The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved. The executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, who formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organize the prizes. Due to the level of skepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) approved it. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish kronor ( US$198 million, €176 million in 2016), to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895.
In 1901, French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907) was the first person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect."Īlfred Nobel stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. On some occasions the award has been postponed to the following year, most recently in 2018. Literature is traditionally the final award presented at the Nobel Prize ceremony.
It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. The academy announces the name of the laureate in early October. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize. Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Nobel Prize in Literature (here meaning for literature) is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" (original Swedish: den som inom litteraturen har producerat det utmärktaste i idealisk rigtning).