| Year | Author | Country* | Literary Area |
| 1998 | Saramago, Jose | Portugal | novelist |
| 1997 | Fo, Dario | Italy | playwright, actor |
| 1996 | Szymborska, Wislawa | Poland | poet |
| 1995 | Heaney, Seamus | Ireland | poet |
| 1994 | Oe Kenzaburo | Japan | novelist |
| 1993 | Morrison, Toni | U.S. | novelist |
| 1992 | Walcott, Derek | St. Lucia | poet |
| 1991 | Gordimer, Nadine | South Africa | novelist |
| 1990 | Paz, Octavio | Mexico | poet, essayist |
| 1989 | Cela, Camilo José | Spain | novelist |
| 1988 | Mahfouz, Naguib | Egypt | novelist |
| 1987 | Brodsky, Joseph | U.S. | poet and essayist |
| 1986 | Soyinka, Wole | Nigeria | playwright, poet |
| 1985 | Simon, Claude | France | novelist |
| 1984 | Seifert, Jaroslav | Czech. | poet |
| 1983 | Golding, Sir William | U.K. | novelist |
| 1982 | García Márquez, Gabriel | Colombia | novelist, journalist, social critic |
| 1981 | Canetti, Elias | Bulgaria | novelist, essayist |
| 1980 | Milosz, Czeslaw | U.S. | poet |
| 1979 | Elytis, Odysseus | Greece | poet |
| 1978 | Singer, Isaac Bashevis | U.S. | novelist |
| 1977 | Aleixandre, Vicente | Spain | poet |
| 1976 | Bellow, Saul | U.S. | novelist |
| 1975 | Montale, Eugenio | Italy | poet |
| 1974 | Johnson, Eyvind | Sweden | novelist |
| Martinson, Harry | Sweden | novelist, poet | |
| 1973 | White, Patrick | Australia | novelist |
| 1972 | Böll, Heinrich | West Germany | novelist |
| 1971 | Neruda, Pablo | Chile | poet |
| 1970 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich | U.S.S.R. | novelist |
| 1969 | Beckett, Samuel | Ireland | novelist, dramatist |
| 1968 | Kawabata Yasunari | Japan | novelist |
| 1967 | Asturias, Miguel Ángel | Guatemala | novelist |
| 1966 | Agnon, S.Y. | Israel | novelist |
| Sachs, Nelly | Sweden | poet | |
| 1965 | Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich | U.S.S.R. | novelist |
| 1964 | Sartre, Jean-Paul (declined) | France | philosopher, dramatist |
| 1963 | Seferis, George | Greece | poet |
| 1962 | Steinbeck, John | U.S. | novelist |
| 1961 | Andric, Ivo | Yugoslavia | novelist |
| 1960 | Saint-John Perse | France | poet |
| 1959 | Quasimodo, Salvatore | Italy | poet |
| 1958 | Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich (declined) | U.S.S.R. | novelist, poet |
| 1957 | Camus, Albert | France | novelist, dramatist |
| 1956 | Jiménez, Juan Ramón | Spain | poet |
| 1955 | Laxness, Halldór | Iceland | novelist |
| 1954 | Hemingway, Ernest | U.S. | novelist |
| 1953 | Churchill, Sir Winston | U.K. | historian, orator |
| 1952 | Mauriac, François | France | poet, novelist, dramatist |
| 1951 | Lagerkvist, Pär | Sweden | novelist |
| 1950 | Russell, Bertrand | U.K. | philosopher |
| 1949 | Faulkner, William | U.S. | novelist |
| 1948 | Eliot, T.S. | U.K. | poet, critic |
| 1947 | Gide, André | France | novelist, essayist |
| 1946 | Hesse, Hermann | Switzerland | novelist |
| 1945 | Mistral, Gabriela | Chile | poet |
| 1944 | Jensen, Johannes V. | Denmark | novelist |
| 1939 | Sillanpää, Frans Eemil | Finland | novelist |
| 1938 | Buck, Pearl | U.S. | novelist |
| 1937 | Martin du Gard, Roger | France | novelist |
| 1936 | O'Neill, Eugene | U.S. | dramatist |
| 1934 | Pirandello, Luigi | Italy | dramatist |
| 1933 | Bunin, Ivan Alekseyevich | U.S.S.R. | poet, novelist |
| 1932 | Galsworthy, John | U.K. | novelist |
| 1931 | Karlfeldt, Erik Axel (posthumous award) | Sweden | poet |
| 1930 | Lewis, Sinclair | U.S. | novelist |
| 1929 | Mann, Thomas | Germany | novelist |
| 1928 | Undset, Sigrid | Norway | novelist |
| 1927 | Bergson, Henri | France | philosopher |
| 1926 | Deledda, Grazia | Italy | novelist |
| 1925 | Shaw, George Bernard | Ireland | dramatist |
| 1924 | Reymont, Wladyslaw Stanislaw | Poland | novelist |
| 1923 | Yeats, William Butler | Ireland | poet |
| 1922 | Benavente y Martínez, Jacinto | Spain | dramatist |
| 1921 | France, Anatole | France | novelist |
| 1920 | Hamsun, Knut | Norway | novelist |
| 1919 | Spitteler, Carl | Switzerland | poet, novelist |
| 1918 | Karlfeldt, Erik Axel (declined) | Sweden | poet |
| 1917 | Gjellerup, Karl | Denmark | novelist |
| Pontoppidan, Henrik | Denmark | novelist | |
| 1916 | Heidenstam, Verner von | Sweden | poet |
| 1915 | Rolland, Romain | France | novelist |
| 1913 | Tagore, Rabindranath | India | poet |
| 1912 | Hauptmann, Gerhart | Germany | dramatist |
| 1911 | Maeterlinck, Maurice | Belgium | dramatist |
| 1910 | Heyse, Paul Johann Ludwig von | Germany | poet, novelist, dramatist |
| 1909 | Lagerlöf, Selma | Sweden | novelist |
| 1908 | Eucken, Rudolf Christoph | Germany | philosopher |
| 1907 | Kipling, Rudyard | U.K. | poet, novelist |
| 1906 | Carducci, Giosuè | Italy | poet |
| 1905 | Sienkiewicz, Henryk | Poland | novelist |
| 1904 | Echegaray y Eizaguirre, José | Spain | dramatist |
| Mistral, Frédéric | France | poet | |
| 1903 | Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus | Norway | novelist, poet, dramatist |
| 1902 | Mommsen, Theodor | Germany | historian |
| 1901 | Sully Prudhomme | France | poet |
*Nationality given is the citizenship of recipient at the time award was made. Prizes may be withheld or not awarded in years when no worthy recipient can be found or when the world situation (e.g., World Wars I and II) prevents the gathering of information needed to reach a decision.