Polish Academy of Learning

The Polish Academy of Learning is associated in the available account with a specific act of literary recognition: in 1918, it proposed Reymont as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The proposal preceded his selection as laureate in 1924, though the account does not establish that it caused that later decision.

Proposal of Reymont

In 1918, the Polish Academy of Learning put Reymont forward as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. The episode places the Academy in the institutional history of recognition for his writing, several years after the completion and full publication of The Peasants.

Later Recognition

Reymont was declared the Nobel laureate on 13 November 1924. Gravely ill with heart disease, he could not receive the prize in person; he died on 5 December 1925, aged fifty-eight. The Academy’s 1918 proposal thus came before, but should be distinguished from, the later award.