Why did Jean Paul Sartre refuse the Nobel Prize ?

In 1964, Jean Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature but he declined it. He was the first Nobel Laureate to voluntarily decline the prize and he had previously refused the Légion d'honneur, in 1945. The prize was announced on 22 October 1964; on 14 October, Sartre had written a letter to the Nobel Institute, asking to be removed from the list of nominees, and that he would not accept the prize if awarded, but the letter went unread; On 23 October, Le Figaro published a statement by Sartre explaining his refusal. He said he did not wish to be "transformed" by such an award, and did not want to take sides in an East vs. West cultural struggle by accepting an award from a prominent Western cultural institution.





However, Lars Gyllensten, long time member of the Nobel prize committee has controversially claimed in his autobiography that Sartre later tried to access the prize money, but was subsequently turned down. Allegedly, the French philosopher in 1975 wrote a letter to the Nobel Prize committee saying that he had changed his mind about the prize, at least when it came to the money. At which point the prize committee is said to have declined the request, stating that the funds had been reinvested in the Nobel institute. However, there has never been any evidence presented or confirmation given to prove any such story.


So he refused the Nobel because HE DID NOT WISHED TO BE "TRANSFORMED" BY THE AWARD and DID NOT WANT TO TAKE SIDES IN THE "EAST VS. WEST" CULTURAL STRUGGLE by accepting an award from a prominenet western cultural institution.





I was always interested in Sartre and (more) in his partner Simon de Beauvoir. So thanks for posting the question . It gave me a chance to research a bit on them.|||Sartre truly was a troubled genious.

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