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Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature has named the greatest modern writers since 1901 — with notable omissions (Tolstoy, Joyce, Borges) that shaped literary debate as much as the wins did.

Albert Camus

Albert Camus

IQ 155

A French writer, philosopher and journalist.

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

IQ 180

Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist known for writing Man and Superman (1902

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

IQ 180

A British polymath, philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobe

C. V. Raman

C. V. Raman

An Indian physicist known mainly for his work in the field of light scattering.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

IQ 170

An American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and sportsman best known for his novels For Whom the Bell Tolls, A

François Rabelais

François Rabelais

IQ 170

A French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk, and Greek scholar.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

IQ 155

A French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter who is one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentiali

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

IQ 180

An Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet, and translator best-known for Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Al

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

IQ 180

Russian writer, author of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina"

Robert Frost

Robert Frost

IQ 145

An American poet known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

IQ 170

An English-language Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

A British statesman, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the

Herbert George Wells

Herbert George Wells

An English writer who is one of the best-known sci-fi authors of the 20th century.

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

An American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

Nobel Prize-winning author and influential literary figure in African American literature.

Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel

Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and prolific author advocating for human rights.

Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro

Nobel Prize-winning author, through his captivating and emotionally resonant literary works that redefine storytelling.

Alice Munro

Alice Munro

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz

the life and legacy of Octavio Paz, a Nobel Prize-winning Mexican poet.

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Who won the first Nobel Prize in Literature?

Sully Prudhomme of France won the first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901.

Did Bob Dylan win a Nobel?

Bob Dylan won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature — the first songwriter to win, and he nearly declined it.

Why didn't Tolstoy win the Nobel?

Tolstoy was nominated repeatedly but never won, reportedly because the Nobel committee considered his anarchism too radical.

Who rejected the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the 1964 Nobel, saying no writer should be transformed into an institution.

Which country has the most Literature Nobels?

France has won the most Nobel Prizes in Literature (16+), followed by the United States (12+) and the United Kingdom (11+).