The Nobel Library of the Swedish Academy

Abstract

The Nobel Library was founded in 1901 to assist the Swedish Academy in its task of selecting the Nobel laureate in Literature. It is a modern research library with a private, autonomous status, established primarily for the Swedish Academy and its Nobel Committee, although its collections are also open to the public. It is housed in one of Stockholm's most beautiful 18 th century buildings. Within its field it is the largest in Scandinavia, containing collections of more than 200,000 volumes, with works of literary criticism and modern literature as its speciality. Since its foundation the history of the library has been intimately linked with the Nobel Prize. Its sphere of literary interests has however, expanded considerably with the years. In this article an account will be given of the special criteria on which the Academy bases its work on the Nobel Prize and which apply to the library's acquisitions. It describes the storm of protest that greeted the first award for literature in 1901, when Tolstoy was rejected in favour of Sully Prudhomme, the interpretation of the wording the most outstanding work in an ideal direction in Nobel's will, Sartre's famous refusal in 1964 and the impossible task of covering the literature of the whole world. It concludes with some comments on Alfred Nobel's own philosophical and literary interests.