Nobel archives show Graham Greene might have won 1967 prize

Swedish Academy reveals 70 authors were being considered, with the Brighton Rock novelist backed by the chairman before losing out to Miguel Angel Asturias

Graham Greene and Jorge Luis Borges were serious contenders for the Nobel prize for literature in 1967, newly opened archives have revealed.

The Nobel prize nominations are only made public 50 years after the prize is awarded. The 1967 papers reveal the machinations that went on among the Nobel committee in choosing Guatemala’s Miguel Angel Asturias as their winner, an author they praised “for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America”.

Related: Svetlana Alexievich: ‘After communism we thought everything would be fine. But people don’t understand freedom’

Continue reading...