Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature is one of the best-known literary prizes. It is annually awarded since 1901 by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm to "the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". The prize was endowed by Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896). The laureate receives an amount of 10 million Swedish kronor for a full prize (which corresponds to approximately 1 million Euro (December 2007)).
Alfred Nobel's testament, on which this prize is based, reads as follows: "The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: [...] one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction [...] It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not."
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008
- Winner: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (France)
- "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"
Weblinks
News
- Guardian Unlimited, "Lessing receives Nobel in London", Press Association, January 31, 2008 --including a short podcast of the celebration
