Nobel Prize in Literature Winners - Statistics

General Stats
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  • The average score is 32 of 122
Answer Stats
Year Author Nationality/Occupation % Correct
2016 Bob Dylan United States (songwriter)
71%
1982 Gabriel García Márquez Colombia (novelist, short story writer, proponent of Magic Realism)
68%
1954 Ernest Hemingway United States (modernist novelist, short story writer)
60%
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre France, declined prize (novelist, philosopher, dramatist, essayist, literary critic, political activist)
60%
2012 Mo Yan China (novelist, short story writer)
56%
1957 Albert Camus France (novelist, dramatist, short story writer, essayist, philosopher; first African-born laureate)
55%
1971 Pablo Neruda Chile (poet who adopted the name of a Czech poet as his pen name)
53%
1929 Thomas Mann Germany (novelist, essayist, short story writer; in recognition of "Buddenbrooks")
53%
1962 John Steinbeck United States (realist novelist and short story writer)
51%
1953 Winston Churchill United Kingdom (historian, essayist, memoirist, orator, politician)
51%
1969 Samuel Becket Ireland (absurdist and minimalist dramatist, novelist, poet)
50%
1997 Dario Fo Italy (dramatist influenced by the commedia dell'arte tradition)
47%
1983 William Golding United Kingdom (novelist, poet, dramatist best remebered for "Lord of the Flies")
46%
2024 Han Kang South Korea (novelist, poet)
45%
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro United Kingdom (novelist, short-story writer; born in Japan)
44%
1907 Rudyard Kipling United Kingdom (novelist, poet, short story writer born in Bombay)
44%
1949 William Faulkner United States (modernist novelist, short story writer, essayist from Mississippi)
44%
1958 Boris Pasternak Soviet Union, declined prize (novelist, poet, translator)
41%
1999 Günter Grass Germany (novelist, dramatist, poet; born in the Free City of Danzig)
41%
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa Peru (lives in Spain) (novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, political activist; ran for President of Peru)
40%
1993 Toni Morrison United States (novelist)
40%
1946 Hermann Hesse Germany (exiled to Switzerland; novelist, poet)
38%
1923 William Butler Yeats Ireland (poet)
38%
2006 Orhan Pamuk Turkey (novelist, essayist)
37%
1998 José Saramago Portugal (novelist, dramatist, poet; moved from Portugal to the Canaries in protest)
36%
2022 Annie Ernaux France (novelist)
35%
2003 J. M. Coetzee South Africa (emigrated to Australia) (novelist, essayist, translator; anti-Apartheid activist)
35%
1938 Pearl S. Buck United States (novelist; in recognition of her works on life in China)
35%
2013 Alice Munro Canada (short-story writer)
34%
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Soviet Union (novelist, dissident activist who was expelled from the USSR in 1974)
33%
1925 George Bernard Shaw Ireland (dramatist, novelist, essayist, literary critic, political activist)
32%
1994 Kenzaburō Ōe Japan (novelist, short story writer)
32%
1948 T. S. Eliot United Kingdom (US-born modernist poet)
32%
1950 Bertrand Russell United Kingdom (philosopher, essayist, political activist, founder of analytic philosophy)
31%
2007 Doris Lessing United Kingdom (novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, dramatist, memoirist; born in Tehran 1919)
31%
2023 Jon Fosse Norway (dramatist, novelist)
31%
1913 Rabindranath Tagore India (Bengali poet, novelist, dramatist, short story writer, composer)
31%
1920 Knut Hamsun Norway (epic novelist)
30%
1995 Seamus Heaney Ireland (poet)
30%
1909 Selma Lagerlöf Sweden (novelist, short story writer remebered for her children's story about Nils Holgersson)
30%
1904 Frédéric Mistral France (Occitan)
29%
1945 Gabriela Mistral Chile (poet, diplomat)
29%
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer United States (Yiddish) (novelist, short story writer, memoirist of Polish-Jewish origin)
29%
1990 Octavio Paz Mexico (poet, essayist)
29%
2018 Olga Tokarczuk Poland (novelist, essayist, poet)
29%
2005 Harold Pinter United Kingdom (dramatist)
26%
2009 Herta Müller Germany (emigrated from Romania, writes in German) (novel, poet)
26%
2025 László Krasznahorkai Hungary (novelist)
26%
1901 Sully Prudhomme France (poet, essayist)
26%
2001 V. S. Naipaul Trinidad & Tobago / UK (novelist, essayist)
26%
1986 Wole Soyinka Nigeria (dramatist, novelist, poet)
26%
1972 Heinrich Böll Germany (novelist, short story writer highly critical of West German society)
25%
2019 Peter Handke Austria (novelist, playwright)
25%
1996 Wisława Szymborska Poland (poet, essayist, translator)
25%
1980 Czesław Miłosz United States (emigrated from Poland) (poet, essayist)
24%
1992 Derek Walcott Saint Lucia (poet)
24%
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland (Russian Empire) (epic novelist)
24%
1991 Nadine Gordimer South Africa (novelist, short story writer, essayist, anti-Apartheid activist)
24%
1921 Anatole France France (poet, novelist)
23%
1947 André Gide France (novelist, essayist who famously repudiated his communist beliefs after visiting the Soviet Union)
23%
2004 Elfriede Jelinek Austria (feminist novelist, dramatist)
23%
2002 Imre Kertész Hungary (novelist; Holocaust survivor)
23%
1988 Naguib Mahfouz Egypt (novelist)
23%
1976 Saul Bellow United States (born in Canada, novelist, short story writer)
23%
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah United Kingdom (novelist; born in Zanzibar)
22%
1955 Halldór Laxness Iceland (poet, novelist, short story writer, dramatist)
22%
1961 Ivo Andrić Yugoslavia (novelist, short story writer)
22%
2020 Louise Glück United States (poet, essayist)
22%
1934 Luigi Pirandello Italy (dramatist, novelist, short story writer)
22%
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias Guatemala (novelist, poet)
22%
2015 Svetlana Alexievich Belarus (journalist, oral historian)
22%
1968 Yasunari Kawabata Japan (novelist, short story writer)
22%
1932 John Galsworthy United Kingdom (novelist, in recognition of "The Forsyte Saga")
21%
1965 Mikhail Sholokhov Soviet Union (epic novelist, in recognition of "And Quiet Flows the Don")
21%
1973 Patrick White Australia (novelist, dramatist, short story writer)
21%
1981 Elias Canetti United Kingdom (born in Bulgaria, wrote in German) (novelist, dramatist, memoirist, essayist)
20%
1936 Eugene O'Neill United States (realist dramatist)
20%
1927 Henri Bergson France (philosopher known for the concept of élan vital, or the life force)
20%
2008 J. M. G. Le Clézio France / Mauritus (novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator)
20%
1930 Sinclair Lewis United Staes (novelist, dramatist, short story writer)
20%
1902 Theodor Mommsen Germany (historian, legal scholar)
20%
2011 Tomas Tranströmer Sweden (poet)
20%
1974 Eyvind Johnson Sweden (novelist; was on the Nobel panel himself)
19%
1966 Nelly Sachs Germany (exiled in Sweden; poet, dramatist)
19%
2014 Patrick Modiano France (novelist)
19%
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo Italy (poet)
19%
1989 Camilo José Cela Spain (novelist, short story writer)
18%
1911 Maurice Maeterlinck Belgium (symbolist dramatist, poet, essayist)
18%
1933 Ivan Bunin Russia (exiled in France; novelist, poet, short story writer)
17%
1924 Władysław Reymont Poland (epic novelist)
17%
1926 Grazia Deledda Italy (poet, novelist)
16%
1904 José Echegaray Spain (dramatist)
16%
1928 Sigrid Undset Norway (novelist)
16%
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Norway (poet, novelist, dramatist, author of lyrics of Norwegian national anthem
15%
1974 Harry Martinson Sweden (novelist, poet, dramatist; was on the Nobel panel himself)
15%
1987 Joseph Brodsky United States (expelled from the USSR) (poet)
15%
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spain (poet)
15%
1975 Eugenio Montale Italy (poet)
14%
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää Finland (novelist)
14%
2000 Gao Xingjiang China (emigrated to France) (novelist, dramatist, literary critic)
14%
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann Germany (dramatist, novelist)
14%
1963 Giorgos Seferis Greece (poet; Greek ambassador to the UK 1957–62)
14%
1906 Giosuè Carducci Italy (poet)
14%
1985 Claude Simon France (novelist)
13%
1984 Jaroslav Seifert Czechoslovakia (Czech poet)
13%
1979 Odysseas Elytis Greece (poet)
13%
1951 Pär Lagerkvist Sweden (poet, novelist, short story writer, dramatist)
13%
1937 Roger Martin du Gard France (novelist)
13%
1952 François Mauriac France (novelist, short story writer)
12%
1915 Romain Rolland France (novelist)
12%
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon Israel (novelist, short story writer)
12%
1977 Vicente Aleixandre Spain (poet)
12%
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt Sweden (poetry)
11%
1917 Henrik Pontoppidan Denmark (novelist)
11%
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen Denmark (modernist poet)
11%
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup Denmark (poet)
11%
1922 Jacinto Benavente Spain (dramatist)
10%
1910 Paul von Heyse Germany (poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer)
10%
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken Germany (philosopher)
10%
1960 Saint-John Perse France (poet)
10%
1916 Verner von Heidenstam Sweden (poet, novelist)
9%
1919 Carl Spitteler Switzerland (German-language epic poet)
8%
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