The Nobel Prize: 1965 Nominations

Hello Gentle Reader

The year was nineteen-sixty five, and that year’s Nobel Laureate for Literature was Mikhail Sholokhov, from the then Soviet Union. The award was controversial. Back in nineteen-fifty eight Sholokhov was one of the many Russian writers to condemn Boris Pasternak, the Russian writer who ‘voluntarily,’ declined his own Nobel; Sholokhov however accepted his own. Despite this though, the committee voted unanimously in to award the Prize to Sholokhov; though it did dissent, and considered in discussion of giving the joint award to both Mikhail Sholokhov, as well as to the Soul of the Silver Age of Russian literature, the poet Anna Akhmatova; but this was shot down by the Swedish Academy’s committee chairman Anders Österling, who argued: the only two things the writers had in common with one another, was their language. It should also be noted that Anders Österling was the most adamant supporter of Sholokhov, and perhaps lobbied for the award to be given to him; despite his own sympathies and luxurious treatment showering him, by the Soviet government and the Soviet Writers Association.

But Mikhail Sholokhov had competition: W.H. Auden, Samuel Beckett (who would later go on and become a laureate four years later, in nineteen-sixty nine), W. Somerset Maugham, but also Jorge Luis Borges, and Vladimir Nabokov; as well as Pablo Neruda (who would later go on and receive the award in nineteen-seventy one).

Sholokhov faced criticism of his own though. The Nobel Laureate in Literature of nineteen-seventy, the Russian dissident writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn accused Sholokhov, along with a small group of writers; of plagiarising his most famous novel “And Quiet Flows the Don,” from a manuscript of another writer: Fyodor Kryukov. Sholokhov not surprising denied the claims; “And Quiet Flows the Don,” remained one of the greatest examples of Socialist Realism in Soviet Russia, and found particular success during the reign of Stalin.

The year nineteen-sixty five was a year, where the discussion of sharing the award was brought up quite a bit. There was a discussion of sharing the year’s prize between the Guatemalan poet, novelist, essayist, and diplomat:  Miguel Ángel Asturias; along with the Argentinean librarian writer Jorge Luis Borges.  There was also discussion the year could have been shared between Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs. Both of these proposals were dismissed by Anders Österling; though Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs would share the award in nineteen-sixty six, and Miguel Ángel Asturias would receive the award solely in nineteen-sixty seven. Borges on the other hand, never received the award, and was much tortured over the fact, that he never received the award; going so far as to call it a “Scandinavian tradition.”  

There we have it Gentle Reader, the Nominations for the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen-sixty five. As the years progress, the archives open more and more become more and more interesting.

Thank-you to “The Guardian: Books,” for providing the insight and information.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/06/borges-auden-nabokov-neruda-nobel-prize-literature-1965

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

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Stay Well Read

M. Mary