Long before there were discographies, the catalogues of works (e.g. Köchel, Riom, Deutsch, etc.) existed for the musical works of
composers. In contrast, since Gutenberg, the book has been at the
centre of the writers' written work. Thus, bibliographies are omnipresent, while list of works often exist only in rudimentary form.
Such catalogues would be important in order to grasp the scope of a writer's literary work, especially in the case of works that radiate
beyond the boundaries of one's own language. Translations are - perhaps
for economic reasons – published very eclectic. Only the most popular works are available in translation and are therefore accessible through
bibliographies. However, an assessment of the charisma and significance of a writer is only possible if one has an overview of the entire scope
of his work.
This is an attempt to remedy this shortcoming for the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. As far as possible, all the works of
the respective writers are systematically recorded in the language in which they were originally written. They are grouped into the classical genres of prose, drama and poetry. A subgroup of lyric
poetry - namely poems in the narrower sense - form a separate group, so that works of the genres verse epic, ballad, poetry, etc. are included in the genre of lyric poetry. The information on the works
also includes the year of origin or the year of the first publication.
The known translations are assigned to the original works of literature. In the data collection made available here, the focus
is on translations into German, English and French. For the translations, the translators and the year of publication are
also recorded where known.
The works and their translations are then accompanied by a reference to printed matter via the book signature in the indexes,
in which these are accessible. Works with a book signature are available in our own library, which contains information on
Works with the "r" added to the signature are based on information in public library books (mainly "Zentralbibliothek Zürich").
