What killed Tolkien's chances at a Nobel Prize in 1961?

When you think about JRR Tolkien, author to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, you'd hardly believe that he was passed up for this great honor. Furthermore, you would certainly not believe the reason that he was set aside by the panel of jurors. 

It is the policy of the Nobel committee to keep their decision making process a complete secret for 50 years after the prize has been awarded. After the 50 year period the records are made public in the Nobel library in Stockholm, Sweden. A Swedish reporter by the name of Andreas Ekström took the opportunity to look into the 1961 classified documents and discovered that there were many very talented authors passed up that year including Lawrence Durrell, Robert Frost, Graham Greene, EM Forster and Tolkien. When the decision was made final Yugoslavian writer Ivo Andrić emerged victorious with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

So what possible reason could the jurors come up with to dismiss Tolkien for this prize?

"The prose of Tolkien – who was nominated by his friend and fellow fantasy author CS Lewis – "has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality", wrote jury member Anders Österling."

So in the end it was the decision of the jurors that Tolkien's writing was just simply not good enough. We of course know Tolkien as the author of one of the best selling books in history but in 1961, to the people who mattered in this case, he was just an author writing tales of fantasy.

The surprises don't end there however. Check out the source link to see why the other nominees were passed over.

Source: The Guardian