Books on the Nobel Prize in Literature
Bo Svensén
The Swedish Academy and the Nobel Prize in Literature, 3rd ed.
The Swedish Academy has gained worldwide recognition through its annual awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature, first presented in 1901. But the Academy has a far longer history: it was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to promote Swedish language and literature – still its main purpose.
This booklet, now in its third revised edition, provides a condensed review of the Academy’s foundation, history and current activities. A special section deals with the Nobel Prize in Literature: the background, the formal rules for the nomination of candidates and the choice of laureate, the Academy’s work on the Prize and, not least, the criteria for the Academy’s assessment of candidates throughout different periods. A full list of laureates 1901−2023, with prize citations, is appended.
2024. Soft cover, 135 s., ISBN 978-91-1-313957-9
Ingrid Carlberg
NOBEL. The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes
The telegram reaches Sweden on the morning of Friday, 10 December 1896. Sixty-three-year-old Alfred Nobel has passed away quickly and unexpectedly during the night, at his villa in the Italian city of San Remo. The news makes it into Aftonbladet the same day. ‘Every educated Swede feels sorrow at the loss of one of their greatest countrymen,’ writes the news-paper, while avoiding the question that will soon be on every-one’s lips: Who will now inherit his riches?
NOBEL: The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes is the fascinating story of the path from Alfred Nobel’s youth to the high-stakes drama that enveloped the dynamite king’s last will and testament. Set against the backdrop of cities such as St Petersburg, Hamburg and Paris, and framed by family quarrels, heartbreak, successes and betrayals, NOBEL is also a captivating account of nineteenthcentury Europe that explores its political currents, literary treasures and scienti?c genius. This is a story about breaking boundaries.
The awardwinning author, journalist and member of the Swedish Academy, Ingrid Carlberg, has combed through archives in multiple countries, unearthing hitherto unknown sources that cast new light on the man who dreamed of doing good for humanity. She combines the researcher’s scholarly rigour with the readability and verve of a narrative journalist. In NOBEL, she has written the first cohesive, comprehensive work to tell the story of Alfred Nobel and the background to the Nobel prizes.
2023, 724 pp., paperback. ISBN 978-91-1-313565-6.
Kjell Espmark
The Nobel Prize in Literature – a New Century
Kjell Espmark, member of the Swedish Academy 1981-2022 and chairman of its Nobel Committee during the years 1987-2004, had an unsurpassed insight into – and knowledge about – the Nobel Prize in Literature. This fact was already established in his book The Nobel Prize in Literature. A study of the Criteria behind the Choices (1991) to which this book is a continuation. In it one may read about the extension of literary coverage during recent decades, the changes in the work forms of the Nobel Committee and the author's own all-time favourite choice off laureate.
2021. 50 pp., paperback. ISBN 978-91-8020-766-9. Distributed by Norstedts.
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Sture Allén & Kjell Espmark
The Nobel Prize in Literature. An introduction
The Nobel Prize in Literature is the internationally most noticed manifestation of Swedish culture. In this introduction to the Swedish Academy’s work on the prize, the first section deals with Alfred Nobel’s will, the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the procedure for the choice of laureate, the prize citations and the award ceremony. The theme of the second section is the history of the evaluations, i.e. the development of the criteria for the Academy’s assessment of candidates throughout different periods. There is also a complete listing of all the Nobel laureates, with prize citations. Translated by Erik Frykman.
2014. 3rd edn. 72 pp., paperback. ISBN 978-91-1-306663-9. Distributed by Norstedts.