"Inferior" writing cost Tolkien Nobel prize
KERRY MCBRIDE
from stuff.co.nz, reprint, excerpt
One of the world's best-loved writers was rejected for the Nobel prize because his storytelling was not up to scratch.
JRR Tolkien, writer of cult classics The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, was rejected for a Nobel prize in literature in 1961 after being nominated by his friend and fellow fantasy author CS Lewis, writer of the Narnia books.
A jury member for the Nobel panel said Tolkien "has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality".
The rejection was made public 50 years after Tolkien was turned down, when the archive for the Nobel committee's 1961 deliberations was opened this week.
Nobel decisions remain classified for 50 years, at which stage the archive for that year is opened in the Nobel library in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
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