The 100 Most-Cited Authors of 20th Century Literature. Can Citation Data Forecast the Nobel Prize in Literature? Number4 Januarv 28,1980 William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Stockholm. The Swedish Academy prize in literature in 1923 for “his always closely resembles the French and inspiring poetry, which in a highly ar- Spanish Academies. Affred Nobel, the tistic form, gives expression to the spirit inventor of dynamite, was a prolific of a whole nation. ”1 Thomas Mann, in reader as well as an aspiring author. So 1929, was awarded the prize “principally it is not surprising that he established an for his great novel, Buddersbrooks, award for literature along with prizes in which has won steadily increased physics, chemistry, and medicine. He recognition as one of the classic works also established the well-known Nobel of contemporary Literature.”1 Samuel peace prize. The first prizes were Beckett received the prize in 1969 for awarded in 1901. z his new forms of the novel and of Today, the members of the Swedish drama.2 Academy—18 writers, elected for These three authors, along with four life—judge literature nominations sub- other Nobel prize winners for literature, mitted by government leaders, promi- appeared on the list of most-cited arts nent scholars, former prize winners, and and humanities authors w? published fellow Academy members. I Any person last year.j That list was based on cita- who nominates himself or herself is tion data for 1977 and 1978, compiled automatically eliminated from con- from the data base we use to create the sideration. For purposes of the award, Arts & Humanities Citation Index ‘u the Swedish Academy defines literature {A&HCI ‘M). The list contained authors as not only “belles lettres, but also other from other areas of the arts and humani- writings, which, by virtue of their con- ties. However, authors of literature tents and form, possess literary value. ”h seemed disproportionately represented. This sweeping definition has allowed the Most of you are familiar with my fre- Academy to choose philosophers and quent assertions about the value of cita- historians as winners of the award along tion analysis in measuring the impact of with novelists, poets, and playwrights. scientific work.q There is little doubt The Nobel prize in literature has often that unusual citedness is often found been surrounded by criticism and among the winners of the Nobel prizes debate. Part of the reason for this stems in sciences But what may be true for from the wording of Alfred Nobel’s will. science is not necessarily the case in the In it, he specifically stated that the arts. Are the winners of the Nobel prize award was to be given “to the person in literature also heavily cited? Put who shall have produced in the field of another way—do the selections of the literature the most outstanding work of Nobel committees correspond to the an idealistic tendency. ”z (p. 9) Most people who are most often cited in the literary critics would agree that not all scholarly literature about literature? great literature is of “an idealistic The Nobel prize in literature is award- tendency.” Nevertheless, the judges of ed annually by the Swedish Academy in the awards, especially during the early 363 years, felt constrained by Nobel’s direc- autttors, most ot tnem were cteservmg, tive. Thus, in 1903 (the third year of the even in the opinion of literary scholars, prize) playwright Hennk Ibsen was Figure 1 shows the list of Nobel prize nominated but passed over for the prize winners in literature, along with the by the Academy because the members number of articles that cited them in the felt his works lacked idealism. That year A &HCI, 1977-78. Bjgfrnstjerne Bj@nson of Norway, a At this point I must note that the data favorite of Nobel’s while he lived, won base on which this study was based has a the prize for poetry. I distinct Anglo-American bias. We ex- Controversy surrounds the awards for pect that bias to change somewhat in other reasons as well. Some critics claim the future. We are now in [he process of that the awards are sometimes political- expanding our coverage in A& HCI, We ly motivated and that authors are given will be adding more journals from many the awards more for their personal non-English speaking countries. Some ideologies than for the literary merit of of the Nobel prize winners’ citation their works. For example, when the counts in Figure 1 might be higher if we French author Remain Rolland re- covered more journals from their own ceived the prize in 1915, his detractors countries. Nevertheless, some interna- alleged that Rolland was honored more tionally known prize winners—Thomas for his pacifism than for the novels he Mann of Germany. Jean-Paul Sartre of wrote. [7 France, and Aleksandr Soly.henitsyn of Critics also charge that certain the [JSSR—are well-cited, despite our authors who should have won the award bias. Indeed, it is often the case that did not for political reasons. For exam- famous literary figures are heroes ple, the great Russian novelist Leo abroad and taken for granted at home, Tolstoi was passed over by the Swedish In order to study the relationship be- Academy in favor of less illustrious can- tween citation data and the Nobel prize, didates. The traditional anti-Russian we compiled a list of the 50 most-cited bias of the Swedish government is authors of 20th century literature. This blamed for this slight. Tolstoi’s name was derived from the larger list of was presented to the Academy for nine authors cited in the A<HCI 1977 -78.3 consecutive years. ~ Figure 2 lists the names of authors whu In his will, Nobel stated that authors were eligible to receive the Nobel prize of all nationalities should be considered during their lifetimes and whether they for the award. not only Scandinavians. did so or not, an important considera- Following this wish, the Nobel judges tion because Nobel prizes are awarded have tried to honor authors from all only to living authors. The only excep- over the world. Sometimes this has tion to this rule is if the author died be- resulted in the selection of relatively tween the time of nomination and the obscure authors. For example, in 1913, time the award was announced. Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian who Authors are listed in citation rank order wrote lyric verse in Bengali, won the with a description of their work and prize. Obviously, not too many people country of residence, Those authors outside of India were familiar with his who were awarded the Nobel prize are work. I In 1979, Greek lyric poet indicated along with the date the prize Odysseus Elytis won the prize. Al- was given. Note that all authors listed though Elytis is known outside of were cited by at least 5S articles. This is Greece, he is certainly not as well- low if you consider the higher figure known as many other living poets or usually associated with scientists. writers. ~ Both of these authors’ works Fifteen of the 50 authors on the list were judged in translation, as were the won the Nobel prize, although one, Sar- works of others. tre, declined to accept it. This is a very While the Academy has granted the large percentage. In a study of the 50 prize to many relatively unknown most-cited scientists for 1967 only six 364 Ffgrrre 1: Winners of the Nobel prize in literature, by year of prize. Their nationalities and the number of articles that cited them in the .4 rts & Humanities Ctfaf ion Index ‘“ (Ac4 HCI ‘u/ 1977-78 are indica ied. As a point of reference, the most-cited author in the A& HCI 1977-78, Karl Marx, was ci!ed in 704 articles. Wilfiam Shakespeare. the most-cited literary figure. was cited in 594 articles. (A = Year of prize: B = Name; C = Nationality: D = Number nf citing articles 197~-78) A B c D A 8 c D 1901 Sully Prudhomme (F) 3 I944 Johannes V. Jensen (D) 1 I902 Theodor Mommsen (G] 45 1945 Gabriela Mistral (CHILE) 2 I%3 Bjtstnstjeme Bj$mson (N) 1 1946 Hermann Hesse (sWI) 2- 1904 Fr<d6ric Mkmal (F) 7 1947 Andr~ Gide (F) 92 Jose’Echegaray (SP) — 194s T.S. Eliot (GB} 287 1X)$ Henryk Sienkiewicz (POL) 4 1949 William Fa”]k”er (us) 95 1’%6 Giosu> Carducci (1) 19 19.W Bertrand Russell (GB) 213 1907 Rudyard Kipting (GB} 23 1951 Pir Lagerkvist ISWEI 8 1908 Rudolf Eucken (G) — 1952 Fran$uis Mauriac (F) 17 1909 Selma Lagerlof (SWE) 1 I953 Winston Ch”rchi]l (GBI 41 1910 Paul Heyse (G) 3 1954 Ernest Hemingway (us) 78 1911 Maurice Maeterlinck (B) 15 1955 Halld& Laxness (Icl 2 1912 Gerhart Hauptmann (G) 9 1956 J.R. Jim&ez (SPI 6 1913 Rabindranath Tagore (IN) 7 1957 Albert Camus (F) 113 1915 Remain Rolland (F) 14 1958 Boris Pastemak (LISSR) 20 1916 Vemer V. Heidenstam (SWE) — 1959 Sal>atore Quasimodo (f] 4 1917 Karl Gjellerup (D) — I9fiI Saint-John Peme (F) 7 Henrik Ponfoppidan (D) I 1961 IVO Andri/ (Y) 6 1919 Carl Spitteler (Swfl 2 I%2 John Steinbeck (11s) 55 1920 Knut Hamsun (N) 1 1963 Giorgos Seferis (GREECE) 3 1921 Anatole France IFI 19 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (F) 319 1922 Jacinto Benavente (SP) 2 1%5 Mikhail A. Sjolochcn (USSR) 8 1923 William. Butler Yeats (IR) 171 1966 Shmuel Y, Agnon (1s) 7 1924 Wladyslaw Reymon[ {POL) I Nelly Sachs (G) 3 192S George Bernard Shaw (GB) 142 I967 Miguel Angel Asturias (GIJAT) 18 1926 Grazla Deledda (1) 196a Yasunari Kawabata (J) 6 1927 Hemi Bergson (F) 76 1969 Samuel Beckett (IR) 127 1928 Sigrid Undset (N) I 1970 A(eksandr Solzhenitsyn II ISSRI (26 1929 Thomas Mann (G) 128 1971 Pablo Neruda ICH) 33 1930 Sinclair Lewis (us) 32 1972 Heinrich Bbll (G) 30 1931 Etik Karlfeldt (SWE) — 1973 Patrick White (AUSTR) 48 1932 John Galsworthy (GB) 19 1974 Epind Johnson (SWE) 2 1933 Ivan Bunin (FR) 3 Harry Martinson (SWEI I 1934 Luigi Pirandello (I) 35 1975 Eugenic> Montale (1) 49 1936 Eugene ONeill (us} 31 1976 Saul Bellow, (LJS) 54 1937 Roger Martin du Gard (F1 5 1977 Vicente Aleixandre (SP) 12 1938 Pearl Buck (us) 6 1978 Isaac Bashe}is Singer (us) 14 I939 F.E.