Fact: In 1961, C. S. Lewis nominated his friend, J. R. R. Tolkien, for the Nobel Prize in literature.
Blasphemy: Tolkien was dismissed by the selection committee because, “his prose did not in any way measure up to storytelling of the highest quality.”
It boggles me how you can arrive at that conclusion after reading passages like this:
“Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitudinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned him. Swiftly he sank under its shining weight into a deep realm of sleep.” – The Fellowship of the Ring
“They walked as it were in a black vapour wrought of veritable darkness itself that, as it was breathed, brought blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even the memory of colours and of forms and of any light faded out of thought. Night always had been, and always would be, and night was all.” – The Two Towers
“And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.” – The Return of the King
Interestingly, Robert Frost and Graham Greene were also passed over that year in favor of Yugoslavian writer Iva Andri.
HT: Neatorama