1946 Nobel Prize in Literature

Hermann Hesse was a novelist and a poet whose writings are influenced by the likes of Francis of Assisi, Buddha, Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky. His best known works – Demian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), Der Steppenwolf (1927), and Das Glasperlenspiel ("The Glass Bead Game", 1943) – deal with the individual's search for self-knowledge and spirituality, often through mysticism. '' was wildly popular and has been a perpetual success across the decades, but Hesse later asserted that the book was largely misunderstood. ==Deliberations==

Nominations Hermann Hesse was nominated for the prize eight times, first in 1931 by the 1929 Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann. In 1946 the Nobel committee received one nomination for Hesse by the Swiss literature professor and author Robert Faesi, and one nomination by Anders Österling of the Swedish Academy. In total, the Nobel committee received 32 nominations for 22 writers including Nikolai Berdyaev, T. S. Eliot (awarded in 1948), E. M. Forster, H. G. Wells, Arnulf Øverland, Georges Duhamel, and Marie Under. Nine of the authors were first-time nominated namely André Gide (awarded in 1947), François Mauriac (awarded in 1952), Winston Churchill (awarded in 1953), Boris Pasternak (awarded in 1958), Sholem Asch, Tarjei Vesaas, Angelos Sikelianos and Ignazio Silone. The Swiss author Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was the most nominated with four nominations. Marie Under and Maria Madalena de Martel Patrício were the only women nominated. The authors Marion Angus, Octave Aubry, Eduard Bass, John Langalibalele Dube, Ronald Fangen, Constance Garnett, Harley Granville-Barker, Amir Hamzah, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Violet Jacob, Orrick Glenday Johns, Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, Ernest Rhys, Alfred Rosenberg, Damon Runyon, Thomas Scott-Ellis, Edward Sheldon, Mary Amelia St. Clair (known as May Sinclair), Gertrude Stein, Booth Tarkington and Ibn Zaydan died in 1946 without having been nominated for the prize. ==Award ceremony==

{{multiple images At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1946, Anders Österling, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said: Reasons of health prevented Hermann Hesse to travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony. In his stead, the prize was accepted by the envoy of the Swiss republic. ==References==