In the real world, many of the 20th Century’s greatest authors were never honored with what is arguably (along with the Pulitzer Prize) the greatest award a writer can receive: the Nobel Prize in Literature. James Joyce, Jules Verne, Henrik Ibsen, Thomas Hardy, and many others never received the praise of the Nobel Society–only the adulation of readers and scholars. But never fear, fans of long-dead authors.


Ted Giola of Great Books Guide has created the Alt-Reality Nobel Prize In Literature–a year-by-year list of the winners of the real Nobel Prize, alongside an alternate list of who arguably should have won.

Authors previously overlooked by the Nobel Committee get their due; Verne, Jack Kerouak, and Philip Roth (whom I insist is very much alive) all are placed on the list. Even great genre writers are not forgotten as they so often are in circles of literary snobbery: Ian Fleming of James Bond fame is named the winner of the 1960 award, Agatha Christie gets the nod in 1966, science fiction writers Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein share the Alt-Nobel in 1987, and even Sigmund Freud, Hunter S. Thompson, and Steven Sondheim get recognition. And Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is the recipient for 2007.

The list isn’t completely fictional, though. Alexander Solzhenitsyn (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) and John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath) still win in 1970 and 1962, respectively, among various other double winners.

Two of my favorites, Barbara Tuchman and Steven Ambrose, are left off the list (a bias against nonfiction historical novels, perhaps?), and the list also suffers because it doesn’t post a sampling of each writer’s works (something that could come in handy for the lesser-known authors.) But it’s a fun diversion that can bring about some serious thought.

The list is an interesting read, and is sure to provoke lively discussion in the dank, dark corners of libraries everywhere.

[Via Great Books Guide]