The Nobel Prize Victim: HG Wells
Why was the all-time famous classical writer HG Wells denied the Nobel Prize in Literature when he really deserved it? Is it because his works are inferior and did not have literary merit? Is it because he did not produce the most distinguished works of idealistic tendency, which Nobel clearly stipulated as criteria in his WILL? Learn what happened behind the scenes? Why was Wells denied the Nobel Prize for Literature? He is not worth it?
If one peeks behind the scenes and reads between the lines, one finds out that the judges or members of the Nobel Prize Selection Committee are mere mortals full of high-flying vanities, prejudices, petty rivalries, weaknesses mixed with intelligence, honesty, wisdom and courage.
Herbert George Wells {1866-1946}
Herbert George Wells, who was born in 1866 in Bromley, in the country of Kent, was a prolific English writer who wrote in many genres including history, politics, social commentary, textbooks, novels, and science fiction. In fact, HG Wells is best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He is popularly known as “The Father of Science Fiction” along with Hugo Gernsback and Jules Verne.
Indeed, HG Wells was a dreamer who foresaw long in advance the things that would shape the world. It has been aptly reflected in many of his books, such as ‘The Time Machine’ {©1895}, ‘The First Men on the Moon’ {©1901}, ‘The War in the Air’ {©1908} and ‘Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought’ {©1901} and many more.
In 1932 HG Wells was a serious candidate, however he lost out to John Galsworthy {1867-1933} who received the award for his ‘Forsyte Saga’. “HG Wells,” said Osterling, a judge on the Nobel Committee, “surpassed Galsworthy both in strength of intellect and fertility of imagination.” However, he was denied the award because he “was too minor and journalistic”. said Sven Anders Hedin, another judge on the Nobel Committee.
But these people don’t know that HG Wells was a dreamer who dreamed of flying machines {Time Machine © 1895} long before the Wright brothers came on the scene with their planes, which are in fact inferior compared to Wells’ imaginary 4th dimensional plane. And Wells dreamed of men on the moon long before the first man walked on the moon in 1969. Unfortunately, the Nobel Prize for Literature eluded this dreamer. It may be that the Committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature thought that this dreamer, the corpus of HG Wells, lacked literary merit worthy of the Prize.
The Nobel Prize for Literature 2011
The 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tomas Tranströmer of Sweden. The award’s motivation stated “because, through the condensed and translucent images of him, he gives us a new access to reality.”
The Nobel Prize for Literature 2012
The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Chinese author Mo Yan, whose citation reads “who with mind-blowing realism fuses folktales, history and the contemporary.” Mo Yan is a pseudonym, while his real name is Guan Moye. “Mo Yan” in Chinese means “don’t speak”.