Has anyone ever turned down a Nobel prize?

BRY2K

Yes, Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964. Sartre declined to accept the award, stating that he always refused official distinctions and that he did not wish to become 'institutionalized'. He also feared that acceptance of the Nobel Prize would limit the impact of his writing. http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=humbul12209 Oct 11 09, 11:15 AM

Zbeckabee

People who refused the prize: • Le Duc Tho was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Henry Kissinger for their roles in brokering a Vietnam cease fire at the Paris Peace Accords. Citing the absence of actual peace in Vietnam, Tho declined to accept. • Jean Paul Sartre waved off the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature. His explanation: "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form." • Afraid of Soviet retribution if he traveled to Stockholm to claim his prize, Boris Pasternak declined to accept the 1958 Prize in Literature, which he'd earned for Doctor Zhivago. The Academy refused his refusal. "This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place." Yevgeny Pasternak accepted the prize on behalf of his deceased father in 1989. • Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won for Literature in 1918. He did not accept because he was Secretary of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize. He was given the award posthumously in 1931. This was allowed because the nomination was made before Karlfeldt died -- no candidate may be proposed after death. http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/10/06/mf.nobel.odd.facts/ Oct 11 09, 11:21 AM