Image taken from Nobelprize.org If you haven't already heard the news, Kazuo Ishiguro is the latest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Congrats to him! If you have not read anything by this British author yet, I would highly recommend checking him out. I've read both Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, which are probably two of his more well known works. I enjoyed both of them. If you are a fan of the current American style of writing (fast paced, action oriented, and superficial), then I would not recommend his books. Ishiguro's pieces are dense, slower paces, and are more character driven. His writing is quite profound, but I wouldn't recommend it for a light beach reading day.
While many people will be focusing on Kazuo Ishiguro in the articles about the Nobel Prize, I thought this would be a fun opportunity to take a look at the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It all began on November 25, 1895. It was on this day that Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, through his last will and testament. Nobel is most famously known as the inventor of dynamite, but was a man of many intellectual curiosities. He spoke multiple languages, and left behind a private library with over 1500 volumes. Nobel passed away in 1896, but the first prize was not awarded until 1901. This gap in years was due to the fact that many people, including relatives and non-relatives, contested this latest will. Since Nobel was leaving behind a large fortune, many people wanted a piece of it, or for pieces of it to be reserved for Sweden only. Nobel designated different organizations to select the award winners for different prizes. The Academy in Stockholm, now known as The Swedish Academy was honored with the Literature Prize selection. The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustaf III to advance the Swedish literature and Swedish language. Founded in 1901, The Nobel Library, serves the purpose of aiding the Swedish Academy in evaluating selections for the Prize. So that is a short history of the Nobel Prize in Literature! To learn more about it, check out these resources below. (By the way, in the interest of being a good librarian, this is also serving as my References list.) Resources/References:
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AuthorI have worked in Education my entire life moving from K-12, to a community college, to my current position at a four year. I am fascinated by weird things and information in general. Archives
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