It’s becoming a tradition of sorts, the Nobel jury gives the Prize to an author virtually unknown in the United States, and newspaper columnists grumble while small and university presses bask in a moment of publishing glory.
Nobody outside a few square miles in New York cares that this year’s Pulitzer or Booker winner was put out by Random House or HarperCollins, but even to the casual observer of the literary scene, there’s something refreshing (and, for some, aggravating) about seeing yet another Nobel winner with only the faintest, most haphazard publishing footprint. The Nobel Prize, probably half the time, shines a huge spotlight some pretty obscure books.
For small and university presses, the Prize is a rare moment of popular notice. Daniel E. Pritchard who works for David R. Godine, Publisher in Boston wrote as much a year ago reacting to J.M.G. Le Clézio’s Nobel win, “Nobel Prizes are usually the playground for big boys. They were noticeably absent from this one, leaving all the fame and street-cred for small independents.” Godine published Le Clézio’s The Prospector.
The University of Nebraska Press also published Le Clézio, with two books in print when the Nobel was announced last year: The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts and Onitsha. According to the press’ publicity manager Cara Pesek, Nebraska sold just “a handful” of copies of both titles in 2007, but “since the prize was announced last year, those two titles have accounted for more than $100,000 in incremental sales.”
With Herta Müller’s win, Nebraska has now struck Nobel gold two years in a row. Pesek said that the day after the Nobel was announced, the press had 3,000 backorders for Müller’s book Nadirs.
The director of University of Nebraska Press, Donna Shear, tempered the excitement somewhat, saying that the Nobel turns a book into “a steady backlist seller” as it finds its way onto University reading lists. But she added that a side-effect of the Nobel jury’s idiosyncrasies is that the Prize becomes “a validation of the efforts of University presses.”
The Euro-centric Nobel also injects some commercial viability into the typically limited world of literature in translation. After winning the Nobel in 2002, Hungarian writer Imre Kertész went from university presses to Knopf and Vintage. Meanwhile, plans are already underway to bring Müller to a wider audience. Shear said Nebraska put in a bid for Müller’s latest, Atemschaukel, recently shortlisted for the German Book Prize, but it’s expected that the book will land with one of the big publishing houses.
We expect our book prizes to confirm that a book or author’s commercial success and positive reviews are well-deserved. Sometimes the Nobel plays this role – a validator of critical opinion – but, for the American audience, it often does something different. And this is where the grumbling comes in. We don’t like to be told that an author we’ve never heard of is one of the greatest ever. But in cases like Müller and Kertész and Le Clézio, the Nobel serves as a reminder that in certain corners of the publishing industry, there are presses shepherding the work of these writers into print and keeping it available until such time as the rest of us are able to take notice.
Didn’t this guy die like a couple days ago? I wouldn’t be surprised. If they wanted to give it to a dead guy why not one of the nineteenth century great Russians, unless they have a one week expiration date, or something like that.
Also, was this guy really a transformer or was that just his name? Because that would explain a lot, giving the prize to a transformer — one moment a killing machine, the second some dweeby poet, the third a compact car! — even if he was dead. Transformers are cool.
Really ML?! You sound like a stoned 12 yr old? Don’t you filter for stuff like this C. Magee?
I don’t know. Sometimes I like to leave the comments from morons up for posterity so that we do not forget there are morons in their midst. Also, my fervent but likely too optimistic hope is that the likes of ML will one day return and be embarassed that such an inane comment has been sitting there all this time.
I was so hoping Transtromer would win this year (comfortably before he passes away . . . ). Hooray!
As to M.s one nearly cogent thought, Ralph M. Steinman, one of the 3 winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine this year, died after the award was granted but before the announcement of the award was made. The Committee has decided that the award will stand.
I think this year I’m going to do something different and not complain about the fact that my choice (Roth) did not win the prize. I will simply go on appreciating the work of the authors that I love and no that Nobel or not they bring me a great deal of joy.
I’ll also take this as an opportunity to discover something new. I’ve heard the name Transtromer before since his name has been thrown around for the past few years as someone who is expected to receive the prize. I have never really sought out his work, however, and in general I haven’t always been a great follower of poetry, especially more contemporary poets.
There’s always some eccentricity and unpredictability associated with this prize and I’ve come to accept that.
I’m with Ravi.
I agree wholeheartedly with the morons being left up for posterity. If you’re gonna hate, hate with a reason, a rationale, a purpose, rather than sequestering yourself in the anonymous space of the internet, like a real contrarian…
No disrespect to Mr. Roth but I’m glad the Pultizer went to a poet I’d never heard of, just because now myself and plenty of more people will be exposed to the work. And besides an octagenarian gets a nice payday before he shuffles off the mortal coil…Isn’t that what these kinds of prizes are for, anyway?
Jesus, The Millions, take yourself a little more seriously. Pretty sure ML was making a joke. Maybe you thought it was a bad joke. Fine. Move on with your day. Perhaps I type this because I’m 23 and not yet full of despair and misdirected anger.
I know we’re talking about Literature and Prizes and Opinions, but man, unclench your collective buttholes.
(Seriously, not related to ML in any way.)
I hold out no hope for Roth winning the Nobel and I don’t think it matters. I KNOW who Roth is.
I am not familiar with Transtromer and I am now gifted with something new to read. This is always great. As problematic as major literary awards can be, they are such a bonus for those of us seeking out something new and noteworthy.