2009 Herta Müller - Germany
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio - France
2007 Doris Lessing - United Kingdom
2006 Orhan Pamuk - Turkey
2005 Harold Pinter - United Kingdom
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - Austria
2003 J.M. Coetzee - South Africa
2002 Imre Kertesz - Hungary
2001 V.S. Naipaul - Great Britain
2000 Gao Xingjian - China

1999 Günter Grass - Germany
1998 José Saramago - Portugal
1997 Dario Fo - Italy
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - Poland
1995 Seamus Heaney - Ireland
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - Japan
1993 Toni Morrison - U.S.
1992 Derek Walcott - St. Lucia
1991 Nadine Gordimer - South Africa
1990 Octavio Paz - Mexico

1989 Dr. Camilo José Cela - Spain
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - Egypt
1987 Joseph Brodsky - U.S.
1986 Wole Soyinka - Nigeria
1985 Claude Simon - France
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - Czechoslovakia
1983 William Golding - United Kingdom
1982 Gabriel García Márquez - Colombia
1981 Elias Canetti - United Kingdom
1980 Czeslaw Milosz - Poland/U.S.

1979 Odysseus Elytis - Greece
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - U.S..
1977 Vincente Aleixandre - Spain
1976 Saul Bellow - U.S.
1975 Eugenio Montale - Italy
1974 Eyvind Johnson & Harry Martinson - Sweden
1973 Patrick White - Australia
1972 Heinrich Böll - Germany
1971 Pablo Neruda - Chile
1970 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn - U.S.S.R.

1969 Samuel Beckett - Ireland
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - Japan
1967 Miguel A. Asturias - Guatemala
1966 Schmel Y. Agnon (Israel) & Nelly Sachs (Germany)
1965 Michail Sholokhov -U.S.S.R.
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre - France (declined)
1963 Giorgos Seferis -Greece
1962 John Steinbeck - U.S.
1961 Ivo Andric - Yugoslavia
1960 Saint-John Perse - France

1959 Salvatore Quasimodo - Italy
1958 Boris Pasternak - U.S.S.R.
1957 Albert Camus - France
1956 J.R. Jiménez  - Spain
1955 Halldór Kiljan Laxness - Iceland
1954 Ernest Hemingway - U.S.
1953 Winston Churchill - United Kingdom
1952 François Mauriac - France
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - Sweden
1950 Bertrand Russell - United Kingdom

1949 William Faulkner - U.S.
1948 T.S. Eliot - United Kingdom
1947 André Gide - France
1946 Hermann Hesse - Switzerland
1945 Gabriela Mistral - Chile
1944 Johannes V. Jensen - Denmark
1943    no award
1942    no award
1941    no award
1940    no award

1939 F.E. Sillanpää - Finland
1938 Pearl S. Buck - U.S.
1937 Roger Martin du Gard - France
1936 Eugene O'Neill - U.S.
1935    no award
1934 Luigi Pirandello - Italy
1933 Ivan Bunin - U.S.S.R
1932 John Galsworthy - United Kingdom
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt - Italy
1930 Sinclair Lewis - U.S.

1929 Thomas Mann - Germany
1928 Singrid Undset - Norway
1927 Henri Bergson - France
1926 Grazia Deledda - Italy
1925 George Bernard Shaw - United Kingdom
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont - Poland
1923 William Butler Yeats - Ireland
1922 Jacinto Benavente - Spain
1921 Anatole France - France
1920 Knut Hamsun - Norway

1919 Carl Spitteler - Switzerland
1918    no award
1917 Karl Gjellerup (Italy) & Henrik Pontoppidan (Denmark)
1916 Verner von Heidenstam - Sweden
1915 Romain Rolland - France
1914    no award
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - India
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann - Germany
1911 Maurice Maeterlinck - Belgium
1910 Paul von Heyse - Germany

1909 Selma Lagerlöf - Sweden
1908 Rudolf Eucken - Germany
1907 Rudyard Kipling - United Kingdom
1906 Giosue Carducci - Italy
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz - Poland
1904 José Echegaray (Spain) & Frédéric Mistral (France)
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - Norway
1902 Theodor Mommsen - Germany
1901 Sully Prudhomme - France