We think of Winston Churchill as a consummate statesman and brilliant orator, and with great reason. He consistently distinguished himself as a key player in world politics and is frequently named one of the greatest world leaders of all time. Yet Churchill did not win the Nobel Prize for his diplomacy or steadfast commitment to protecting fundamental human values; he won not the Nobel Peace Prize, but the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888. A Nobel laureate, The New York Times described his writing as giving "new meaning to English-language poetry,” Due to a congenital double hernia, T. S. Eliot spent much of his childhood reading rather than running around with other children. His family eventually moved to New England where he attended Harvard. At age 22, he moved to Paris; four years later, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood. He later claimed, “To her, the marriage brought no happiness. To me, it brought the state of mind out of which came The Waste Land."
Almost everyone who graduated from an American high school in the last few decades knows William Golding as the author of Lord of the Flies. However, his body of work - for which he was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature - is much more extensive. He was a poet and a playwright, as well as the author of essays, short stories, and fifteen novels.
Harold Pinter (October 10, 1930 - December 24, 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, and political activist. He won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature for being a writer “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.”
It’s hard to imagine the thoughts and feelings of those persecuted by Nazi Germany during the Second World War; it is even harder to understand one who would embrace Nazi atrocities. Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian novelist and poet who was honored with the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature. He published over 20 novels, as well as short stories, plays, and a poetry collection. In addition to being a groundbreaking writer, Hamsun was also a Nazi sympathizer.
Born on July 21, 1899, Ernest Hemingway distinguished himself as a journalist and fiction writer. A winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize, he's considered a legendary author of the twentieth century. Also known as "Papa," Hemingway earned a reputation as a "man's man." He loved hunting, drinking, and women. But there's much more to Hemingway than you might think!
Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Laureate and anti-apartheid activist, died peacefully in her home Sunday evening with her children at her side.
Born July 13, 1934, Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka was raised in Abeokuta, Nigeria—under British ownership at the time. He was raised in an Anglican family; however, he was constantly exposed to the Muslim religion and Yorùbá culture, allowing him to have a cultured childhood. His father’s position as a primary school headmaster gave Soyinka’s family access to electricity, a radio, and introducing him to great works of literature in addition to the Western world. Soyinka was an avid student, receiving a scholarship to attend one of the most prestigious secondary schools in Ibadan, and later studying at University College, where he took interest in numerous subjects including English Literature, Greek, and Western Studies.
Canadian author Alice Munro, born July 10, 1931, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature as "master of the contemporary short story." Indeed, she is widely acclaimed for transforming the way short stories are written today.
Wislawa Szymborska won the Nobel Prize in 1996 "for poetry that with ironic precision uncovers the laws of biology and historical mechanisms in fragments of human reality." Indeed, irony is a point of distinction in her work. Her poems are at once simple and yet complex. They are told engagingly from diverse perspectives, and are consistently endowed with her distinguished wit and cleverness.
