Nobel Prize predictions

[Deep Space Bass]

I know it's a bit early, but I'm writing an article for my school newspaper. It's satirical only in the sense that its seriousness is a parody of the almost religious gravity with which the rest of the writing staff writes about The Emmies and the Academy Awards. Their forms of prediction, based upon personal bias and taste alone, have become rather annoying.

So I've decided to write a serious prediction piece myself. But my only passion is literature, so perhaps that's the only thing I can write about with some degree of competence.

Regardless, I'm somewhat blind to the politics behind the Nobel Prize, so authors whom I think deserve the prize are probably laughable in actual contest. So far, I've come up with possible candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

- John Updike: He's won everything else, already.
- Gore Vidal: He's pretty well respected and holds the degree of obscurity that seems to automatically make one a candidate for the Prize.
- Alice Walker: My Creative Writing teacher told me she had a chance. I don't see it, but he seems pretty intelligent on these matters.
- Arthur C. Clarke: Personally, I think he should win. He's done so much for the world. It'd be so sad if he died without a Nobel Prize.
-Kurt Vonnegut: I really, REALLY doubt he stands a chance, and I'm still arguing with myself whether he even deserves it.
-Margaret Atwood: Someone one this board recognizes her value as a novelist, and I agree. I think she stands a shot.
-Samuel R. Delany: If he's still alive, I think his Joycean science fiction is worthy of at least a passing mention to the commitee.
-Stephen King: I hate his guts, but he's been mentioned before. Would they, COULD they, possibly give him a Nobel Prize?

Anyway, thanks!

[mono]

I have no idea who will win, but out of your ideas, I hope for either Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, or Arthur C. Clarke.
Good luck with your article!

[Isagel]

The lady who is nominated is Elfriede Jelinek. I really hoped for Tranströmer this year.

I think Stephen Kings chances are as big as the proverbial "snowball in hell". The prize is supposed to be a celebration of the ideal literature, according to Nobel. What that means have been debated. Some say that its the form that should be ideal, som talk of the content. It is not a contest like the Oscars, the loved and well known rarely wins.

If you like I can get some write some more about the Svenska Akademin and the prize, or at least provide you with a link. I´m in a hurry now, so this is just a quick reply.

[EAP]

Stephen King has provided brilliant entertainment and fond memories for me and to million of others around the gloab. Any award, however prestigious IMO cannot rival the success he's had and the place he has in the hearts of thousands.

As for Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, Sameul Delaney: there are many others of the same ilk who deserve the award as much, if not more, then these venerated personals.

Ray Bradbury, Christopher Preist, William S. Burroughs, Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, Gene Wolfe, Philip K. Dick, Yvgeny Zemyatin, Mikhail Buglakov are some who spring to mind immediately. I am sure there are many others, equally capable and equally influential who have failed to qualify over the years mainly because they happen to write in one of the lowly genres.

On a sidenote has Paulo Coelho won the Noble?

I too, would appreciate further information about Nobel politics and procedure.

[Isagel]

In Sweden it has been argued that the writers that are given the prize more and more often are mainly read by a small elite. The prize was never meant to be a populistic one, but the writers that Horace Engdahl and the other 17 in the Svenska akademien choose are almost always unknown. This has been the subject of many jokes in sweden. A swedish comedian has started a practical joke. When the winner is anounced he always manages to sneak in and yell " Finally! "

The following information comes from

www.svenskaakademien.se

you can find additional info at

www.nobelprize.org/literature


The Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature derives from a fund which was created from the fortune left by inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833–96) and which is managed by the Nobel Foundation. The task of selecting the winner of the Prize was entrusted to the Swedish Academy by Nobel in his will. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901.

Those entitled to nominate candidates for the Prize are the members of the Academy, members of academies and societies similar to it in membership and aims, professors of literature and language, former Nobel laureates in literature, and the presidents of writers’ organisations which are representative of their country’s literary production.

Proposals for the year’s prize-winner must reach the Nobel Committee by February 1st. A proposal should, but need not, be accompanied by supporting reasons. It is not possible to propose oneself as a candidate, i.e. the Nobel Prize cannot be applied for. There are usually about 350 proposals each year.

During the spring the proposals are examined by the Nobel Committee and in April it presents for the Academy’s approval a preliminary list of candidates, containing some 20 names. Before the Academy’s summer recess the list has usually been further reduced to about five names.

In October the Academy makes its choice. For the election to be valid, a candidate must gain more than half of the votes cast. The prize-winner receives the prize (10 million SEK in 2003) from the hands of the King in Stockholm Concert Hall on December 10th – Nobel Day.

More about the selection of Nobel Laureates in Literature »

Nobel laureates in literature


2004 Elfriede Jelineke , Austria
”for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power”

2003 J. M. Coetzee , South Africa
”who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”


2002 Imre Kertész , Hungary
”for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history”

2001 V.S. Naipaul, United Kingdom
“for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”

2000 Gao Xingjian, France
“for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama”.

1999 Günter Grass, Federal Republic of Germany
“Whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history”

1998 José Saramago, Portugal
“who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality”

1997 Dario Fo, Italy
“who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”

1996 Wislawa Szymborska, Poland
“for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”

1995 Seamus Heaney, Ireland
“for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”


1994 Kenzaburo Oe, Japan
“who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today”

1993 Toni Morrison, USA
”who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”


1992 Derek Walcott, Saint Lucia
”for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment”


1991 Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
”who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity”


1990 Octavio Paz, Mexico
”for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity”


1989 Camilo José Cela, Spain
”for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability”


1988 Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
”who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind”


1987 Joseph Brodsky, USA
”for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”


1986 Wole Soyinka, Nigeria
”who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”


1985 Claude Simon, France
”who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition”


1984 Jaroslav Seifert, Czechoslovakia
”for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man”


1983 William Golding, United Kingdom
”for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today”


1982 Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
”for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts”


1981 Elias Canetti, United Kingdom
”for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power”

1980 Czeslaw Milosz, Poland and USA
”who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts”


1979 Odysseus Elytis, Greece
”for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness”


1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer, USA
”for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life”


1977 Vicente Aleixandre, Spain
”for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry beween the wars”


1976 Saul Bellow, USA
”for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work”

1975 Eugenio Montale, Italy
”for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions”

1974 Eyvind Johnson, Sweden / Harry Martinson, Sweden
Eyvind Johnson, Sverige
”for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom”
Harry Martinson, Sverige
”for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos”

1973 Patrick White, Australia
”for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature”

1972 Heinrich Böll, Federal Republic of Germany
”for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature”


1971 Pablo Neruda, Chile
”for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams”


1970 Alexander Solzhenitsyn, USSR
”for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”


1969 Samuel Beckett, Ireland
”for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”


1968 Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
”for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind”


1967 Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemala
”for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America”


1966 Samuel Agnon, Israel / Nelly Sachs, Sweden
Samuel Agnon, Israel
”for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people”
Nelly Sachs, Sweden
”for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength”


1965 Michail Sholokhov, USSR
”for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people”


1964 Jean-Paul Sartre, France
”for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age”


1963 Giorgos Seferis, Greece
”for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture”

[Isagel]

1962 John Steinbeck, USA
”for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception”

1961 Ivo Andric, Yugoslavia
”for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country”


1960 Saint-John Perse, France
”for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time”


1959 Salvatore Quasimodo, Italy
”for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times”


1958 Boris Pasternak, USSR
”for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition”


1957 Albert Camus, France
”for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”


1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spain
”for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity”


1955 Halldór Kiljan Laxness, Iceland
”for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland”


1954 Ernest Hemingway, USA
”for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style”


1953 Winston Churchill, United Kingdom
”for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”


1952 François Mauriac, France
”for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life”


1951 Pär Lagerkvist, Sweden
”for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind”


1950 Bertrand Russell, United Kingdom
”in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”


1949 William Faulkner, USA

”for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel”


1948 Thomas Stearns Eliot, United Kingdom
”for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”


1947 André Gide, France
”for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight”


1946 Hermann Hesse, Switzerland
”for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style”


1945 Gabriela Mistral, Chile
”for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”


1944 Johannes V. Jensen, Denmark
”for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style”


1943 (No prize was awarded.)


1942 (No prize was awarded.)


1941 (No prize was awarded.)


1940 (No prize was awarded.)


1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Finland
”for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature”


1938 Pearl Buck, USA
”for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”


1937 Roger Martin du Gard, France
”for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel-cycle Les Thibault”


1936 Eugene O’Neill, USA
”for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy”


1935 (No prize was awarded.)


1934 Luigi Pirandello, Italy
”for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art”


1933 Ivan Bunin, stateless domicile in France
”for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing”


1932 John Galsworthy, United Kingdom
”for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga”


1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Sweden
”The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt”


1930 Sinclair Lewis, USA
”for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters”


1929 Thomas Mann, Germany
”principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”


1928 Sigrid Undset, Norway
”principially for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”


1927 Henri Bergson, France
”in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brillant skill with which they have been presented”


1926 Grazia Deledda, Italy
”for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general”


1925 George Bernard Shaw, United Kingdom
”for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty”


1924 Wladyslaw Reymont, Poland
”for his great national epic, The Peasants”


1923 William Butler Yeats, Ireland
”for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”


1922 Jacinto Benavente, Spain
”for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama”


1921 Anatole France, France
”in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament”


1920 Knut Hamsun, Norway
”for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil”


1919 Carl Spitteler, Switzerland
”in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring”


1918 (No prize was awarded.)


1917 Karl Gjellerup, Denmark / Henrik Pontoppidan, Denmark
Karl Gjellerup, Denmark
”for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals”
Henrik Pontoppidan, Denmark
”for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark”


1916 Verner von Heidenstam, Sweden
”in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature”


1915 Romain Rolland, France
”as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”


1914 (No prize was awarded.)


1913 Rabindranath Tagore, India
”because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West”


1912 Gerhart Hauptmann, Germany
”primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art”


1911 Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium
”in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations”


1910 Paul Heyse, Germany
”as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories”


1909 Selma Lagerlöf, Sweden
”in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings”


1908 Rudolf Eucken, Germany
”in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life”


1907 Rudyard Kipling, United Kingdom
”in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author”


1906 Giosuè Carducci, Italy
”not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces”


1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz, Poland
”because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer”


1904 Frédéric Mistral, France / José Echegaray, Spain
Frédéric Mistral, France
”in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist”
José Echegaray, Spain
”in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama”


1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norway
”as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit”


1902 Theodor Mommsen, Germany
”the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome”


1901 Sully Prudhomme, France
”in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualitites of both heart and intellect”

[Sitaram]

Serendipity & Synchronicity! I was in a used bookstore yesterday, looking for great literature to read, and found a paperback of lists of awards such as Nobel, Pulitzer, affixed to the wall, not for sale, as a reference for customers.
I browsed through that list and had it in mind as I logged to this forum.
When, Lo and Behold, what meets my eyes but a thread on Nobel
Prize winners.


This truly is a wonderful forum with posts which are stimulating and
though provoking. I feel grateful to have found such a forum.
I caught a "60 Minutes" interview with Bob Dylan this week which
mentioned that he shall receive a prize (is it Nobel or Pulitzer) in
recognition of the literary merits of his lyrics. I grew up in the 60's
with his music. Bob Dylan was asked if he could still write such
memorable songs nowadays, to which he answered a frank "No."
When asked if this saddened him, he most sensibly replied "One
cannot continue to do something indefinitely. I wrote them once, for
which I am grateful. I can do other things now, worthwhile things, but I
cannot write such songs again" (my paraphrase).


Bob Dylan is now 63 years of age. Such sensible answers he gave.
As some of you may know, I have recently started posting here,
mentioning the book which I am trying to write at

http://toosmallforsupernova.org

I mention my writing here to make a point regarding something which
I learned from Bob Dylan's interview. How may I find the proper words
for this in the limited time which I have this morning? We who desire
to write and create are moved on by the desire to achieve something
significant and everlasting, something worthy of the world's
recognition, such as a Nobel prize. The magnitude of such ambition is
often daunting enough to become in itself a writer's block. Buddhists
say that the very desire for liberation is itself an impediment to
liberation. Also, we may feel intimidated by the challenge to produce
more than one work. Whenever we open any novel, one of the first
pages we see is a long list of prior successful works by the author.
Success is one of the ingredients of failure in the sense that the vision
of success and perfection can halt us in our tracks, frozen like some
nocturnal creature in a bright beam.


But, you are not here reading. I am alone. I write for myself. This
darkness of evening and night which surrounds me is cool and
inviting. It accepts me and does not judge. The moon is my
companion, yet I am invisible in her gentle light. I become light and
drift upon the slighest breeze. I am carried aloft above the trees, the
farms, the cities and all civilization. I enter the dream and become
the dream, and nothing else matters.


Stephen Crane is well known for "The Red Badge of Courage" which
he wrote in ten days flat. He is less known for a little poem entitled
"The Man with a Wooden Tongue," which I shall try to paraphrase now
from memory:


"There was once a man with a wooden tongue who desired to sing. As
he tried to sing, the most dreadful clap-trapping din of a sound would
arise from that wooden sound of his. But as he sang his clamorous
frightful song, one person heard, and understood what it was that the
wooden tongue wished to sing and say but could not. This was
enough, if only one might hear and understand."

[Deep Space Bass]

So far, thank you very much!

I think Stephen King provides an interesting example for the politics of the Nobel. I don't think that he's critically acclaimed by many, but he is loved by readers regardless. He's the epitome of the reader's writer, and I doubt he could win the Nobel. But I feel like ticking off this one Stephen King fan in my Creative Writing class. Some journalist I am, eh? >_>;; (I'm kidding)

In regards to your comments, EAP, it is true that many of those authors are wonderful, and I think worthy of a Nobel Prize in Literature. However, many of them are dead, and as far as I know, you can't award one posthumously. Dick and Zelany are dead, unfortunately, and I think Gene Wolfe might be too. But I may be thinking of some other Wolfe (I know Virginia Wolfe is long dead and Tom Wolfe doesn't have much longer).

And Isgael, thank you for the sources and information! The list is further proof that the award is indeed given to obscure authors. I'm fairly well read and I recognize a mere 23, of which I've read 19.

But if an icon of French intellectualism can win one, or a headliner of American ideals can win one, then someone like John Updike can win.

So my list so far goes:

-John Updike
-Gore Vidal
-Alice Walker
-Arthur C. Clarke
-Kurt Vonnegut
-Margaret Atwood
-Samuel R. Delany
-Stephen King
-Ray Bradbury
-Stephen Sondheim (Another Creative Writing teacher suggestion)
-Chuck Palahniuk
-Cormac McCarthy (He's still alive, evidently!)
-J.D. Salinger

[mono]

1964 Jean-Paul Sartre, France
”for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age”

Thank you for posting all of this information, Isagel; how interesting - of these good writers. Sartre, also an amazing author and philosopher, however, only received a nomination for a Nobel prize, but never accepted it, for unknown reasons to me.

[Jester]

I didn't much like cormac mccartney.... i only read all the pretty horses and it was okay but i don't consider it nobel prize worthy (thats just my own opinion of course) the crossing is on my list, anyone read it, is it good?

ive only read four of those authors and heard of seven more... I would have thought Joseaph conrad would be on the list... hmmm.... oh i think i'e read kipling though not sure...

[EAP]

Gene Wolfe is alive and kicking, one might say in the form of his life, with the recent completion of The Wizard and The Knight duology.

Yup, Zelazny and Dick are dead today, but Zelazny at least was very well known during his life, and was pretty well loved by fans [and SF crictics]. Also as others have mentioned the Noble's have the tendancy of being granted to relatively unknown names. Philip K. Dick would have been the ideal contender for it during his lifetime - pretty much unknown, amazing ideals, verstality, cultural impact you name it, it's there.

[baddad]

Isagel!!! Stupendous effort! Your contribution furthers all of us..................I'm grateful. Its a H*ll of a list of great literary efforts. It allows reminds that even supposed 'obscurity' in no way hinders great art.

[Isagel]

Thank you all, but my contribution was merely "copy and paste", the list comes from svenska akademien.

[Deep Space Bass]

Thank you for posting all of this information, Isagel; how interesting - of these good writers. Sartre, also an amazing author and philosopher, however, only received a nomination for a Nobel prize, but never accepted it, for unknown reasons to me.

No, he won it, but he refused the prize. If you've read his philosophy, it's pretty obvious why he denied it. It's such a popular prize and it's such a compliment, to a person who was somewhat at ends with society and refused to accept praise. It's unfortunate the whole story is shrouded in mystery and sinister connotations; he actually denied it very graciously. What's interesting is that Camus accepted it. >_>;;

Anyway, thanks for the comments so far. I've updated my list.

-John Updike
-Gore Vidal
-Alice Walker
-Arthur C. Clarke
-Kurt Vonnegut
-Margaret Atwood
-Samuel R. Delany
-Stephen King
-Ray Bradbury
-Stephen Sondheim (Another Creative Writing teacher suggestion)
-Chuck Palahniuk
-Cormac McCarthy (He's still alive, evidently!)
-J.D. Salinger
-Martin Amis (A fair contender, methinks)
-Vladimir Nabokov's ghost (Out of reverence, I'm mentioning it)

[Granny5]

oops!