Neighbouring Nobel

Danes have been awarded all five of the 'classic' Nobel Prizes: one Peace Prize, three Literature, three Physics, one Chemistry, and five Physiology or Medicine Prizes. Although only one recipient is internationally famous -- Niels Bohr, who won the Prize in 1922 for his application of quantum ideas to atomic structure -- the more obscure laureates are of interest precisely because they are obscure. Why were they selected? Who were they up against? How was the news about their prize received by colleagues abroad? Did the honor help or hinder their subsequent careers?

Prior to 1974, all deliberations behind the awarding of the Prize were strictly confidential. In that year, the Nobel Foundation granted access to the archives relating to prizes more than fifty years old, and this now applies to nine of the Danish prizes. With regard to these prizes, the book explores what went on behind the scenes -- who nominated the laureates, how their achievements were assessed, and what role politics may have played. On the four more recent prizes, the authors interviewed the laureates about the work the Prize rewarded and the Prize's personal and professional aftermath.

Before this book, such questions were impossible to answer, since nothing had been written about the circumstances that led to any of the Danish prizes, nor abouthow any of the thirteen laureates felt about receiving the most prestigious validation possible for a person's work. Neighbouring Nobel will be a valuable addition both to the literature on the Nobel Prize and to the study of 20th century Danish history.