View source for 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature

{{Infobox award
| name         = [[File:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature
| subheader    = <span style="font-size:120%;">'''Rabindranath Tagore'''</span>
| awarded_for  = 
| presenter    = [[Swedish Academy]]
| year         = 1901
| website      = {{official website|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/summary/}}
| holder_label = 1913 laureate
| holder       = 
| image        = Rabindranath Tagore.jpg
| caption      = '''''"because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."'''''
| host         = 
| date         = {{plainlist|
* 13 November 1913<ref name=nobelpris>{{cite book|url=http://libris.kb.se/bib/8345517|title=Nobelpriset i litteratur. Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901–1950|first=Bo|last=Svensén|year=2001|publisher=Svenska Akademien |isbn=9789113010076|accessdate=1 November 2025}}</ref> (announcement)
* 10 December 1913 <br>(ceremony)
}}
| location     = [[Stockholm]], Sweden
| previous     = [[1912 Nobel Prize in Literature|1912]]
| main         = [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]
| next         = [[1914 Nobel Prize in Literature|1914]]
}}
The '''1913 Nobel Prize in Literature''' was awarded to the [[Bengalis|Bengali]] [[polymath]] [[Rabindranath Tagore]] (1861–1941) "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/summary/ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913] nobelprize.org</ref> He is the first and remains only the Indian recipient of the prize.<ref name=bt>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabindranath-Tagore Rabindranath Tagore] britannica.com</ref><ref>[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rabindranath-tagore Rabindranath Tagore – Poetry Foundation] poetryfoundation.org</ref><ref>[https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/painters/rabindranath-tagore.html Rabindranath Tagore] culturalindia.net</ref> The award stemmed from the idealistic and accessible (for Western readers) nature of a small body of translated material, including the translated ''[[Gitanjali]]''.<ref>{{Citation|last=Hjärne |first=Harald|publication-date=10 December 1913|year=1913|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913: Rabindranath Tagore—Award Ceremony Speech|publisher=[[Nobel Foundation]]|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/press.html|access-date=17 September 2011<!--|quote=Tagore's ''Gitanjali: Song Offerings'' (1912), a collection of religious poems, was the one of his works that especially arrested the attention of the selecting critics.-->}}</ref>

==Laureate==
[[File:Gitanjali title page Rabindranath Tagore.jpg|180px|thumb|left|Title page of Rabindranath Tagore's ''Gitanjali'' (Macmillan, 1913)]]{{main|Rabindranath Tagore}}
The literary works of Rabindranath Tagore are well established in both Indian and Western academic traditions. In addition to fiction in the form of poetry, songs, stories, and dramas, it also incorporates literary criticism, philosophy, and social issues. After translating his poems into English, Tagore, who initially wrote in [[Bengali language|Bengali]], was able to appeal to a large audience in the West. His poetry was believed to portray the tranquility of the spirit in connection with nature, in contrast to the frenzied existence in the West. His works include ''[[Gitanjali]]'' ("[[Song Offerings]]", 1910), ''[[Gora (novel)|Gora]]'' ("Fair-Faced", 1910) and ''[[The Home and the World|Ghare-Baire]]'' ("The Home and the World", 1916).<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/facts/ Rabindranath Tagore – Facts] nobelprize.org</ref><ref name=bt/>

==Deliberations==
===Nominations===
Rabindranath Tagore had not been nominated for the prize before 1913, making it one of the rare occasions when an author have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year they were first nominated.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.svenskaakademien.se/nobelpriset/nomineringar-och-utlatanden-1901-1950 |title=Nomineringar och utlåtanden 1901-1950 |publisher=Svenska Akademien |language=Swedish}}</ref> He was nominated by British poet [[Thomas Sturge Moore]] (1870–1944), which led him to being awarded with the prize.<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=5810 Nomination archive – Rabindranath Tagore] nobelprize.org</ref>

In total, the [[Swedish Academy]] received 32 nominations for 28 writers. Among the repeated nominees include [[Pierre Loti]], [[Verner von Heidenstam]] (awarded in [[1916 Nobel Prize in Literature|1916]]), [[Sven Hedin]], [[Ángel Guimerá]], [[Anatole France]] (awarded in [[1921 Nobel Prize in Literature|1921]]), [[John Morley]], and [[Thomas Hardy]]. Nine of the nominees were newly nominated such as [[Edmond Picard]], [[Jakob Knudsen]], [[Henrik Pontoppidan]] (awarded in [[1917 Nobel Prize in Literature|1917]]), [[Émile Faguet]], [[Edward Dowden]], and [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury]]. The Italian writer [[Grazia Deledda]], who was awarded in [[1927 Nobel Prize in Literature|1927]] for the [[1926 Nobel Prize in Literature|1926]] prize, was the only female nominee.<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/list.php?prize=4&year=1913 Nomination archive – 1913] nobelprize.org</ref>

The authors [[Alfred Austin]], [[Aluísio Azevedo]], [[Eva Brag]], [[Jules Arsène Arnaud Claretie|Jules Claretie]], [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], [[Ferdinand Dugué]], [[Louis Hémon]], [[Friedrich Huch]], [[Ștefan Octavian Iosif]], [[Pauline Johnson]], [[Ioan Kalinderu]], [[Thomas Krag]], [[Emily Lawless]], [[Camille Lemonnier]], [[Juhan Liiv]], [[Charles Major (writer)|Charles Major]], [[Oscar Méténier]], [[Lesya Ukrainka]], [[Alfred Russel Wallace]], and [[Frances Julia Wedgwood]] died in 1913 without having been nominated for the prize. The Irish critic [[Edward Dowden]] and English polymath [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury]] died months before the announcement.

{| class="sortable wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+ class="nowrap" | Official list of nominees and their nominators for the prize
|-<!-- Note:· Alphabetical by last name please-->
! scope=col | No.
! scope=col | Nominee
! scope=col | Country
! scope=col | Genre(s)
! scope=col | Nominator(s)
|-
|1
|[[Juhani Aho]] (1861–1921)	 
|{{flag|Russian Empire|name=Russia}}<br>({{flag|Finland}})
|novel, short story
|Karl Alfred Melin (1849–1919)
|-
|2
|[[Henri Bergson]] (1859–1941)	 
|{{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}}
|philosophy	
|Vitalis Norström (1856–1916)
|-
|3
|[[Grazia Deledda]] (1871–1936)	 
|{{flag|Kingdom of Italy|name=Italy}}
|novel, short story, essays
|{{unbulleted list|[[Ferdinando Martini]] (1840–1928)|[[Luigi Luzzatti]] (1841–1927)}}
|-
|4
|[[Edward Dowden]] (1843–1913)
|{{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|name=Ireland}}
|poetry, essays, literary criticism
|[[James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford]] (1847–1913)
|-
|5
|[[Émile Faguet]] (1847–1916)	 
|{{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}}
|literary criticism, essays
|[[Émile Boutroux]] (1845–1921)
|-
|6
|[[Salvatore Farina]] (1846–1918)	 
|{{flag|Kingdom of Italy|name=Italy}}
|novel, short story
|members of the [[Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere]]
|-
|7
|[[Anatole France]] (1844–1924)	 
|{{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}}
|poetry, essays, drama, novel, literary criticism
|Richard Moritz Meyer (1860–1914)
|-
|8
|[[Adolf Frey (writer)|Adolf Frey]] (1855–1920)	  
|{{flag|Switzerland}}
|biography, history, essays
|[[Wilhelm Oechsli]] (1851–1919)
|-
|9
|[[Karl Adolph Gjellerup]] (1857–1919)	 
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|poetry, drama, novel
|{{unbulleted list|several German professors|members of the [[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]}}
|-
|10
|[[Ángel Guimerá|Ángel Guimerá Jorge]] (1845–1924)	 
|{{flag|Restoration (Spain)|name=Spain}}
|drama, poetry
|members of the [[Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona]]
|-
|11
|[[Thomas Hardy]] (1840–1928)	 
|{{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|name=Great Britain}}
|novel, short story, poetry	
|97 members of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]
|-
|12
|[[Sven Hedin]] (1865–1952)
|{{flag|Sweden}}
|essays, autobiography, history
|[[Fredrik Wulff]] (1845–1930)
|-
|13
|[[Harald Høffding]] (1843–1931)	 
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|philosophy, theology	
|members of the [[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]
|-
|14
|[[Jakob Knudsen]] (1858–1917)	 
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|novel, short story, pedagogy, theology
|[[Per Hallström]] (1866–1960)
|-
|15
|[[Ernest Lavisse]] (1842–1922)	 
|{{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}}
|history
|{{unbulleted list|[[Hans Hildebrand]] (1842–1913)|[[Frédéric Masson]] (1847–1923)|[[Raymond Poincaré]] (1860–1934)|[[Paul Hervieu]] (1857–1915)|[[Marcel Prévost]] (1862–1941)}}
|-
|16
|[[Pierre Loti]] (1850–1923)	 
|{{flag|French Third Republic|name=France}}
|novel, short story, autobiography, essays
|{{unbulleted list|[[Ernest Lavisse]] (1842–1922)|[[Gabriel Hanotaux]] (1853–1944)}}
|-
|17
|[[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] (1834–1913)
|{{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|name=Great Britain}}
|essays
|[[Hans Hildebrand]] (1842–1913)
|-
|18
|[[John Morley]] (1838–1923)	 
|{{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|name=Great Britain}}
|biography, literary criticism, essays
|[[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury]] (1834–1913)
|-
|19
|[[Benito Pérez Galdós]] (1843–1920)	 
|{{flag|Restoration (Spain)|name=Spain}}
|novel, short story, drama, essays
|members of the [[Royal Spanish Academy]] and several literary societies
|-
|20
|[[Edmond Picard]] (1836–1924)	 
|{{flag|Belgium}}
|drama, law, essays	
|[[File:Nobel prize winner.svg|20px]] [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] (1862–1949)
|-
|21
|[[Henrik Pontoppidan]] (1857–1943)	 
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|novel, short story
|[[Adolf Noreen]] (1854–1925)
|-
|22
|[[Peter Rosegger]] (1843–1918)	 
|{{flag|Austria-Hungary}}
|poetry, essays
|Karl Alfred Melin (1849–1919)
|-
|23
|Salvador Rueda Santos (1857–1933)	 
|{{flag|Restoration (Spain)|name=Spain}}
|poetry, essays
|professors in [[Madrid]]
|-
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|24
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|[[Rabindranath Tagore]] (1861–1941)
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|{{flag|British Raj|name=India}}
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|poetry, novel, drama, short story, essay, songwriting, <br>translation
|style="background:gold;white-space:nowrap"|[[Thomas Sturge Moore]] (1870–1944)
|-
|25
|[[Carl Spitteler]] (1845–1924)	  
|{{flag|Switzerland}}
|poetry, essays
|{{unbulleted list|49 members of [[Nobel Prize Committee|The Nobel Prize Committee]] of the [[Society of Authors]]|[[Wilhelm Oechsli]] (1851–1919)}}
|-
|26
|Ernst von der Recke (1848–1933)	 
|{{flag|Denmark}}
|poetry, drama
|members of the [[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]
|-
|27
|[[Verner von Heidenstam]] (1859–1940)	 
|{{flag|Sweden}}
|novel, short story, poetry
|[[Fredrik Wulff]] (1845–1930)
|-
|28
|Francis Channing Welles (1887–1956)
|{{flag|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|name=Great Britain}}
|essays
|[[Carveth Read]] (1848–1931)
|}

===Prize decision===
Contenders for the 1913 prize included [[Thomas Hardy]], [[Anatole France]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]].<ref name=sv>Gustav Källstrand ''Andens Olympiska Spel: Nobelprisets historia'', Fri Tanke 2021</ref> The candidacy of Hardy, nominated by 97 members of the [[Royal Society of Literature]], were dismissed by the committee on the grounds that his writing were considered too "pessimistic" to be in line with the Nobel prize donor [[Alfred Nobel]]'s will. Similarly, France was considered a "sceptic", although he was eventually awarded the prize. The committee had only received one nomination for Tagore, and despite that Tagore was only known to the members of Swedish Academy in a few English translations he was awarded the prize. Committee member [[Per Hallström]] declared in a report that "...no poet in Europe since the death of Goethe in 1832 can rival Tagore....". To the poet [[Verner von Heidenstam]], himself awarded in 1916, Tagore was the "discovering [of] a great name".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-and-the-arts/story/19831031-fresh-doubts-arises-about-circumstances-under-which-rabindranath-tagore-was-given-nobel-prize-771159-2013-07-16 |title=Fresh doubts arises about circumstances under which Tagore was given Nobel Prize |author=Sumit Mitra |publisher=India Today |date=31 October 1983 }}</ref><ref name=set>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/literature/svensen/index.html The Nobel Prize in Literature: Nominations and Reports 1901–1950] nobelprize.org</ref>

==Reactions==
The choice of Rabindranath Tagore received intense reactions and substantial coverage in newspapers around the world.<ref name="pt">{{Cite book|title=The Nobel Prize and the Formation of Contemporary World Literature |chapter=Early Breakthroughs and setbacks (1901-13)|pages=27–28 |author=Tenngart, Paul |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2023 }}</ref> 

In Stockholm, a [[correspondent]] for the London newspaper ''[[The Times]]'' reported that the general reaction were of both surprise and joy: "The newspapers this morning express some surprise at the unexpected decision by the Swedish Academy to confer the Nobel Prize for Literature on the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The choice, however, is hailed as a very happy one, and extracts are quoted from the English translation of the poet's work ''Gitanjali''.<ref name="pt" />

The choice of Tagore was substantially recognised in ''[[The New York Times]]'' with several articles describing the previously "Entirely unknown outside of his own country" poet's quick rise to international fame and comparing him to [[Walt Whitman]].<ref name="pt" />

The French newspaper ''[[Le Figaro]]'' said it was an surprise choice of "an author without - until now - any significant world reputation but with a central position in his Bengali home country."<ref name="pt" /> The British ''[[Daily Mail]]'' expressed a delighted reaction to the prize decision.<ref name="pt" />

==Other Nobel-related events==
===Theft of Nobel Prize===
Tagore's Nobel Prize and a number of his other possessions were stolen from the [[Visva-Bharati University]]'s security vault on March 25, 2004.<ref>{{cite news | url= http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-03-25/india/28342931_1_tagore-s-nobel-prize-mrinalini-devi-visva-bharati-university | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130819183907/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-03-25/india/28342931_1_tagore-s-nobel-prize-mrinalini-devi-visva-bharati-university | url-status= dead | archive-date= 19 August 2013 |title= Tagore's Nobel Prize stolen |work=[[The Times of India]]|publisher=[[The Times Group]]|date=25 March 2004|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> The Swedish Academy decided to give the University two copies of Tagore's Nobel Prize, one made of gold and the other of bronze, on December 7, 2004.<ref>{{cite news | url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sweden-to-present-India-replicas-of-Tagores-Nobel/articleshow/949065.cms| archive-url= https://archive.today/20130710163535/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-12-07/india/27146417_1_rabindranath-tagore-s-nobel-prize-visva-bharati-university-replicas| url-status= live| archive-date= 10 July 2013|title= Sweden to present India replicas of Tagore's Nobel|work=[[The Times of India]]|publisher=[[The Times Group]]|date=7 December 2004|access-date=10 July 2013}}</ref> It inspired the fictional film ''[[Nobel Chor]]''. A baul singer named Pradip Bauri was detained in 2016 after being suspected of providing the robbers with cover. The reward was then given back.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Tagores-Nobel-medal-theft-Baul-singer-arrested/articleshow/55626542.cms |title=Tagore's Nobel medal theft: Baul singer arrested |work=The Times of India |access-date=31 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.news18.com/news/india/tagores-nobel-medal-theft-folk-singer-arrested-from-bengal-1316033.html |title=Tagore's Nobel Medal Theft: Folk Singer Arrested From Bengal |work=News18 |access-date=31 March 2019}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1911/ceremony-speech/ Award ceremony speech by Harald Hjärne] nobelprize.org

{{Nobel Prize in Literature}}

[[Category:Nobel Prize in Literature by year|1913]]
[[Category:Rabindranath Tagore]]
[[Category:1913 in literature|Nobel]]
[[Category:History of the Bengali language]]