and 1913.

He was a pacifist who championed anti-imperialism and also headed the India League. In 1918, he was imprisoned for his pacificism for criticizing US participation in WWI on the side of Britain.

His other works were: "De Morgan" (1932), "Sylvester Medal" (1934), Kalinga Prize (1957), and "Jerusalem Prize" (1963).

Answer: Greek Civil War

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 - 1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel "The Old Man and the Sea" with the following citation: "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style".

Six months after graduating from high school in 1916, he joined the Ambulance Corps in WWI and worked as an ambulance driver in the Italian front. In July 1918, he was seriously wounded by a mortar shell, and was awarded the Silver Star.

Hemingway later participated in the Spanish Civil War and took part in D-Day landings at Normandy during WWII. He even took part in the war, killing several German SS officers using grenades. He was decorated with a Bronze Star for his action. In his book, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in 1940, he wrote about his military experiences during the Spanish Civil War.

He lived in Key West, Florida in the 1930s, and Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. He survived two successive plane crashes in 1954, and spent the rest of his life in pain and ill health. In the mid-1961, he committed suicide.

Answer: Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Rudyard Kipling in the 20th century. He was born in Algeria in a poor neighbourhood, and later graduated from the University of Algiers. In 1934, he wrote his first play "Revolt in the Asturias" with three friends, which was about brutal suppression of the Spanish miners by their government. During WWII, he was a member of the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat.

In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize with the following citation: "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times". Five of his most famous books were: "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942), "The Stranger" (1942), "The Plague" (1947), "The Fall" (1956), and "The Rebel" (1951).

Answer: A Medal for Benny

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." In 1946, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his script in 1945 movie, "A Medal for Benny", with Jack Wagner. In 1964, he awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson.

Steinbeck's masterpiece, "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939), sold about 14 million copies 75 years after it was published. His other well-known works were: "Tortilla Flat" (1935), "Cannery Row" (1945), "East of Eden" (1953), and "The Red Pony" (1933).