1922 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Spanish dramatist Jacinto Benavente (1866–1954) "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama".

Jacinto Benavente y Martinez is considered to be one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He stood out as a dramatist in his day by letting aesthetics and dramatic effects take a backseat to a realistic depiction of reality beyond the theater. The majority of his plays are comedies in the sense that they have a pleasant conclusion, and he worked hard to depict reality realistically. In his plays, which were set in Madrid or the made-up little town of Moraleda, primarily upper-class environments were portrayed alongside various social groupings, frequently in a lighthearted and satirical manner. His other famous plays include El nido ajeno (1894), Los intereses creados (1907), La malquerida (1913), Lecciones de buen amor (1924), etc.

Jacinto Benavente was first nominated in 1921 by 21 members of the Royal Spanish Academy, and again the following year by the Nobel committee. In total, the committee received 30 nominations for 22 authors which included Georg Brandes, Grazia Deledda (awarded in 1926), John Galsworthy (awarded in 1932).Thomas Hardy, Arno Holz, Wladyslaw Reymont (awarded in 1924), W. B. Yeats (awarded in 1923), and Stefan Zeromski. Ten of the nominees were newly nominated such as Roberto Bracco, Paul Ernst, Darrell Figgis, William Inge, Michael Sadleir, Matilde Serao, Sigrid Undset (awarded in 1928), Ludwig von Pastor, Israel Zangwill. There were three female writers nominated: two from Italy (Grazia Deledda and Matilde Serao) and one from Norway (Sigrid Undset).

The authors Lyman Abbott, Lima Barreto, Clementina Black, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Gerard Bolland, Elizabeth Williams Champney, Erskine Childers, Alfred Espinas, Nellie Blessing Eyster, Géza Gárdonyi, Constance Jones, Velimir Khlebnikov, Henry Lawson, Alice Meynell, Renzo Novatore, Mori Ōgai, Marcel Proust, Gabriel Séailles, George Robert Sims, Georges Sorel, Giovanni Verga died in 1922 without having been nominated for the prize.

The main contenders among the shortlisted candidates for the prize in 1922 were Benavente and the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who was awarded the following year.