The Swedish Academy selects the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature each year, and after the 2004 award to Elfriede Jelinek one of the members of that august body, Knut Ahnlund, infamously denounced the selection and resigned -- the wind only taken out of the flapping sails of his grand gesture by the unfortunate fact that Swedish Academy appointments are for life, and they simply won't let you leave.
And so, until Wednesday, Ahnlund continued to occupy -- at least officially -- Chair no. 7.
Now, however, as for example The Local reports, Swedish author Knut Ahnlund dies, with which his resignation has now also been accepted (indeed, they wouldn't have let him stay on any longer).
For Ahnlund's infamous tirade, see it in all its (Swedish) glory at Svenska Dagbladet, Knut Ahnlund: ”Efter Jelinek är priset ödelagt”; choice quote -- from which they also took the headline --: "Nobelpriset 2004 till Elfriede Jelinek har ödelagt utmärkelsens värde för överskådlig framtid." (For an English summary of the whole to-do, see, for example, Nobel winner's work is violent porn, says juror by Luke Harding in The Guardian.
Ahnlund was born in 1923 and published numerous literary works: given that he incredibly conveniently published a book on Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1978 and one on Octavio Paz in 1990 -- the years they just happened to win the Nobel Prize -- it's hard not to imagine that he was a forceful and persuasive voice pushing for them to get the prize (and one can imagine that part of his displeasure with the Jelinek award was that just the year before he had published his Spansk öppning: essäer om Spaniens och Latinamerikas litteratur and was presumably nagging everyone to give the award to some Spanish-writing authors and for once didn't get his way ...).
His passing of course means that there's an opening to be filled in this Nobel-picking group; it'll be interesting to see who gets the nod.
Now, however, as for example The Local reports, Swedish author Knut Ahnlund dies, with which his resignation has now also been accepted (indeed, they wouldn't have let him stay on any longer).
For Ahnlund's infamous tirade, see it in all its (Swedish) glory at Svenska Dagbladet, Knut Ahnlund: ”Efter Jelinek är priset ödelagt”; choice quote -- from which they also took the headline --: "Nobelpriset 2004 till Elfriede Jelinek har ödelagt utmärkelsens värde för överskådlig framtid." (For an English summary of the whole to-do, see, for example, Nobel winner's work is violent porn, says juror by Luke Harding in The Guardian.
Ahnlund was born in 1923 and published numerous literary works: given that he incredibly conveniently published a book on Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1978 and one on Octavio Paz in 1990 -- the years they just happened to win the Nobel Prize -- it's hard not to imagine that he was a forceful and persuasive voice pushing for them to get the prize (and one can imagine that part of his displeasure with the Jelinek award was that just the year before he had published his Spansk öppning: essäer om Spaniens och Latinamerikas litteratur and was presumably nagging everyone to give the award to some Spanish-writing authors and for once didn't get his way ...).
His passing of course means that there's an opening to be filled in this Nobel-picking group; it'll be interesting to see who gets the nod.