Unwilling Sartre May Receive Prize

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30578, 22 October 1964, Page 21

Unwilling Sartre May Receive Prize

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

STOCKHOLM, Oct 20. The French author and philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, remained the leading contender for the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature in spite of his reported letter declining the honour, informed sources said today according to the Associated Press. Sartre was said to have written to the Swedish Nobel authorities asking that his name be taken out of contention for the 51.000 dollars prize to be announced on Thursday. He was described as saying he did not want to stand in the wav of other candidates.; A.P. said.

A spokesman for the Academy of Letters, which selects the winner, denied that it had

received a letter from Sartre, but the director of the Nobel foundation, which may have received the note, declined comment.

A critic on Swedish television said that all sources were agreed that this vear’s winner would be Sartre' He added that the academy would designate Sartre even against h’ wishes, the agency reported.

Friends of Jean Paul Sartre confirmed today that he had refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature. The friends said Sartre had declined the award “for objective and persona] reasons.” Staff members of Sartre’s magazine, “Le Temps Modernes” said they were trying to have Sartre change his mind, but had no assurance they could.