Nobel Prize tarnished by sex, money and spite

You’d think that members of the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee would be dispassionate, unprejudiced people above the foibles and vices that beset the rest of us. But no! Sex, money and spite have undone the Literary Prize committee. Women members have forced each other out of office over one of their husband’s sexual misconduct and older conservative members don’t see eye to eye with young modernisers.

So many members have resigned that there are not enough of them to form a quorum. As a result, the committee has postponed the literature prize for 2018. Commentators claim that the rumpus is about confused old men who suddenly see the playing field shift under their feet.

The literature committee is no stranger to controversy as its decisions have often sparked ferocious debate.

The committee has been criticised for ignoring famous writers, for giving prizes to the undeserving, for political bias, for conflicts of interest, and for favouring European writers. In early days, Emile Zola, Mark Twain and Henrik Ibsen were rejected as the committee thought their writing was not lofty or idealistic enough. Ernest Hemingway: ‘‘Too light’. James Joyce: ‘‘Who’s he?’’.

For generations, famous American writer nominees were rejected as their work was dismissed as too insubstantial, too predictable or too popular. Other Americans were not considered because their wives had nominated them.

An early Swedish antipathy to Russia resulted in Tolstoy and Chekhov being denied prizes. It is said that Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize in 1970, not for his writing, but for his politics. Authors from politically neutral or left-leaning countries have got more than their share of prizes.

The committee has been charged with Eurocentrism. Swedes, for example, have won far more prizes than several deserving Asians. Nominees Vladimir Nabokov and Graham Greene were passed over in 1974, the prize going to two Swedes who were virtually unknown outside their country.

The current stoush is the most damaging in the prize’s 117-year history but will probably pale into insignificance when Kim Jong-Un, Donald Trump, or both, are awarded the Peace Prize next October. Watch this space.