The Nobel Prize has been accredited, in general terms, for its success in distinguishing great writers. A scrutiny of the minutes of the debates – secret for 50 years – brings to light, however, certain contradictions and curiosities.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
“Too exclusive”
In 1962, the Argentine was already evaluated, "without a doubt an original poet of thought" although "his work, of an evident chiaroscuro, does not support the intensity of a scrutinizing light. His speculative and extremely complicated literary genre places him in a peculiar category that has little to do with the intentions of the prize.” In 1967, Anders Osterling follows up on him: "It is too exclusive or artificial in its ingenious miniature art." In the 1970s, he also did not help his ambiguous political position in relation to some Latin American dictatorships.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
too french
In 1961, the jury found that the candidates Jean Anouilh and Simone de Beauvoir “meet the requirements required to deserve the Nobel Prize. However, both represent a linguistic area – French – which has so far dominated in terms of the number of laureates. We should look at places in the world that have not yet been decorated.
JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ
Spanish Final
In 1956, the decision was between two Spaniards, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Once again, reference is made to the need to reward "the vast Spanish linguistic field, which has been seriously neglected since 1922, when Benavente received the prize", which has generated "a growing discontent in Spain, quite understandable and which should not be neglected. ”. "Elder Pidal, considered the most important humanist in the Spanish world" has as a major obstacle that "what he writes is not strictly literature" but research. Finally, "the desire that the winner this year be a poet" prevails, exiled, against the one who was then director of the RAE.
EZRA POUND
A poet with “opposite” ideas
Candidate for several years, in 1959, after confirming that he had already left the asylum, the Nobel committee "maintains its reservations (...) about a poet who, on the one hand, strives to develop a very captivating and , on the other hand, continues to propagate ideas – the fascist ones – whose characteristics are diametrically at odds with the spirit of the Nobel”.
E.M.FORSTER /
RAMON MENENDEZ PIDAL
Rejected by old
The British author of A Passage to India or A Room with a View was rejected, in 1960, "because of his advanced age" (81 years old, then). He would live, however, another ten years. In 1961, it was said that "the candidacy of Ramón Menéndez Pidal should be definitively dismissed because of his advanced age" (in the case of the Spanish philologist, it was 92 years old... but he would die at 99). The criterion has been abandoned over time, as the jury has been rewarding more and more older people. In the last ten years, the majority of laureates are over 70. Tranströmer and Munro won it with 80 and 82, respectively.
