Nobel Prize Rejected!

A Brief History

On October 22, 1964, French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre became the first person to voluntarily refuse a Nobel Prize, in his case the prize for literature.  Incredibly for a Frenchman, in 1945 Sarte had also refused the Legion of Honor (Legion d’honneur), France’s highest award.

Digging Deeper

Sartre said that though he was honored to be selected for the Nobel Prize, he refused to accept it because he did not want to become part of the “establishment.”  He also feared his acceptance of an award that had been issued by a Western institution might make him look as if he had taken sides in the East-West (Cold War) conflict of philosophies.

Like many men of his era, Sartre was a chain smoker, but he further assaulted his health by regular abuse of amphetamines.  He died in 1980 at age 74.  He had been a crusader against war and discrimination and yet a supporter of capital punishment for political reasons.  In his later years he went from espousing Marxism (but was a critic of the USSR) to becoming an anarchist.

The Nobel Prize is the legacy of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who had amassed a fortune from this explosive.  Awarded by Swedish and Norwegian committees, the categories are Literature, Peace, Medicine (including Physiology), Chemistry, Physics and Economics.  From 1901 on, prizes have been awarded 555 times to a total of 291 men, 44 women and 21 institutions or organizations.  The first person to have been awarded prizes in more than one category was Marie Sklodowska (Madame Curie).  In the meantime, 3 other people have been awarded a Nobel Prize twice.  Members of the Sklodowska-Curie family have won 5 awards between them (Marie 2, Pierre 1, daughter Irene 1, son-in-law Frederic 1), whereas another son-in-law was the head of UNICEF when it was awarded a Prize.

In addition to a medal and a diploma, Nobel Laureates are also presented with a cash award that is determined anew each time the prizes are issued.  Lately the sum has been in the millions of dollars.

The only other person to have refused a Nobel Prize was Le Duc Tho, a negotiator from North Viet Nam who was awarded the prize along with Henry Kissinger of the United States for their peace negotiations to end the War in Viet Nam.  Tho refused on the basis that when awarded, peace had not yet been achieved.

Nobel Prizes can also be controversial, either because of who was recognized and why or because of who was omitted. T he Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the newly-elected President Barack Obama before he had a chance to actually do anything generated much eyebrow raising and discussion.  This award was seen as a slap in the face of the George W. Bush administration and was perhaps awarded more for what one anticipated Obama would do rather than for actual deeds.  This decision cost the respective Nobel committee some credibility.  Ironically, since receiving the award, Obama has continued hostilities in the Middle East and is notorious for ordering the massive use of unmanned aerial drones to bomb unsuspecting terrorists, sometimes killing civilians as well.  The Nobel committees are also criticized for leaning toward the left in favor progressive writers and political activists over conservative ones.

Some notable people who may have deserved a Nobel Prize but never got one include: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain); Leo Tolstoy; James Joyce; John Updike; Arthur Miller; Eleanor Roosevelt; Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi; and UN Secretary General U Thant.

History and Headlines Fact: In 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest recipient ever of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Who do you think did not deserve their Nobel Prize?  Who do you think should get one?  

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