Nobel Prize

  Presentation Speech by Professor Lars Gyllensten, of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, William Golding’s first novel – Lord of the Flies, 1954 – rapidly became a world success and has so remained. It has reached readers who can be numbered in tens of millions. In…

  Presentation Speech by Professor Sture Allén, Permanent Secretary of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, Art is on the side of the oppressed, Nadine Gordimer says in one of her essays, urging us to think before we dismiss this heretical idea about the freedom of art.…

Presentation Speech by Professor Kjell Espmark of the , December 10, 1998. Translation of the Swedish text. Professor Kjell Espmark delivering the Presentation Speech for the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Photo: Hans Mehlin, Nobelprize.org Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, There is one type of writer who,…

Presentation Speech by Per Wästberg of the , December 10, 2003. Translation of the Swedish text. Writer Per Wästberg delivering the Presentation Speech for the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Esteemed Nobel Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen, To write is to awaken counter-voices within…

English Presentation Speech by Kjell Espmark, Member of the , Member of its Nobel Committee, 10 December 2011. Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, esteemed Laureates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tomas Tranströmer is one of the very few Swedish writers with an influence on world literature. He has been translated into some sixty languages, and has been…

Swedish Presentationstal av Författaren Kjell Espmark, ledamot av och ledamot i Nobelkommittén för litteratur, 10 december 2011. Eders Majestäter, Eders Kungliga Högheter, ärade Nobelpristagare, mina damer och herrar! Tomas Tranströmer är en av de mycket få svenska författare som haft ett inflytande på världslitteraturen. Han är översatt till ett sextiotal språk och har varit viktig…

Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1903 Again this year the names of several candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature have been submitted to the Swedish Academy for its approval; some of them are authors of European reputation. The Academy thinks that this year it should…

Presentation Speech by C.D. af Wirsén, Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1907 The suggestions for names of suitable recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature have been numerous, and there has been no dearth of exceedingly well-qualified candidates for this honourable and coveted distinction. From these candidates, the Swedish Academy has…

Presentation Speech by Claes Annerstedt, President of the , on December 10, 1909 History tells us that there was a time when Sweden fought for a world prize on the field of martial honour. The time of arms has passed, but in the international competition for peaceful prizes our people have for a long time…

Presentation Speech by , Permanent Secretary of the , on December 10, 1930 This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is a native of a part of America which for a long time has had Swedish contacts. He was born at Sauk Centre, a place of about two or three thousand inhabitants in…