The Elegant Variation: CHURCHILL NOBEL CONTROVERSY

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January 27, 2004

CHURCHILL NOBEL CONTROVERSY

It appears that Winston Churchill's 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature was a real "hold your nose" vote for the jury.

The Swedish Nobel jury had many doubts when it awarded Winston Churchill the Nobel Literature Prize in 1953, but in the end concluded that the other hopefuls were even less worthy writers than the former British premier, Swedish Academy documents show.
Churchill, without a doubt one of the most important political figures of the 20th century, was also a prolific writer, but his selection for the highest literary award struck many as surprising, even at the time.

Still surprises some of us to this day.

Posted at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Comments

I completely agree with your post about Churchill's Nobel prize. It was, it seems, Nobel committee's poor way of "paying back" Churchill for his contribution in freeing Europe of the Nazis. Whenever I see the list of Literature laureates and can't find names like James Joyce and Bertold Brecht, and then find Churchill, it demeans my respect for the Nobel committee.

Posted by: Bhaskar | November 26, 2008 at 11:54 AM

Posted by: Bhaskar | November 26, 2008 at 11:56 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
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"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 27, 2004

CHURCHILL NOBEL CONTROVERSY

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 27, 2004

CHURCHILL NOBEL CONTROVERSY

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism