Nobel Prize Jury Considered Tolkien Second Rate

[Liam]

^Additionally, much of Tolkien's work remained unpublished during his lifetime. His work as an academic was well-known in Britain, but again, much of it was not available to the larger public. Like, his translation and commentary on Beowulf were only published in 2014!

I don't think he would have been considered for the Nobel merely because of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books alone (though clearly, somebody nominated him).

I particularly admire his work on the OED, I may be misremembering, but I think he had requested to work on the letter W, in particular,

I read a wonderful book many years ago that dealt with his work as a word-compiler for the OED: The Ring of Words by Peter Gilliver et al.

Tom Shippey's biography Author of the Century is a wonderful (if positively slanted) look into the author, and the best companion (linguistically speaking) to the Lord of the Rings books is Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull's somewhat unimaginatively titled The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion,

 

[Ben Jackson]

^Additionally, much of Tolkien's work remained unpublished during his lifetime. His work as an academic was well-known in Britain, but again, much of it was not available to the larger public. Like, his translation and commentary on Beowulf were only published in 2014!

I don't think he would have been considered for the Nobel merely because of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books alone (though clearly, somebody nominated him).

I particularly admire his work on the OED, I may be misremembering, but I think he had requested to work on the letter W, in particular,

I read a wonderful book many years ago that dealt with his work as a word-compiler for the OED: The Ring of Words by Peter Gilliver et al.

Tom Shippey's biography Author of the Century is a wonderful (if positively slanted) look into the author, and the best companion (linguistically speaking) to the Lord of the Rings books is Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull's somewhat unimaginatively titled The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion,

C S Lewis nominated him in 1961.

I really think that, sometimes, the committee usually shortlist a writer after publishing a very successful, critically acclaimed work. For example, Durrell wasn't shortlisted for the Nobel until the release of the critically acclaimed Quartet. At the time of Tolkien's shortlist, Lord of the Rings was one of Europe's most discussed and read novel. One can also speak of Grass as well in 1972.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Nobel prize for literature 1961 was awarded to Ivo Andric "for epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from history of his country."

Some Facts

First Time Nominees:
Yasunari Kawabata
Michel De Ghelderode
Gaston Bachelard
Cora Sandel
Giulia Scappino Murena
Arthur Waley
Jean Anouilh
Simeone De Beauvoir
JR R Tolkien
Pierre Jean Jouve
Edmund Wilson
C P Snow
Lawrence Durrell
W H Auden
Friedrich Durrenmatt

Nominated Women writers
Gertrud Von Le Fort
Karen Blixen
Simeone De Beauvoir
Giulia Scappino Murena
Cora Sandel

Nominations from Academy Members:
Yasunari Kawabata--- Henry Olsson
Robert Graves--- Henry Olsson
Lawrence Durrell--- Hjalmar Gullberg
Ivo Andric--- Johannes EdfeltEdfelt
Julian Gracq--- Eyvnid Johnson
Aksel Sandemose--- Eyvnid Johnson
Taha Hussein--- Henrik Sam Nyberg
Mikhail Sholokhov-- Harry Martinson
Ignazio Silone--- Elias Wessen

Nominations from Former Laureates:
George Seferis--- T S Eliot
Robert Frost-- Pearl Buck

Nominees that became Nobel Laureates:
John Steinbeck (Nobel Laureate 1962)
Jean Paul Sartre (Nobel Laureate 1964)
Heinrich Boll (Nobel Laureate 1972)
Pablo Neruda (Nobel Laureate 1971)
Mikhail Sholokhov (Nobel Laureate 1965)
Eugenio Montale (Nobel Laureate 1975)
Yasunari Kawabata (Nobel Laureate 1968)

Famous Names Nominated include former finalists (capital letters are wroters I have read):
Tarjel Vessas
Georges Simenon
Somerset MAUGHAM
Ramon Menedez Pidal
Junichiro TANIZAKI
Andre Malraux
Aldous HUXLEY
Johan Falkberget
Ernst JUNGER
Georges Duhamel
Miroslav Krleza
Sean O'Casey
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Books highlighted by the Nobel Committee

Lawrence Durrell: Black Book, Reflections of Marine on Venus, Prospero's Cell, Bitter Lemon of Cyprus, Alexandria Quartet
Karen Blixen: Out of Africa, Shadown on the Grass, Last Tales, Anecdotes of Destiny, Seven Gothic Tales, Winter's Tale
Ivo Andric: Bridge on the Drina, Damned Yard, Bosnian Chronicle, Woman of Sarajevo
Graham Greene: Quiet American, Power and the Glory, End of the Affair, Brighton Rock, Heart of the Matter
J RR Tolkien: Lord of the Rings, The Hobbitt
Alberto Moravia: Boredom, Contempt, Time of Indifferent, Woman of Rome, Two Women, Conformist, Agostino, Fancy Dress Party
E M Forster: A Room with a View, A Passage to India, Howard's End, Aspect of the Novel
Robert Frost: Mountain Interval, North of Boston
Robert Graves: Poems, I Claudius, Greek Myths

Nobel Committee:

Henry Olsson
Anders Osterling
Hjalmar Gullberg
Sigfried Siwertz
Eyvnid Johnson

 

[Leseratte]

C S Lewis nominated him in 1961.

I really think that, sometimes, the committee usually shortlist a writer after publishing a very successful, critically acclaimed work. For example, Durrell wasn't shortlisted for the Nobel until the release of the critically acclaimed Quartet. At the time of Tolkien's shortlist, Lord of the Rings was one of Europe's most discussed and read novel. One can also speak of Grass as well in 1972.

I think you mean The Tin Drum. I wonder if the success was more due to the wonderful movie or the novel which is a door stopper.

Here is the movie with English undertitles.