Look up template in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Template may mean:

• a stencil, pattern or overlay used in graphic arts (drawing, painting, etc.) and sewing to replicate letters, shapes or designs
• a pre-developed page layout in electronic or paper media used to make new pages with a similar design, pattern, or style
• Form letter, a predefined letter which retains its primary intent when individually customised with variable data or text.

Computer science and information technology[link]

• Template (file format), a standardized non-executable file type used by computer software as a pre-formatted example on which to base other files, especially documents
• Template (C++), a tool for generic programming especially in the C++ language
• Template metaprogramming, a programming technique used by a compiler to generate temporary source code
• Template method, an object-oriented design pattern
• Template processor, a system that combines a template with data to produce an output.
• Template (word processing), a standard document containing layout and styles used to configure word processing software
• Style sheet (web development) or master page on which you can globally edit and format graphic elements and text common to each page of a document
• Web template or web template system, a master page used to produce web pages
• A main document from which mail merge documents are created

Manufacturing[link]

• Mechanical template, used to cut and shape a product, such as:
  • a die (manufacturing)
  • a mold

Molecular genetics[link]

• a strand of DNA which sets the genetic sequence of new strands
• a strand of RNA which translates genes into proteins

Miscellaneous[link]

• Template (racing), a device used in car racing to ensure that the body of the race vehicle adheres to specifications

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Nobel Prize in Literature
Announcement of the Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature
Awarded for	Outstanding contributions in Literature
Presented by	Swedish Academy
Country	Sweden
First awarded	1901
Official website	nobelprize.org

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature (Swedish: Nobelpriset i litteratur) has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" (original Swedish: den som inom litteraturen har producerat det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning).^[1][2] Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, here "Work" refers to an author's work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize in any given year. The academy announces the name of the chosen laureate in early October.^[3] It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Nobel's choice of emphasis on "idealistic" or "ideal" (English translation) in his criteria for the Nobel Prize in Literature has led to recurrent controversy. In the original Swedish, the word idealisk translates as either "idealistic" or "ideal".^[2] In the early twentieth century, the Nobel Committee interpreted the intent of the will strictly. For this reason, they did not award certain world-renowned authors of the time such as James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Marcel Proust, Henrik Ibsen, and Henry James. ^[4] J. R. R. Tolkien was nominated by his friend C. S. Lewis but rejected on the grounds of his "poor prose"; the prize was instead awarded to Ivo Andrić.^[5] More recently, the wording has been more liberally interpreted. Thus, the Prize is now awarded both for lasting literary merit and for evidence of consistent idealism on some significant level. In recent years, this means a kind of idealism championing human rights on a broad scale. Hence the award is now arguably more political.^[2][6]

"The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm is when each Nobel Laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of His Majesty the King of Sweden. ... Under the eyes of a watching world, the Nobel Laureate receives three things: a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount".

The Swedish Academy has attracted significant criticism in recent years for its handling of the award. Some critics contend that many well-known writers have not been awarded the prize or even been nominated, whereas others contend that some well-known recipients do not deserve it. There have also been controversies involving alleged political interests relating to the nomination process and ultimate selection of some of the recent literary Laureates.^[6]

Background[link]

In 1901, Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907), a French poet and essayist, was the first person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect."

Alfred Nobel stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature.^[7][8] Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.^[9][10] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish kronor (US$186 million, €135 million in 2008), to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes.^[11] Due to the level of scepticism surrounding the will it was not until April 26, 1897 that the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) approved it.^[12][13] The executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, who formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organize the prizes.

The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The prize-awarding organisations followed: the Karolinska Institutet on June 7, the Swedish Academy on June 9, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on June 11.^[14][15] The Nobel Foundation then reached an agreement on guidelines for how the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II.^[13][16][17] According to Nobel's will, the Royal Swedish Academy were to award the Prize in Literature.^[17]

Nomination procedure[link]

Each year the Swedish Academy sends out requests for nominations of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Members of the Academy, members of literature academies and societies, professors of literature and language, former Nobel literature laureates, and the presidents of writers' organizations are all allowed to nominate a candidate. However, it is not permitted to nominate oneself.^[18]

Thousands of requests are sent out each year, and as of 2011^[update] about 220 proposals are returned.^[19] These proposals must be received by the Academy by 1 February, after which they are examined by the Nobel Committee. By April, the Academy narrows the field to around twenty candidates.^[19] By May a short list of five names is approved by the Committee.^[19] The subsequent four months are then spent in reading and reviewing the works of the five candidates.^[19] In October members of the Academy vote and the candidate who receives more than half of the votes is named the Nobel Laureate in Literature. No one can get the prize without being on the list at least twice, thus many of the same authors reappear and are reviewed repeatedly over the years.^[19] The academy is master of thirteen languages, but when a candidate is shortlisted from an unknown language, they call on translators and oath-sworn experts to provide samples of that writer.^[19] Other elements of the process is similar to that of other Nobel Prizes.^[20]

Prizes[link]

A Literature Nobel Prize laureate earns a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation, and a sum of money.^[21] The amount of money awarded depends on the income of the Nobel Foundation that year.^[22] If a prize is awarded to more than one laureate, the money is either split evenly among them or, for three laureates, it may be divided into a half and two quarters.^[23] If a prize is awarded jointly to two or more laureates the money is split among them.^[23]

The prize money of the Nobel Prize has been fluctuating since its inauguration but at present stands at ten million Swedish kronor. (About 1,356,610 USD or 1,067,950 Euros.)^[24] The winner also receives a gold medal and a Nobel diploma and is invited to give a lecture during "Nobel Week" in Stockholm; the highlight is the prize-giving ceremony and banquet on December 10.^[25] It is the richest literary prize in the world by a large margin.

Nobel Prize Medals[link]

The Nobel Prize medals, minted by Myntverket^[26] in Sweden and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse (front side of the medal). The Nobel Prize medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833–1896). Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Medal for the Prize in Economics, but with a slightly different design.^[27][28] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the Nobel Prize medals for Chemistry and Physics share the same design.^[29]

Nobel Prize Diplomas[link]

Nobel laureates receive a Diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden. Each Diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureate that receives it.^[30] The Diploma contains a picture and text which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize.^[30]

Laureates[link]

Criticism[link]

Controversies about Nobel Laureate selections[link]

From 1901 to 1912, the committee was characterised by an interpretation of the "ideal direction" stated in Nobel's will as "a lofty and sound idealism". This caused Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola and Mark Twain to be rejected.^[4] Also, many believe Sweden's historic antipathy towards Russia is the reason neither Tolstoy nor Anton Chekhov was awarded the prize. During World War I and its immediate aftermath, the committee adopted a policy of neutrality, favouring writers from non-combatant countries.^[4] August Strindberg was repeatedly bypassed by the committee, but holds the singular distinction of being awarded an Anti-Nobel Prize, conferred by popular acclaim and national subscription and presented to him in 1912 by future prime minister Hjalmar Branting.^[32][33][34]

The academy considered Czech writer Karel Čapek's War With the Newts too offensive to the German government. He also declined to suggest some noncontroversial publication that could be cited as an example of his work, stating "Thank you for the good will, but I have already written my doctoral dissertation".^[35] He was thus denied the prize.

According to Swedish Academy archives studied by the newspaper Le Monde on their opening in 2008, French novelist and intellectual André Malraux was seriously considered for the prize in the 1950s. Malraux was competing with Albert Camus, but was rejected several times, especially in 1954 and 1955, "so long as he does not come back to novel". Thus, Camus won the prize in 1957.^[36]

Some attribute W. H. Auden's not being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to errors in his translation of 1961 Peace Prize winner Dag Hammarskjöld's Vägmärken (Markings)^[37] and to statements that Auden made during a Scandinavian lecture tour suggesting that Hammarskjöld was, like Auden, homosexual.^[38]

In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he declined it, stating that "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form."

Soviet dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the 1970 prize winner, did not attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm for fear that the U.S.S.R. would prevent his return afterwards (his works there were circulated in samizdat—clandestine form). After the Swedish government refused to honor Solzhenitsyn with a public award ceremony and lecture at its Moscow embassy, Solzhenitsyn refused the award altogether, commenting that the conditions set by the Swedes (who preferred a private ceremony) were "an insult to the Nobel Prize itself." Solzhenitsyn did not accept the award, and prize money, until 10 December 1974, after he was deported from the Soviet Union.^[39]

In 1974 Graham Greene, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow were considered but rejected in favor of a joint award for Swedish authors Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson, both Nobel judges themselves, and unknown outside their home country. Bellow would win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976; neither Greene nor Nabokov was awarded the Prize.^[40]

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges was nominated for the Prize several times but, as Edwin Williamson, Borges's biographer, states, the Academy did not award it to him, most likely because of his support of certain Argentine and Chilean right-wing military dictators, including Pinochet, which, according to Tóibín's review of Williamson's Borges: A Life, had complex social and personal contexts.^[41] Borges' failure to win the Nobel Prize for his support of these right-wing dictators contrasts with the Committee honoring writers who openly supported controversial left-wing dictatorships, including Joseph Stalin, in the case of Sartre and Neruda.^[42][43]

The award to Italian performance artist Dario Fo in 1997 was initially considered "rather lightweight"^[44] by some critics, as he was seen primarily as a performer and Catholic organizations saw the award to Dario Fo as controversial as he had previously been censured by the Roman Catholic Church.^[45] The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano expressed surprise at Fo's selection for the prize commenting that "Giving the prize to someone who is also the author of questionable works is beyond all imagination."^[46] Salman Rushdie and Arthur Miller had been strongly favoured to receive the Prize, but the Nobel organisers were later quoted as saying that they would have been "too predictable, too popular."^[47]

Camilo José Cela willingly offered his services as an informer for Franco's regime and had moved voluntarily from Madrid to Galicia during the Spanish Civil War in order to join the rebel forces there; an article by Miguel Angel Villena, Between Fear and Impunity which compiled commentaries by Spanish novelists on the noteworthy silence of the older generation of Spanish novelists on the Francoist pasts of public intellectuals appeared below a photograph of Cela during the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm in 1989. ^[48]

There was also criticism of the academy's refusal to express support for Salman Rushdie in 1989, after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be killed. Two members of the Academy even resigned over its refusal to support Rushdie.^[49][50]

The choice of the 2004 winner, Elfriede Jelinek, was protested by a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund, who had not played an active role in the Academy since 1996; Ahnlund resigned, alleging that selecting Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage" to the reputation of the award.^[49][50]

The selection of Harold Pinter for the Prize in 2005 was delayed for a couple of days, apparently due to Ahnlund's resignation, and led to renewed speculations about there being a "political element" in the Swedish Academy's awarding of the Prize.^[6] Although Pinter was unable to give his controversial Nobel Lecture in person because of ill health, he delivered it from a television studio on video projected on screens to an audience at the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm. His comments have been the source of much commentary and debate. The issue of their "political stance" was also raised in response to the awards of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Orhan Pamuk and Doris Lessing in 2006 and 2007, respectively.^[51]

Eurocentrism[link]

The heavy focus on European authors, and authors from Sweden in particular, has been the subject of mounting criticism, even from major Swedish newspapers.^[52] The absolute majority of the laureates have been European, with Sweden itself receiving more prizes than all of Asia, as well as all of Latin America. In 2008, Horace Engdahl, then the permanent secretary of the Academy, declared that "Europe still is the center of the literary world" and that "the US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature."^[53] In 2009, Engdahl's replacement, Peter Englund, rejected this sentiment ("In most language areas ... there are authors that really deserve and could get the Nobel Prize and that goes for the United States and the Americas, as well") and acknowledged the Eurocentric nature of the award, saying that, "I think that is a problem. We tend to relate more easily to literature written in Europe and in the European tradition."^[54] American critics in particular have objected that famous American authors such as Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo or Thomas Pynchon have not yet been awarded, while lesser-known European authors have been taken into account. The 2009 award to Herta Müller, previously little-known outside (and even inside) Germany but many times named favorite for the Nobel Prize, has re-ignited criticism that the award committee is biased and Eurocentric.^[55] However, the 2010 prize was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa, a native of Peru in South America. After the 2011 award was awarded to Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund said it was not awarded based on politics, describing such a notion as “literature for dummies”.^[56]

Overlooked literary achievements[link]

In the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature, many literary achievements were overlooked or not recognized as such, often for political reasons, due to the lack of available translations, and ethnocentric bias. The literary historian Kjell Espmark admitted that "as to the early prizes, the censure of bad choices and blatant omissions is often justified. Tolstoy, Ibsen and Henry James should have been rewarded instead of, for instance, Sully Prudhomme, Eucken and Heyse"^[57]. While controversy sparked by blatant omissions is understandable, there are omissions which are beyond the control of the Nobel Committee such as the early death of an author as was the case with Marcel Proust and Roberto Bolaño. According to Kjell Espmark "the main works of Kafka, Cavafy, and Pessoa were not published until after their deaths and the true dimensions of Mandelstam's poetry were revealed above all in the unpublished poems that his wife saved from extinction and gave to the world long after he had perished in his Siberian exile"^[58]. British novelist Tim Parks ascribed the never-ending controversy surrounding the decisions of the Nobel Committee to the "essential silliness of the prize and our own foolishness at taking it seriously"^[59] and noted that "eighteen (or sixteen) Swedish nationals will have a certain credibility when weighing up works of Swedish literature, but what group could ever really get its mind round the infinitely varied work of scores of different traditions. And why should we ask them to do that?"^[60]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (May 2012)

List of notable and controversial omissions:

1. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903, English), nominated 1 time^[61]
2. Jules Verne (1828-1905, French)^[62], not nominated
3. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906, Norwegian)^[63], nominated 3 times^[64]
4. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910, Russian)^[65], nominated 17 times^[66]
5. Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908, German)^[67], not nominated
6. Mark Twain (1835-1910, American)^[68][69], not nominated
7. Machado de Assis (1839-1908, Brazilian), not nominated
8. Émile Zola (1840-1902, French), nominated 2 times by Marcellin Berthelot^[70]
9. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928, English), nominated 16 times^[71]
10. Henry James (1843-1916, American-British), nominated 4 times^[72]
11. Kurd Laßwitz (1848-1910, German), not nominated
12. Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917, French), not nominated
13. August Strindberg (1849-1912, Swedish), not nominated
14. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939, Austrian)^[73], nominated 1 time by Romain Rolland in 1936^[74]
15. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924, Polish-English), not nominated
16. John Dewey (1859-1952, American), nominated 1 time^[75]
17. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904, Russian), not nominated
18. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904, Austro-Hungarian-Jewish), not nominated
19. Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931, Austrian), not nominated
20. Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933, Greek), not nominated
21. George Santayana (1863-1952, Spanish-American), nominated 2 times^[76]
22. Frank Wedekind (1864-1918, German), not nominated
23. Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936, Spanish), nominated 5 times^[77]
24. H. G. Wells (1866-1946, English)^[78], nominated 4 times^[79]
25. Rubén Darío (1867-1916, Nicaraguan)^[80], not nominated
26. Maxim Gorky (1868-1936, Russian), nominated 5 times^[81]
27. Marcel Proust (1871-1922, French), not nominated
28. Paul Valéry (1871-1945, French), nominated 27 times^[82]
29. Willa Cather (1873-1947, American), not nominated
30. Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929, Austrian), nominated 4 times^[83]
31. Robert Frost (1874-1963, American), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[84]
32. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926, Bohemian-Austrian), not nominated
33. Antonio Machado^[85] (1875-1939, Spanish), not nominated
34. Júlio Dantas (1876-1962, Portuguese), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[86]
35. Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877-1952, Portuguese), nominated 5 times (until 1950)^[87]
36. Martin Buber (1878-1965, Austrian-Israeli), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[88]
37. António Correia de Oliveira (1879-1960, Portuguese), nominated 15 times (until 1950)^[89]
38. E.M. Forster (1879-1970, English), nominated 3 times (until 1950)^[90]
39. Robert Musil (1880-1942, Austrian), not nominated
40. Lu Xun (1881-1936, Chinese), not nominated
41. Stefan Zweig (1881-1942, Austrian), not nominated
42. James Joyce (1882-1941, Irish), not nominated
43. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941, English), not nominated
44. Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923, Czech), not nominated
45. Franz Kafka (1883-1924, Austrian-Hungarian), not nominated
46. José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955, Spanish), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[91]
47. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957, Greek), nominated 2 times (until 1950)^[92]
48. Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937, Russian), not nominated
49. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930, English), not nominated
50. Karen Blixen (1885-1962, Danish), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[93]
51. Ezra Pound (1885-1972, American), not nominated (until 1950)
52. Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950, British), not nominated
53. Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935, Portuguese), not nominated
54. Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970, Italian), not nominated (until 1950)
55. Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966, Russian), not nominated (until 1950)
56. Karel Čapek (1890-1938, Czech), nominated 7 times^[94]
57. Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938, Russian), not nominated
58. Henry Miller (1891-1980, American), not nominated (until 1950)
59. J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973, English), not nominated (until 1950)
60. Hans Fallada (1893-1947, German), nominated 2 times^[95]
61. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963, English), nominated 2 times (until 1950)^[96]
62. Lin Yutang (1895-1976, Chinese), nominated 3 times (until 1950)^[97]
63. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940, American), not nominated
64. Mao Dun (1896-1981, Chinese), not nominated (until 1950)
65. Federico García Lorca (1898-1936, Spanish), not nominated
66. Bertold Brecht (1898-1956, German), not nominated (until 1950)
67. Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970, German), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[98]
68. Lao She (1899-1966, Chinese), not nominated (until 1950)
69. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977, Russian), not nominated (until 1950)
70. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986, Argentine), not nominated (until 1950)
71. André Malraux (1901-1976, French), nominated 3 times (until 1950)^[99]
72. Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
73. George Orwell (1903-1950, English), not nominated
74. Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966, English), not nominated (until 1950)
75. Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969, Polish), not nominated (until 1950)
76. Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980, Cuban), not nominated (until 1950)
77. Graham Greene (1904-1991, English), nominated 2 times (until 1950)
78. Ba Jin (1904-2005, Chinese), not nominated (until 1950)
79. Érico Veríssimo (1905-1975, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
80. R. K. Narayan (1906-2001, Indian)^[100], not nominated (until 1950)
81. W. H. Auden (1907-1973, British-American), not nominated (until 1950)
82. Alberto Moravia (1907-1990, Italian), nominated 1 time (until 1950)^[101]
83. Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991, Japanese), not nominated (until 1950)
84. Miguel Torga (1907-1995, Portuguese), not nominated (until 1950)
85. João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
86. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986, French), not nominated (until 1950)
87. Eugène Ionesco (1909-1994, Romanian-French), not nominated (until 1950)
88. Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994, Uruguayan)^[102], not nominated (until 1950)
89. Jean Genet (1910-1986, French), not nominated (until 1950)
90. Max Frisch (1911-1991, Swiss), not nominated (until 1950)
91. Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
92. Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990, British), not nominated (until 1950)
93. Jorge Amado (1912-2001, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
94. Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
95. Julio Cortázar (1914-1984, Argentine), not nominated (until 1950)
96. Arthur Miller (1915-2005, American), not nominated (until 1950)
97. Vergílio Ferreira (1916-1996, Portuguese), not nominated (until 1950)
98. Iris Murdoch (1919-1999, Irish-British)^[103], not nominated (until 1950)
99. Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919-2004, Portuguese), not nominated (until 1950)
100. Paul Celan (1920-1970, Romanian-French), not nominated (until 1950)
101. Clarice Lispector (1920-1977, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
102. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992, American), not nominated (until 1950)
103. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990, Swiss), not nominated (until 1950)
104. João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-1999, Brazilian), not nominated (until 1950)
105. Stanisław Lem (1921-2006, Polish), not nominated (until 1950)
106. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007, American), not nominated (until 1950)
107. Italo Calvino (1923-1985, Italian), not nominated (until 1950)
108. James Baldwin (1924-1987, American), not nominated (until 1950)
109. Kōbō Abe (1924-1993, Japanese), not nominated (until 1950)
110. Josef Škvorecký (1924-2012, Czech), not nominated (until 1950)
111. Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006, Indonesian), not nominated (until 1950)
112. Yukio Mishima (1925-1970, Japanese), not nominated (until 1950)
113. Harry Mulisch (1927-2010, Dutch), not nominated (until 1950)
114. Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012, Mexican), not nominated (until 1950)
115. Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929-2005, Cuban), not nominated (until 1950)
116. Christa Wolf (1929-2011, German)^[104], not nominated (until 1950)
117. Jacques Derrida (1930-2004, French)^[105], not nominated (until 1950)
118. Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989, Austrian), not nominated (until 1950)
119. Mordecai Richler (1931-2001, Canadian)^[106], not nominated (until 1950)
120. Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007, Polish), not nominated (until 1950)
121. John Updike (1932-2009, American)^[107] , not nominated (until 1950)
122. Inger Christensen (1935-2009, Danish)^[108]
123. Václav Havel (1936-2011, Czech)^[109]
124. Antonio Tabucchi (1943-2012, Italian)^[110]
125. W. G. Sebald (1944-2001, German)^[111]
126. Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003, Chilean)^[112]

Similar international prizes[link]

The Nobel Prize in Literature is not the only literary prize for which all nationalities are eligible. Other notable international literary prizes include the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Man Booker International Prize. In contrary to the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Franz Kafka Prize, the Neustadt International Prize and Man Booker International Prize are awarded bienially. The journalist Hephzibah Anderson has noted that the Man Booker International Prize "is fast becoming the more significant award, appearing an ever more competent alternative to the Nobel"^[113]. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is regarded as one of the most prestigious international literary prizes, often referred to as the American equivalent to the Nobel^[114].

• Neustadt International Prize for Literature (since 1970, biennial)
• Franz Kafka Prize (since 2001, annual)
• Man Booker International Prize (since 2005, biennial)

Nobel and Neustadt Laureates Comparison[link]

The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is widely considered to be the most prestigious international literary prize after the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[115] Like the Nobel or the Man Booker International Prize, it is awarded not for any one work, but for an entire body of work. It is frequently seen as an indicator of who may be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Gabriel García Márquez (1972 Neustadt, 1982 Nobel), Czesław Miłosz (1978 Neustadt, 1980 Nobel), Octavio Paz (1982 Neustadt, 1990 Nobel), Tomas Tranströmer (1990 Neustadt, 2011 Nobel) were first awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature before being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Potential candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature[link]

This article may contain unsourced predictions, speculative material or accounts of events that might not occur. Please help improve it by removing unsourced speculative content. (May 2012)

Potential winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature are difficult to predict as nominations are kept secret for fifty years until they are publicly available at the The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Currently, only nominations submitted during the years 1901 and 1950 are available for public viewing^[116]. This secrecy has led to speculations about the next Nobel laureate. The following is a list of well-known and lesser known writers whose literary work has generated enough verifiable media attention in journals, newspapers and the blogosphere to be potential future Nobel Prize winners.

Born between 1910-1919[link]

1. Nicanor Parra (born September 5, 1914, Chilean)^[117]

Born between 1920-1929[link]

1. Ray Bradbury (born August 22, 1920, American)^[118]
2. Lygia Fagundes Telles (born April 19, 1923, Brazilian), Camões Prize 2005
3. Yves Bonnefoy (born June 24, 1923, French)^[119], Franz Kafka Prize 2007
4. Álvaro Mutis (born August 25, 1923, Colombian)^[120][121], Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2002
5. Yaşar Kemal (born October 6, 1923, Turkish)
6. Claribel Alegría (born May 12, 1924, Nicaraguan), Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2006
7. Michel Tournier (born December 19, 1924, French)
8. Siegfried Lenz (born March 17, 1926, German)
9. John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927, American)
10. Milan Kundera (born April 1, 1929, Czech-French)
11. George Steiner (born April 23, 1929, French-American)
12. Ursula K. Le Guin (born October 21, 1929, American)
13. Adunis (born January 1, 1930, Syrian)^[122]

Born between 1930-1939[link]

1. Ferreira Gullar (born September 10, 1930, Brazilian)^[123], Camões Prize 2010
2. Chinua Achebe (born November 16, 1930, Nigerian), Man Booker International Prize 2007
3. E. L. Doctorow (born January 6, 1931, American)
4. Tom Wolfe (born March 2, 1931, American)
5. Gene Wolfe (born May 7, 1931, American)
6. Alice Munro (born July 10, 1931, Canadian)^[124], Man Booker International Prize 2009
7. Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932, Italian)
8. Juan Marsé (born January 8, 1933, Spanish)^[125]
9. Philip Roth (born March 19, 1933, American), Franz Kafka Prize 2001, Man Booker International Prize 2011
10. Cormac McCarthy (born July 20, 1933, American)
11. Cees Nooteboom (born July 31, 1933, Dutch)
12. Ko Un (born August 1, 1933, South Korean)
13. David Malouf (born March 20, 1934, Australian), Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2000
14. Leonard Cohen (born September 21, 1934, Canadian)^[126]
15. Thomas Keneally (born October 7, 1935, Australian)
16. Ismail Kadare (born January 28, 1936, Albanian), Man Booker International Prize 2005
17. Assia Djebar (born June 30, 1936, Algerian), Neustadt International Prize for Literature 1996
18. Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936, American)
19. A. B. Yehoshua (born December 19, 1936, Israeli)
20. Thomas Pynchon (born May 8, 1937, American)
21. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (born January 5, 1938, Kenyan)
22. Charles Simic (born May 9, 1938, Serbian-American)
23. Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938, American)
24. Les Murray (born October 17, 1938, Australian)
25. Claudio Magris (born April 10, 1939, Italian)
26. Amos Oz (born May 4, 1939, Israeli)
27. Margaret Atwood (born November 18, 1939, Canadian)

Born between 1940-1949[link]

1. João Ubaldo Ribeiro (born January 23, 1941, Brazilian), Camões Prize 2008
2. Bob Dylan (born May 24, 1941, American)^[127]
3. António Lobo Antunes (born September 1, 1942, Portuguese), Camões Prize 2007
4. Péter Nádas (born October 14, 1942, Hungarian), Franz Kafka Prize 2003
5. Peter Handke (born December 6, 1942, Austrian), Franz Kafka Prize 2009
6. Peter Carey (born May 7, 1943, Australian)
7. Michael Ondaatje (born September 12, 1943, Sri Lankan-Canadian)
8. Bernhard Schlink (born July 6, 1944, German)
9. Tahar Ben Jelloun (born December 1, 1944, Moroccan)
10. Adam Zagajewski (born June 21, 1945, Polish), Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2004
11. Patrick Modiano (born July 30, 1945, French)
12. Nuruddin Farah (born November 24, 1945, Somali), Neustadt International Prize for Literature 1998
13. John Banville (born December 8, 1945, Irish)^{[128][129][130]}, Franz Kafka Prize 2011
14. Paul Auster (born February 3, 1947, American)
15. Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947, British-Indian)
16. Ian McEwan (born June 21, 1948, British)
17. Haruki Murakami (born January 12, 1949, Japanese), Franz Kafka Prize 2006
18. César Aira (born February 23, 1949, Argentine)^[131]
19. Amin Maalouf (born February 25, 1949, Lebanese-French)
20. Patrick Süskind (born March 26, 1949, German)
21. Bei Dao (born August 2, 1949, Chinese)^[132][133]

Born between 1950-1959[link]

1. Péter Esterházy (born April 14, 1950, Hungarian)^[134]
2. Javier Marías (born September 20, 1951, Spanish)^[135]
3. Mo Yan (born February 17, 1955, Chinese)^[136]

See also[link]

• List of literary awards
• List of Nobel laureates
• List of Nobel laureates in Literature
• Nobel Library
• Swedish Academy Nordic Prize

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nobel Prize in Literature

• "All Nobel Laureates in Literature" – Index page on the official site of the Nobel Foundation.
• "Complete List of Nobel Laureates in Literature"
• "The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies" – Official hyperlinked webpage of the Nobel Foundation.
• "The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature" – Official webpage of the Nobel Foundation.
• Read the Nobels - a collaborative Litblog featuring reviews of individual books by Nobel Laureates.
• Graphics: National Literature Nobel Prize shares 1901-2009 by citizenship at the time of the award and by country of birth. From J. Schmidhuber (2010), Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century at arXiv:1009.2634v1
• "The Nobel Prize Medals and the Medal for the Prize in Economics" – By Birgitta Lemmel; an article on the history of the design of the medals featured on the official site.
• "What the Nobel Laureates Receive" – Featured link in "The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies" on the official site of the Nobel Foundation.
• "How the Academy Rejected the Women" - Article (in Swedish, based on documents in the Nobel Archive) about the women writers, that were nominated from 1901 to 1950/1959 (due to secrecy rules, 50 years); in all, 44 women writers were nominated 124 times, among whom only five were awarded the prize (Lagerlöf 1909, Deledda 1926, Undset 1928, Buck 1938, Mistral 1945).
• "The Translator Puts Stamp on the Nobel Prize" - Article (in Swedish, based on documents in the Nobel Archive) about the 'translation-problem' in the context of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• "The rise of the Prize" - Article by Nilanjana S. Roy dealing with the history of the award by decade, from the 1900s to the 2000s.

The Nobel family

Members Immanuel Nobel Robert Nobel Alfred Nobel Ludvig Nobel Emanuel Nobel Claes Nobel Peter Nobel Gustaf Nobel Marta Helena Nobel-Oleinikoff Michael Nobel

Companies Nobel Fils Branobel Dynamit Nobel KemaNord

Prizes Nobel Prize in Chemistry Nobel Prize in Literature Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Prize in Physics Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Michael Nobel Energy Award

Institutions Nobel Foundation Nobel Family Society Nobel Charitable Trust

v t e

The Nobel Prize (Swedish pronunciation: [noˈbɛl], Swedish definite form, singular: Nobelpriset, Norwegian: Nobelprisen) is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901.^[1]

The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and economics.^[2]

In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank instituted an award that is often associated with the Nobel prizes, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The first such prize was awarded in 1969. Although it is not an official Nobel Prize, its announcements and presentations are made along with the other prizes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by a Swedish organisation but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money which depends on the Nobel Foundation's income that year. In 2011, each prize was worth kr10 million (c. US$1.46 million, €1.16 million). The prize is not awarded posthumously; however, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize may still be presented."^[3] A prize may not be shared among more than three people. The average number of laureates per prize has increased substantially over the 20th century.^[4]

History[link]

Alfred Nobel had the unpleasant surprise of reading his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper.

Alfred Nobel ( listen (help·info)) was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers.^[5] He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894 Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a major armaments manufacturer. Nobel also invented ballistite, a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. Nobel was even involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime. Most of his wealth was from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous.^[6]

In 1888, Alfred was astonished to read his own obituary, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will.^[7] On 10 December 1896 Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy, from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 63 years old.^[8]

To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature.^[9] Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. The last was written over a year before he died, signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.^[10][11] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes.^[12] Because of scepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that it was approved by the Storting in Norway.^[13] The executors of Nobel's will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organise the award of prizes.^[14]

Nobel's instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize, the members of whom were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were established. These were the Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June.^[15] The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded, and in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly-created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II.^[9] In 1905, the Union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved. Thereafter Norway's Nobel Committee was responsible for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize and the Swedish institutions retained responsibility for the other prizes.^[13]

Nobel Foundation[link]

Alfred Nobel's will stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900, to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes.^[16] In accordance with Nobel's will, the primary task of the Foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Robert and Ludwig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan and according to Swedish historian E. Bargengren, who accessed the Nobel family archives, it was this "decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established".^[17] Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The Foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates.^[18][19] In many ways the Nobel Foundation is similar to an investment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953).^[20] Since the 1980s, the Foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor (c. US$560 million).^[21]

According to the statutes, the Foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The Chairman of the Board is appointed by the Swedish King in Council, with the other four members appointed by the trustees of the prize-awarding institutions. An Executive Director is chosen from among the board members, a Deputy Director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the trustees. However, since 1995 all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the Executive Director and the Deputy Director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, and auditors.^[21]

First prizes[link]

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the first Physics Prize for his discovery of X-rays.

Once the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions. Originally, the Norwegian Nobel Committee appointed prominent figures including Jørgen Løvland, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Johannes Steen to give the Nobel Peace Prize credibility.^[22] The committee awarded the Peace Prize to two prominent figures in the growing peace movement around the end of the 19th century: Frédéric Passy was co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Henry Dunant was founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross.^[23][24][25]

The Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize.^[26][27] In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy "was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize."^[28] The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van't Hoff.^[29] Van't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics.^[30][31]

The Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo Tolstoy to win.^[32] Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred Victorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet.^[33] The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year.^[34][35]

World War II[link]

In 1938 and 1939, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (Richard Kuhn, Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes.^[36] Each man was later able to receive the diploma and medal.^[37] Even though Sweden was officially neutral during World War II, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940–42, due to the occupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace.^[38]

During the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Nazis when the Nobel Foundation stated that the Committee building in Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden.^[39] These members kept the work of the Committee going but did not award any prizes. In 1944 the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.^[36]

Map of Nobel laureates by country.

Prize in Economic Sciences[link]

In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation to be used to set up a prize in honor of Nobel. The following year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch "for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes."^[40][41] Although not a Nobel Prize, it is intimately identified with the other awards; the laureates are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients, and the Prize in Economic Sciences is presented at the Swedish Nobel Prize Award Ceremony.^[42] The Board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes.^[43]

Award process[link]

The award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes; the main difference is in who can make nominations for each of them.^[44]

The announcement of the laureates in Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 by Gunnar Öquist, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

2009 Nobel Prize in Literature announcement by Peter Englund in Swedish, English and German

Nominations[link]

Nomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are often academics working in a relevant area. For the Peace Prize, inquiries are sent to governments, members of international courts, professors and rectors, former Peace Prize laureates and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award.^[44][45] The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names.^[46] The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.^[47][48]

Selection[link]

The Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions.^[49] The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote.^[50] A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals.^[51] If the Peace Prize is not awarded, the money is split among the scientific prizes. This has happened 19 times so far.^[52]

Posthumous nominations[link]

Although posthumous nominations are not permitted, individuals who die in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, William Vickrey, who died after the prize was announced but before it could be presented.^[53] On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier. The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously.^[3] The committee later decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize "was made in good faith," it would remain unchanged.^[54]

Recognition time lag[link]

Nobel's will provides for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made "during the preceding year". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries.^[55] However, some of these early discoveries were later discredited. For example, Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer.^[56] To avoid this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time.^[57][58][59] According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, "the criterion ‘the previous year’ is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident."^[58]

The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

The interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement.^[60][61] The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example 2008 laureate Martti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts.^[62][63] However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events.^[64] For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations.^[65] Similarly Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the Oslo Accords.^[66]

Although Nobel's will stated that prizes should be awarded for contributions made "during the preceding year", awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution.^[67][68] Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died.^[69][70][71]

Award ceremonies[link]

Left: Barack Obama after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall from the hands of Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland; Right: Giovanni Jona-Lasinio presenting Yoichiro Nambu's Nobel Lecture at Aula Magna, Stockholm in 2008

Except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events.^[72][73] The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies' are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately at Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at the auditorium of the University of Oslo (1947–1989) and at Oslo City Hall (1990–present).^[74]

The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel Laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway.^[73][75] At first King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners. It is said that his mind changed once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.^[76]

Nobel banquet[link]

Table at the 2005 Nobel Banquet in Stockholm

After the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held at the Stockholm City Hall, which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests. The banquet features a three-course dinner, entertainment and dancing and is extensively covered by local and international^{[says who?]} media. Before 1930, the banquet in Sweden was held in the ballroom of Stockholm's Grand Hotel.^[74]

The Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Oslo at the Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the President of the Storting, the Prime Minister and (since 2006) the King and Queen of Norway. In total about 250 guests attend for a five-course meal.^[77] For the first time in its history, the banquet was cancelled in Oslo in 1979 because the laureate Mother Teresa refused to attend, saying the money would be better spent on the poor. Mother Teresa used the US$7,000 that was to be spent on the banquet to hold a dinner for 2,000 homeless people on Christmas Day.^[78][79]

Nobel lecture[link]

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize.^[80][81] The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format.^[82] These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize. Some have happened even later. For example, US president Theodore Roosevelt won the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office.^[83] The lectures are organized by the same association which selected the laureates.^[84]

Prizes[link]

Medals[link]

The Nobel Prize medals, minted by Myntverket in Sweden and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation.^[85] Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal.^[86] The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.^[87]

Laureates receive a heavily decorated diploma together with a gold medal and the prize money. Here Fritz Haber's diploma is shown, which he received for the development of a method to synthesise ammonia.

All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Since then they have been struck in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 grams (0.39 lb) for each medal. The diameter is 66 millimetres (2.6 in) and the thickness varies between 5.2 millimetres (0.20 in) and 2.4 millimetres (0.094 in).^[88] Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft.^[89][90][91] During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, chemist George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia, to prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast.^[92]

Diplomas[link]

Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden or the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them.^[86] The diploma contains a picture and text which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas.^[93][94]

Award money[link]

The laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded.^[86] The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880 000 SEK (c. 2.6 million SEK, US$350 000 or €295,000 today). In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million, €950,000).^[95][96] If there are two laureates in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.^[97][98][99] It is not uncommon for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes.^[100][101]

Controversies and criticisms[link]

Controversial recipients[link]

Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of Eurocentrism, especially for the Literature Prize.^{[102][103][104]}

When it was announced that Henry Kissinger was to be awarded the Peace Prize two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.

Peace Prize

Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Ðức Thọ. Lê Ðức Thọ later declined the prize.^[105] This led to two Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigning. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.^[106] Many critics were of the opinion that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite; responsible for widening the war.^[47][107]

Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.^[47][108] However, many issues, such as the plight of Palestinian refugees, had not been addressed on the negotiations,^[109] and no final status agreement was reached.^[110] Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.^[111] Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.^[112]

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009.^[113] Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President, but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.^[52] Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award,^[114][115] or worthy of the company it would place him in.^[116] Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not yet earned it. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, also prompted accusations of a left-wing bias.^[117]

Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art." He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure."^[118][119] The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to The Washington Post many US literary critics and professors had never previously heard of her.^[120] This made many feel that the prizes were too Eurocentric.^[121]

Science prizes

In 1949, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy. The previous year Dr. Walter Freeman had developed a version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern medical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications as The New England Journal of Medicine, leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.^[122][123]

Overlooked achievements[link]

The Norwegian Nobel Committee declined to award a prize in 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate."

James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of the Literature Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937–39, 1947 and a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948.^[124] Later members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed regret that he was not given the prize.^[125] Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106 year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize. Whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".^[126] In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year.^[125][127] Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi."^[128] Other high profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been missed out. Foreign Policy lists Eleanor Roosevelt, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sari Nusseibeh and Corazon Aquino as people who "never won the prize, but should have."^[129]

The Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. Adam Kirsch has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism.^[130][131] The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by Peter Englund, the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors.^[132] Notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize include Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Émile Zola, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Chinua Achebe and Mark Twain.^[133]

The strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial.^[134] When a prize is awarded to recognize an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an award that did not recognize the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.^[135][136] Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. In 1962, Francis Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, a key contributor in that discovery, died of ovarian cancer four years earlier.^[137] Lise Meitner, a physicist who co-discovered nuclear fission along with Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, was also denied the award^{[says who?]} due to having to flee Germany when the Nazis came to power. Her role in the research was not fully understood until years later, when the team was awarded the U.S.'s Enrico Fermi Award.

Emphasis on discoveries over inventions[link]

Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given "to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics." Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in Nature and Technoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society.^[138][139]

Specially distinguished laureates[link]

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, one of four people who have received the Nobel Prize twice (Physics and Chemistry)

Multiple laureates[link]

Four people have received two Nobel Prizes. Maria Skłodowska-Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure radium,^[140] making her the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Linus Pauling won the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the chemical bond and its application to the structure of complex substances. Pauling also won the Peace Prize in 1962 for his anti-nuclear activism, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the transistor and in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity.^[141] Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA.^[142][143]