Comments on: Late Night With Jan Harayda – Why Isn’t John Updike on the Odds-Makers Lists of Favorites for the Nobel? http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/late-night-with-jan-harayda-%e2%80%93-why-isn%e2%80%99t-john-updike-on-the-odds-makers-lists-of-favorites-for-the-nobel/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Thu, 16 May 2013 19:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/late-night-with-jan-harayda-%e2%80%93-why-isn%e2%80%99t-john-updike-on-the-odds-makers-lists-of-favorites-for-the-nobel/#comment-6867 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:51:36 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=3114#comment-6867 That the judges may not count Updike’s criticism points to another problem with the Nobel Prize for literature: It is so biased in favor of writers of fiction. Just offhand, I can’t think of a writer known primarily for nonfiction who has won the prize since Churchill got it in 1953 for his speeches and his historical and biographical works, especially his History of the English-Speaking Peoples http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1953/.

]]> By: Val Kovalin http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/late-night-with-jan-harayda-%e2%80%93-why-isn%e2%80%99t-john-updike-on-the-odds-makers-lists-of-favorites-for-the-nobel/#comment-6864 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:19:16 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=3114#comment-6864 It’s that short story bias again, I guess. :) Maybe the judges don’t count his literary criticism as “literature” though they probably should count his poetry.

As far as nations winning the most Nobel prizes, France leads with 13 so the French writers had probably better count on sitting out a few more years. Then there’s the U.S. with 11 and Britain with 10, including Doris Lessing.

I definitely see what you mean about Updike and Greenland!

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