Not until now will we truly get to know what happened half a century ago, as all the material surrounding the awards is classified as secret for at least fifty years.
Complete confidentiality surrounds the procedures leading up to the naming of the Nobel prize winners. Nothing of what is said during the discussions should leak out. The statutes of the Nobel Foundation state, however, that 50 years after a prize has been awarded, the documents from the committees that do the ground work ahead of the selections can be obtained. These specific committees exist within the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and within Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament.
Dagens Nyheter has looked into the archives that were once confidential to get a hint at how the discussions went at the time.
The Swedish Academy awards the Nobel Prize in Literature and is, despite its very formal image, a private organisation. In the statutes established by King Gustav III back in 1786, the Academy is a non-profit organisation with no ties to the State and hence not open to public insight.
- Just like any other private organisation, our material is confidential. We have never made the minutes from the Academys meeting public. Some say that as times change we should strive towards greater openness, but we dont. I and many with me consider it a good thing that the we are above these demands in order to protect the integrity of both the Academy members and the Nobel laureates, says Odd Zschiedrich, the Swedish Academys administrative director.
Following the compulsory 50 years of secrecy, all documents by the Nobel Committee for Literature (appointed by the Academy) are made public. But minutes from discussions by The Eighteen" - the Academy members who eventually pick the winner - are forever confidential.
This year the Swedish Academy released the Nobel Committees documents on the 1956 laureate, Spanish poet Juan Jimenez. That he ended up being awarded the prize can partially be explained by a sense of justice, judging by what Anders Österling, the Academys permanent secretary, wrote in his statement that year.
It is perfectly clear that the vast language area of Spain has seriously been neglected ever since 1922, when (Spanish playwright) Benavente was awarded the prize. The growing discontent on Spanish fronts as a consequence is clearly understandable and should not be dismissed," wrote Österling, who at the time sat on two chairs as a member both of the Committee and of The Eighteen.
This concern about the laureates nationality clearly clashes with the explicit wishes in Alfred Nobels will: "It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not."
The official motivation for awarding the prize to Jimenez in 1956 was: "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity."
The motivation is in stark contrast to a statement Österling made on Jimenez in 1952.
"His (Jimenez) body of work consists largely of hermetic art, it is aimed at an exclusive audience and hence seems less suitable to be presented as a world-famous accomplishment," he wrote, adding that for this reason, he could not support the proposed Spaniard.
The Karolinska Institute, also known as KI, awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Their Nobel archives are methodically organized in hard-backed volumes in folio and for each year. Hundreds of names were proposed for prize in medicine of 1956. Of these, 92 were thoroughly reviewed after having been systematically divided into six groups. That year, the prize was awarded to three physicians (Cournand, Forsmann and Richards) for their reserach on arrhythmia. In this case, it looks like the three men earned the prize through long and faitful service.
Here is what Professor G. Liljestrand of KIs Nobel committee wrote in July 1956:
"Even though nothing particularly new has been added, they have provided further support for their earlier results and expanded on them. Referring to this and to the exhaustive motivation provided in the 1955 report I hereby declare that I find Cournands and Richards discoveries concerning blood circulation disorders significant." *
The Karolinska Institute Nobel committee (consisting of 11 persons) thereafter unanimously decided to propose the three physicians for a shared 1956 prize in medicine. One can only wonder what Alfred Nobel would have thought of this, as he specifically required that Nobel prizes should be awarded to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects the laureates in chemistry, physics and economics. At the Royal Academy, all documents on the Nobel laureates are confidential. In principle, their documents are also to be made public after 50 years of secrecy. But when Dagens Nyheter asked to obtain those from 1956, it did not happen.
- Permission is only granted to scholars in history of science who are attached to an academic institution, not to journalists. There is also the prerequisite that the Nobel laureate in question is deceased. If he or she is alive, the material remains confidential and can only be obtained if the person in question permits it, explains Karl Grandin, temporary head of the Center for History of Science at the Royal Academy.
And even if you qualify as "scholar in history of science", it will still be impossible to know how the reasoning went when a laureate was selected, as only minutes on the formal decision exist. There are no minutes from the discussions.
The Norwegian Parliaments Nobel Committee selects the Peace Prize winner, and in Norway too there is a 50-year secrecy to all Nobel documents. After that, everyone is welcome to read the existing material. But in 1956, no Peace Prize was awarded since there were no suitable candidates.
- We make everything available after 50 years - all in accordance with the rules of the Nobel Foundation. However, we dont know how the talks went or who voted for whom. According to Nobel statutes, we are not allowed to take minutes on this, says Professor Geir Lundestad, head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.