Last Updated on September 23, 2021 by BookScouter

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded almost every year by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden from 1901 onwards. It was not awarded only on seven occasions: in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, and 1943. Of the 112 Nobel laureates awarded since 1901, there are 15 American Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature (including those who lived a portion of their lives in the United States but did not become US citizens). Find a list of these great American writers supplied with short descriptions of their literary careers.

Chemist and arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, dedicated a large portion of millions to creating a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. A portion of that money was dedicated to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”

American Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Sinclair Lewis, 1930

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) The Minnesota-born, Yale graduate received the prize “for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.”

Notable Works: Babbitt, It Can’t Happen Here, Main Street, The Jungle

Eugene Gladstone O’Neil, 1936

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1888–1953) O’Neill was born in New York City to a popular romantic actor. He drifted between jobs and became popular after the release of several of his plays. He won “for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy.”

Notable Works: The Hairy Ape, Anna Christie, Long Day’s Journey into the Night

Pearl Buck, 1938

Pearl Buck (1892–1973) Buck was born in West Virginia and grew up in China with her missionary parents. Her first husband was named Buck, while her family name was Sydenstricker and her second husband was Walsh. She received the prize “for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight.”

Notable Works: The Good Earth, East Wind: West Wind, A House Divided

Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1948

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965) Raised in Missouri and educated at Harvard,  Eliot settled in England and became a British citizen in 1927. T.S. Eliot received the prize “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.”

Notable Works: The Waste Land, Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party

William Faulkner, 1949

William Faulkner (1897–1962) Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, and travelled–including a stint writing in Hollywood–before settling down to write in his birthplace. He won “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.”

Notable Works: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom!

Ernst Hemingway, 1954

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899–1961) Born in Illinois, Hemingway drove an ambulance during WWI and travelled across Europe as a reporter. He won “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”

Notable Works: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms

John Steinbeck, 1962

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California, which became the backdrop of many of his novels. The prize honored “his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.”

Notable Works: Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden

Saul Bellow, 1976

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Bellow was born in Montreal and attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University in the U.S. He stayed in the U.S. to teach at numerous universities. He received the prize “for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work.”

Notable Works: Herzog, Humboldt’s Gift, The Adventures of Augie March

Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1978

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) Singer was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland. He immigrated to the U.S. before WWII and became a citizen in 1943. He received the prize “for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.”

Notable Works: The Slave, The Family Moskat, Satan in Goray

Czeslaw Milosz, 1980

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Milosz was born in Poland and came to the U.S. after WWII to represent the Polish communist government. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1960 to lecture at University of California-Berkeley. He received the prize for voicing “man’s exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts.”

Notable Works: The Captive Mind, The Issa Valley, Native Realm

Joseph Brodsky, 1987

Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996) Brodsky was born in Leningrad and exiled from Russia by the Communist government in 1972. He moved to the U.S. and won the prize “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”

Notable Works: Watermark, Less than One: Selected Essays, So Forth: Poems

Derek Walcott, 1992

Derek Walcott (1930–2017) Walcott divides his time between his birthplace of Saint Lucia and his home in New York City, where he produces most of his plays. He received the prize “for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”

Notable Works: Omeros, The Poetry of Derek Walcott

Toni Morrison, 1993

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) Morrison grew up in an integrated neighborhood in Ohio. Her experiences growing up and observations about beauty standards encouraged her to write. She won the prize for “novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, and giving life to an essential aspect of American reality.”

Notable Works: Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon

Bob Dylan, 2016

Bob Dylan (b. 1941) — one of the greatest songwriters and artists of our time — has been awarded the Prize “for having created new poetic expressions with the great American song tradition.” It is the first musician ever awarded with this prestigious literary award! You can read his Nobel lecture here.

Notable Works: Tarantula, Chronicles: Volume One

Louise Glück, 2020

Louise Glück (b. 1943), the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature after Toni Morrison, was awarded the prize “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” Moreover, Glück is one of the 16 women who have ever received the Nobel Prize in Literature since its establishment in 1901.

Notable Works: The Triumph of Achilles, Meadowlands, Faithful and Virtuous Night

You can find all of these works for luring princes on BookScouter! Enjoy your literary journey!