Ben Jackson
Well-known member
44 writers was nominated for this year's Nobel Literature Prize, which was awarded to Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez. Among the writers shortlisted, apart from Jimenez, was Camus, Blixen, Spanish literary critic and philologist Ramon Menedez Pidal and Nikos Kazantzakis.
The Committee was silent over the publication of Camus' work The Fall, which hadn't been translated to Swedish at the time of his shortlist, and Blixen. Blixen's progress was monitored. The Committee's lack of interest in awarded writers in non-fiction sphere played a part in dismissing Pidal, who was hailed in Spanish press as one its key writers of the period. Jimenez, shortlisted the previous year, was awarded the Prize as tribute to great Generation of 1898 Spainsh Poetry (at the time one of its last surviving member). Kazantzakis, at the time, was Greece's most famous writer with works like Zorba the Greek, Last Temptation of Christ, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequal, and was seen, by the Committee as a brilliant way to reward a writer from Hellas. At the end of the day, Jimenez defeated Kazantzakis by two votes.
Jimenez is a fantastic poet no doubt. But I don't know if I can put him above Kazantzakis. The Odyssey and Zorba are fantastic achievements. Soyinka's big fan of Zorba the Greek's movie adaptation starring Anthony Quinn.
The Committee was silent over the publication of Camus' work The Fall, which hadn't been translated to Swedish at the time of his shortlist, and Blixen. Blixen's progress was monitored. The Committee's lack of interest in awarded writers in non-fiction sphere played a part in dismissing Pidal, who was hailed in Spanish press as one its key writers of the period. Jimenez, shortlisted the previous year, was awarded the Prize as tribute to great Generation of 1898 Spainsh Poetry (at the time one of its last surviving member). Kazantzakis, at the time, was Greece's most famous writer with works like Zorba the Greek, Last Temptation of Christ, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequal, and was seen, by the Committee as a brilliant way to reward a writer from Hellas. At the end of the day, Jimenez defeated Kazantzakis by two votes.
Jimenez is a fantastic poet no doubt. But I don't know if I can put him above Kazantzakis. The Odyssey and Zorba are fantastic achievements. Soyinka's big fan of Zorba the Greek's movie adaptation starring Anthony Quinn.