Hello
Gentle Reader
It
is famously noted that the Nobel Prizes are veiled in secrecy, thanks to Alfred
Nobel’s wills and its enclosed statues, with one of those statues being: the
nominations of each year’s prize must be kept secret for fifty years. Fifty
years prior the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen-sixty seven was awarded
to the Guatemalan writer and diplomat: Miguel Ángel Asturias.
Miguel
Ángel Asturias is perhaps most famous for being a ‘forgotten laureate.’
Whenever journalists, critics, and bloggers create shadow lists and
alternatives to previous Nobel Laureates, Jorge Luis Borges is considered the
alternative to Miguel Ángel Asturias. In the spirit of fairness, Jorge Luis
Borges had weathered the sands of time and history far better than Miguel Ángel
Asturias. In that regard the famous apothegm is applied to the Swedish
Academy’s decisions: sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they get it
wrong. In the case of Miguel Ángel Asturias (among other early Nobel Laureates)
the Academy’s decision did not weather the seas of time and age well.
1967
proved to be another year of debate within the Swedish Academy and its Nobel
Committee. Anders Österling chairman of the Nobel Committee had presented the
following writers as the candidates for the year’s Nobel Prize for Literature:
Graham
Greene
Yasunari
Kawabata
W.H.
Auden
The
above candidates were opposed by Eyvind Johnson, Henry Olsson and Erik
Lindegren, with support from Karl Ragnar Gierow, who instead offered the
following authors as candidates for the award:
Miguel
Ángel Asturias & Jorge Luis Borges
W.H.
Auden
Yasunari
Kawabata
During
the discussions of who the year’s winner would be, the Swedish Academy decided
to award Miguel Ángel Asturias solely, rather than split award between Miguel
Ángel Asturias and Jorge Luis Borges, on the grounds that they had split the
award prior in 1966 to Nelly Sachs and the forgotten Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
W.H
Auden would die six years later without receiving the award. Jorge Luis Borges
would die nineteen years later, without receiving the Nobel Prize, which
greatly distressed and annoyed the writer, who once remarked his omission had
become a Scandinavian Tradition. Graham Greene would die twenty-four years
later without receiving the award. Despite not receiving the Nobel Prize for
Literature, all three writers are considered giants and milestones in twentieth
century literature. While Yasunari Kawabata would go on to receive the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1968.
As
it stands the Nobel Prize website has not yet released the transcript of
conversations taken place within during this time. So I am unable to comment on
the debate and discussion which surrounded Miguel Ángel Asturias and his
eventual award. All the information which has already been provided is
fragmentary, and the best that I was capable of unearthing, at this time. However, we do have a list of nominees and
candidates and the list itself is particular unique.
The
most nominated writers for the award in 1967 were:
The
Spanish journalist, essayist, right wing intellectual (ironic), and poet: José
María Pemán with eight nominations
The
Irish playwright (and arguably the most famous English language playwright of
the 20th century), casual novelist and poet: Samuel Beckett, with
six nominations. It should also be noted Beckett had been nominated years prior
but was resisted by some members of the committee and academy, who viewed his works
as nihilist and not fitting into the ‘ideal,’ qualities and clauses of Alfred
Nobel’s instructions when awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature. He would
later go on to win in 1969.
The
Brazilian writer Jorge Amado and French novelist André Malraux, had five
nominations each.
The
Norwegian poet and novelist Tarjei Vesaas and the Dutch doctor, novelist and
essayist Simon Vestdijk, both had four nominations. It should also be noted, it
is recorded that Simon Vestdijk was nominated fifteen times for the Nobel Prize
for Literature.
The
Australian poet and environmental activist and aboriginal activist, Judith
Wright, also received four nominations.
1967
was also be the first year where two future Nobel Laureates were first
nominated: Saul Bellow and the now forgotten (and difficult) Claude Simon. Both
writes would win the award in 1976 and 1985.
The
Swedish Academy also reserves the right to nominate authors they view as worthy
candidates. The following list are members of the Swedish Academy and their
nominated writers:
Henry
Olsson nominated: Miguel Ángel Asturias and Jorge Luis Borges, Witold
Gombrowicz
Lars
Gyllensten nominated: Alejo Carpentier, Rómulo Gallegos
Karl
Ragnar Gierow nominated: Jean Genet, Graham Greene, and Eugene Ionesco
Erik
Lindegren nominated: György Lukács, Claude Simon
Gunnar
Ekelöf nominated: Carlos Drummond de Andrade
Harry
Martinson nominated: Yukio Mishima
Eyvind
Johnson nominated: Konstantin Paustovsky and Arnulf Øverland
It
is interesting to see members of the Swedish Academy’s nominations, and their
attempts at having a broad literary perspective ranging from poetry to prose,
but also locale and language. For example: Jorge Luis Borges and Alejo
Carpentier were considered great precursors to the eventual Latin American Boom
writers such as: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Gunnar Ekelöf
would nominate one of the most important Brazilian poets of twentieth century: Carlos
Drummond de Andrade, who would die twenty years later without receiving the
Nobel nod. Erik Lindegren nominated Claude Simon for the first time. The late
modernist French writer would later go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1985 at the
age of seventy-two.
Karl
Ragnar Gierow nomination of Jean Genet is strikingly unique. Jean Genet was a
controversial French writer, whose work explicitly dealt with homosexual
affairs, persecutions, and of course sex. He was a famous social activist
against the systematic persecution, prosecution and discrimination of
homosexual people, among other individuals and social groups deemed ‘deviant.’ Genet
may have spat and sparred with politicians and public opinion with his ideals
of egalitarianism, he would still be a shocking and controversial laureate if
taken seriously.
Harry
Martinson was noted for his appreciation and interest of Eastern cultures, and
in years prior he was known for championing Yasunari Kawabata as well as Yukio
Mishima as candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature. His nominations paid
off, as it appears that Martinson no longer felt required to champion and
nominate Yasunari Kawabata, who at this point was a well-known writer and
perennial candidate for the prize. On a
side note, it is often speculated and theorized that when Yasunari Kawabata won
the Nobel Prize, it was part of the reason his protégé, Yukio Mishima,
committed suicide.
Nelly
Sachs one of the Laureates from the year prior had nominated Samuel Beckett for
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967. It is not known at this time if Nelly
Sachs presented any rationale or reason behind the nomination. Perhaps though
the poet, who was also a casual playwright, had seen some of Beckett’s plays
staged, whereupon she was able to see past the superficial nihilist
presentations and appreciate the comedic elements of Beckett’s plays, where he
presented the absurdities of life and the individuals comedic attempts at
finding meaning and worth in an inherently deprived world.
An
interesting final note Gentle Reader, of the nominated writes for this year,
three writers are still alive who were originally nominated in 1967:
Ukrainian
poet: Lina Kostenko
German
poet: Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Ukrainian
poet and political activist: Ivan Drach
This
would be a bittersweet revelation for the above writers, or perhaps a unique
achievement to witness in their advanced years. The nomination of Lina Kostenko
was perhaps preemptive; when she was nominated she had just recently published
three collections of poetry and was thirty-seven years old. Kostenko found
immediate popularity with the Ukrainian reading public. Lina Kostenko would be
forced into silence and a publication ban, due to her refusal to cooperate with
the Soviet authorities and censorship of the time. Afterwards she only
published four further collections of poetry, a children’s book, as well as a ‘Selected
Works,’ publication in nineteen-eighty nine. In more recent memory Lina
Kostenko had published her debut novel in two-thousand and ten. Now at the age
of eighty-seven Lina Kostenko has recognition that she was nominated for the
Nobel Prize.
Hans
Magnus Enzensberger, was only thirty-eight when he was nominated for the Nobel
Prize for Literature, but since then he has become one of the most renowned
German language poets of his generation. Enzensberger is perhaps well renowned
for his poetry, but he is also known for his essays and political commentary,
as well as writing a libretto with Irene Disch. In two-thousand and nine he
received a special Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust, for his
excellence in poetry as a literary form. Hans Magnus Enzensberger is no
eighty-eight years old and the chances of a Nobel Prize for Literature now are
slim.
Ivan
Drach was the youngest writer to be nominated for the award in 1967 at the age
of thirty-one, and had only two collections of poetry to his name when he was
nominated. His final collection of poetry was published in nineteen-ninety
five. Since then Drach has been active in politics and the promotion of the Ukrainian
language.
The
above writers all have the unique perspective of knowing they were at one point
in time nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now though their chances
have certainly dwindled, due to age or a lack of relevant output.
At
this point my dear Gentle Reader, I have no information or idea why Miguel
Ángel Asturias became the successful writer to become the Nobel Laureate of the
time, only to fade into oblivion, irrelevance, and a mere passing footnote on
history, while other writers of the time such as Jorge Luis Borges have aged
well and successful fought off the same fate. I am also unsure why by Eyvind
Johnson, Henry Olsson and Erik Lindegren decided to omit Graham Greene from
their alternative list, and instead promoted Miguel Ángel Asturias and Jorge
Luis Borges. In time the Nobel Prize website will most likely update its
information, at which point hopefully I will be able to edit update this post
with further information in regards to the 1967 nominations and eventual
laureate.
Until
then Gentle Reader
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
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