Since its inception, the Nobel Prize for literature has given a very public voice to some of the world’s greatest writers, and their responses to the honor—their acceptance speeches—have often been epochal. From the famed call to arms by William Faulkner to the multicultural song of Derek Walcott, from 1903’s Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson to 1999’s Günter Grass, this collection of 28 speeches traces the ideals of the artists and the selection committee itself throughout the 20th century. Included are an introduction to each of the writers chosen, an abridged copy of the speech or lecture and a bibliography of works in English.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Ottar G. Draugsvold is a member of PEN New England and the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. He previously worked as a health educator in Queensland, Australia, and has written numerous professional and trade articles. He lives in Winchendon, Massachusetts.

Edited by Ottar G. Draugsvold

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 303
Bibliographic Info: appendix, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [2000]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6609-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4299-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Preface      1

1. Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson      9
2. William Butler Yeats      15
3. Henri Bergson      23
4. Sinclair Lewis      29
5. Pearl S. Buck      39
6. T.S. Eliot      47
7. William Faulkner      53
8. Bertrand Russell      57
9. Pär Lagerkvist      67
10. François Mauriac      75
11. Ernest Hemingway      83
12. Albert Camus      89
13. John Steinbeck      95
14. Mikhail Sholokhov      101
15. Miguel Ángel Asturias      107
16. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn      111
17. Heinrich Böll      119
18. Saul Bellow      127
19. Isaac Bashevis Singer      135
20. Czesùaw Miùosz      141
21. Gabriel García Márquez      149
22. William Golding      155
23. Joseph Brodsky      161
24. Naguib Mahfouz      169
25. Nadine Gordimer      175
26. Derek Walcott      183
27. Toni Morrison      189
28. KenzaburÉ ye      197
29. Dario Fo      207
30. José Saramago      217
31. Günter Grass      229

Appendix: List of Nobel Laureates in Literature      241
Notes      245
Bibliography      251
Index      289

• “Essays work admirably to engage the reader”—Library Journal
• “For most literary collections”—Public Library Quarterly
• “Very useful bibliographies…a book which will interest literateurs world-wide”—Reference Reviews