The Victim of Nobel Prize: H G Wells

  Learn why eminent classic writer and dreamer H G Wells did not receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. What happened behind the scenes? Why was he denied the Prize in Literature? Is he not worth it? 

  Why was it, the all-time famous classic writer was denied the Nobel Prize in Literature when he truly deserved? Why is it H G Wells, was denied the Prize? Is it because his works are inferior and did not possess literary merits? Is it because he did not produce the most distinguished works of idealistic tendency, which Nobel clearly stipulated as a criterion in his will?

  If one peeps behind the scene and read between the lines, he will learn that the Judges or Members of the Selection Committee of the Nobel Prizes are mere mortals filled with high-flying vanities, prejudices, petty rivalries, frailties all mixed up 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 writing in many genres like history, politics, social commentaries, text books, novels and science fiction. In fact, H G Wells is best known for his works in the genre of science fiction. He is popularly referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction" along with Hugo Gernsback and Jules Verne.

  Indeed H G Wells was a dreamer who foresaw things well in advance that would shape the world. It has aptly been reflected in his many a books, such as 'The Time Machine' {©1895}, 'The First Men in 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, H G Wells was a serious candidate and yet he lost to John Galsworthy {1867-1933} who received the Prize for his ‘Forsyte Saga’. “H G Wells”, said Osterling, a judge on the Nobel Committee, “surpassed Galsworthy both in strength of intellect and fertility of imagination.” Yet he was denied the Prize because, “He was too minor and journalistic.” said Sven Anders Hedin, another judge on the Nobel Committee.

  But these people do not know that H G Wells was a dreamer who dreamt of flying machines {Time Machine © 1895} long before Wright Brothers came on the scene with their Airplanes, which are in fact, inferior when compared to that of Wells’ imaginary 4th dimensional plane. And Wells dreamt of men in the moon long before the first man set his foot on the moon in 1969. Sadly, the Nobel Prize in Literature eluded this dreamer. May be the Nobel Prize Committee on literature might have thought that this dreamer, H G Wells corpus lacked literary merit worth the Prize.  

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature

  The 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tomas Tranströmer of Sweden. The Prize motivation read as "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality".

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