Factbox: A look at the 2013 Nobel Literature Prize

(Reuters) - Here is a look at the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature, which was awarded on Thursday to Canadian Alice Munro, "a master of the contemporary short story". - Munro, 82, is mainly known for her short stories and has published many collections including "Who Do You Think You Are?" (1978), "The Moons of Jupiter" (1982), "Runaway" (2004), "The View from Castle Rock" (2006) and "Too Much Happiness" (2009). - The collection "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" (2001) became the basis of the 2006 film "Away from Her". - Munro's most recent collection is "Dear Life" (2012). - 105 Nobel literature prizes have been awarded and 109 authors have been awarded the prize between 1901-2012. The prize was divided equally between two authors in 1904, 1917, 1966 and 1974, the last time it was shared. The youngest Literature laureate was Rudyard Kipling, best known for "The Jungle Book". He was 42 years old when he was awarded the prize in 1907. - Twelve women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Swedish author Selma Lagerloef (1858-1940) was the first woman to be awarded the prize in 1909. - Boris Pasternak initially accepted the 1958 prize but Soviet authorities forced him to decline. Jean Paul Sartre declined the 1964 prize, because he had consistently declined all official honors. - Some famous winners: British writer Doris Lessing was the oldest winner of the prize - she was 88 when she was awarded the prize in 2007. Nadime Gordimer, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill and T. S. Eliot were among the most famous winners after World War Two. - In 1931, the literature prize was awarded posthumously to Erik Axel Karlfeldt. From 1974, the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation stipulated that a Nobel Prize could not be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize. - George Bernard Shaw won in 1925 "for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty". Sources: Reuters, http://nobelprize.org. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)