Books News

1961 Nobel Jury snubbed Tolkien

By Anna Graizbord January 11, 2012

Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan has just revealed that the 1961 Nobel jury committee sort of acted like a bunch of Mean Girls. Apparently, they were not so fond of JRR Tolkien, despite being nominated for the prize by CS Lewis and the popularity of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. About Tolkien's Lord of the Rings work specifically, Anders Österling, apparently the Regina George of the committee, said that: "...the result has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality."

In case you think the snobbery was just limited to the Fantasy genre, the committee also passed on prestigious nominees Graham Greene, EM Forster, and Robert Frost-Forster and Frost being ruled out almost solely because of their advanced age. In case you're wondering, the winner of the prize that year was Yugoslavian novelist Ivo Andric, whose work largely dealt with life in Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire. At the very least, Tolkien fans can rest assured that any filmic trilogy adaptations of Andric's The Vizier's Elephant will not make it to the big screen any time soon.

 

TAGS: 1960s, authors, committee, fantasy, literature, Nobel prize, rivalry, Sweden,