Ben Jackson
Well-known member
27 writers were nominated for this year's Nobel Literature Prize, which went to Ernest Hemingway. Among the writers shortlisted for the Nobel that year was Hemingway, Camus, Swiss writers Hans Carossa and Carl Jung and Laxness.
Hemingway's publication of Old Man and the Sea confirmed Hemingway's status as one of the leading writers of his generation, according to Committee's Chairman Per Hallstrom, who is known in the Academy as having a huge interest in American Literature. Camus was believed to be too young and was push aside due to the recent victory of his compatriot Francois Mauriac two years before, while Laxnesa was hailed as an accomplished observer of Iceland in works like Independent People and Great Weaver of Kashmir. Jung was dismissed for the usual lack of interest expressed in the Academy about giving the Nobel to non-fiction writers, while Carossa's works was reasoned as minor and not distinguished.
A New York Times article suggested that the committee was worried that Hemingway had perished in Kenya, and when news of him reached Sweden that he was alive, they wasted no more time and, with the acclaim Old Man and the Sea was receiving, it turned out as an opportunity to reward Hemingway the Nobel.
In as much as Hemingway's works has been viewed as possessing misogyny, at least since his death over sixty years ago, I still think he was deserving.
Hemingway's publication of Old Man and the Sea confirmed Hemingway's status as one of the leading writers of his generation, according to Committee's Chairman Per Hallstrom, who is known in the Academy as having a huge interest in American Literature. Camus was believed to be too young and was push aside due to the recent victory of his compatriot Francois Mauriac two years before, while Laxnesa was hailed as an accomplished observer of Iceland in works like Independent People and Great Weaver of Kashmir. Jung was dismissed for the usual lack of interest expressed in the Academy about giving the Nobel to non-fiction writers, while Carossa's works was reasoned as minor and not distinguished.
A New York Times article suggested that the committee was worried that Hemingway had perished in Kenya, and when news of him reached Sweden that he was alive, they wasted no more time and, with the acclaim Old Man and the Sea was receiving, it turned out as an opportunity to reward Hemingway the Nobel.
In as much as Hemingway's works has been viewed as possessing misogyny, at least since his death over sixty years ago, I still think he was deserving.