Mikhail Sholokhov

THE LAUREATE: Sholokhov’s life was very much unlike the other Soviet-era writers we’ve seen. He was born and died in Veshenskaya in what is now the Ukraine. In the meantime, he joined the Bolsheviks, moved to Moscow, began his literary career writing in the approved Socialist Realist style and supported himself with manual labor (like accounting) His life seemed pretty dull, for the most part; writing a ton of fiction about how great life was now that the Bolsheviks were in charge and making babies in a little town in the sticks. Apparently he didn’t have kind words for Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Gee, I wonder why!), which possibly led to Solzhenitsyn dredging up the old accusations that Sholokhov had stolen And Quiet Flows the Don from some obscure Menshevik Cossack.

WHAT I’M READING: And Quiet Flows the Don, of course.

Doris Lessing

THE LAUREATE: I’ll let Wikipedia do the talking.

WHAT I’M READING: The Good Terrorist, because blah blah blah post-9/11 world blah robble robble

Theodor Mommsen

THE LAUREATE: Theodor Mommsen was a largely self-taught classicist who revolutionized the way we read and interact with ancient texts. He was also apparently a protester in the 1848 rebellions (which is awesome) and was generally a pretty liberal guy (which is pretty unexpected). His most well-known work is his monumental History of Rome, stretching from the founding of the city to Julius Caesar. He is also well-known among classicists for his exhaustive collection of Greek and Roman inscriptions.

WHAT I’M READING: A few chapters from the History of Rome about the Punic Wars.

J. M. G. le Clezio

THE LAUREATE: JMG le Clezio was born in Nice in 1940. His first novel caused quite a stir when it came out and won him one literary prize and got him shortlisted for another. While enlisted in the French army, he was expelled from Thailand for protesting child prostitution. He currently teaches French language and literature at a variety of colleges around the world.

WHAT I’M READING: The Interrogation, which was le Clezio’s first novel.

Maurice Maeterlinck

THE LAUREATE: Maurice Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1862. His work as a playwright tended to be influenced by the actress he happened to be dating at the time, often badly. He also apparently blatantly copied a series of articles about South African termites in what is a “textbook case of academic plagiarism.” Awesome. Even more awesome, though, was the fact that apparently Maeterlinck wrote several plays for marionette theater. The world needs more marionettists.

WHAT I’M READING: Mary Magdalene, which resembles Paul Heyse’s Mary von Magdalene in marginally non-infringing ways. Seriously bro, he looked it up first.

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw as The Most Interesting Man in the World

THE LAUREATE: George Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 to a middle class Irish family. He quickly became an ardent socialist, and his artistic and critical output was copious and wide-ranging. He might be the only Nobel winner to also win an Oscar, which is pretty cool. He died in 1950.

WHAT I’M READING: Two of the plays that turn up in well-stocked used book stores the most often: Caesar and Cleopatra and Arms and the Man

Mo Yan

THE LAUREATE: Mo Yan was born in 1955 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution and all the other poorly thought out schemes Chairman Mao tried to use to make China’s economy functional. He began writing fiction in earnest while he was enlisted in the People’s Liberation Army. He writes work largely in demotic Chinese and entirely by hand, claiming that typing in transliterated pinyin limits the words available to him. Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in 2012.

WHAT I’M READING: The Garlic Ballads

Halldor Laxness

THE LAUREATE: Halldor Laxness was the only laureate from Iceland. He was born in 1902 (I think the first laureate born in the 20th century) outside of Reykjavik (at a place called Laxness, incidentally). He was briefly Catholic, and then met up with Sinclair Lewis and became interested in socialism. His career as an artist was long and varied: he wrote novels, short stories, poetry, plays and travelogues. He won the Nobel in 55 and the Soviet World Peace Council Literary Prize for some reason. He died in 1998

MY EXPERIENCE WITH HIM: I love Halldor Laxness. I’ve read four or five of his novels that have been translated into English, and I am strongly considering learning Icelandic for the express purpose of translating the rest. Arguably, he’s the reason I started thinking about this project in the first place: A used bookstore clerk (at McKeown’s Books and Difficult Music in New Orleans; go there) recommended a small volume of Laxness’ short stories because he won the Nobel. Laxness has a great saga-esque sense of humor: very dry and deadpan. Often, him just observing something as something that demands observation is hilarious.

WHAT I’M READING: Paradise Reclaimed, the slightly fictionalized account of a famous Mormon Icelander.

Jacinto Benavente

THE LAUREATE: I’ll look him up later. Apparently he was one of the most important Spanish playwrights of the 20th century. Hooray.

WHAT I’M READING: “No Smoking” and “Princess Bebe,” two plays out of a free book on Google books.

Naguib Mahfouz

THE LAUREATE: More later, but Mahfouz was the first Middle Eastern laureate and is still the only one who wrote in Arabic.

WHAT I”M READING: Akhenten, Dweller in Truth, which I think I found in the free book bin at the library. Woohoo!